Snapchat just got a pretty noteworthy update. And while the first bullet point in this update’s change log — on-demand geofilters — was introduced at the end of last month, a few of these features are entirely new. Among them are the ability to add links to your snaps, Backdrops, and Voice Filters.
[Update: Bloomberg corroborates the report, stating the planned I/O launch as a specific plan rather than merely a possibility.
Google’s artificial intelligence software is already inside Android phones, smart speakers and watches. At the Google I/O conference this week, the Alphabet Inc. unit plans to bring it to at least three more places: iPhones, coffee tables and kitchens […]
The Assistant app will integrate with other Google apps on the iPhone so a user could ask to see a video and it will begin playing via YouTube.]
Google Assistant has expanded quite a lot over the past several months since its debut on the Google Pixel, with the service moving to Google Home, Allo, and the majority of Android phones on the market today. Now, it seems that Google is planning another expansion, with a potential debut on Apple’s iOS.
Despite the fact that it’s not Google’s most popular messaging service, the company continues to improve Allo. The service has improved a lot since it first debuted last year, and things are only looking to get better with future updates. Today, though, Google is announcing some new enhancements to Allo…
Just as Android picks up its Chrome 56 update, Google is pushing the same new version to iOS users. While not a major update, this new version does bring along a couple of useful features, including a handy QR code scanner.
Snapseed is one of our favorite photo editing tools for mobile, and it just keeps getting better with every update. Today, Google has announced the app’s first update of 2017, version 2.15 for both Android and iOS, bringing with it a new feature and several improvements.
Since its launch, Google’s Chromium project has been a desktop-only matter, but that changed in 2015 with the addition of the Android version. Following that, only the iOS version of the browser wasn’t open-source. However, that’s changing today as Google has announced the code for Chrome on iOS has been moved into the Chromium open-source repository.
Switching mobile platforms is a hassle, but Google really wants iOS users to give Android a shot ─ it even designed its flagship phone to attract iPhone fans. However, when someone does switch from an iPhone to an Android device, there’s still a lot of work to be done transferring your data, if you don’t already use Google services that is. Now, Google is making it even easier for iPhone users to switch with an update to Google Drive…
While Apple has seen declining sales of its iPhone over recent quarters, new data from Gartner provides another look into the decline facing Apple and the smartphone market in other regions. Overall, the data shows that smartphone sales worldwide grew 4.3 percent year-over-year, though Apple saw a 7.6 percent decline itself. When it comes to operating systems, iOS and Android continue their dominance.
We all take a lot of pictures and videos on our smartphones and unfortunately, they take up a lot of memory. After a few months on a new phone, odds are you’ll be running low on storage, and there’s no worse way to discover that than when you’re taking a picture or video. The “storage is full” prompt usually means you’ll miss the moment for your shot, and all to delete some photos that you might want to keep! Luckily, there’s an easier way.
Update: The Android version of the app has now been updated with the same feature (and more!).
Hangouts just received an update to version 11.0.0 on iOS with some handy new features. The most interesting addition is the ability for anyone in a Hangout to remove any other person from said group Hangout, something that is currently not possible on the Hangouts web client or in the Android app…
Prior to WWDC, a report emerged claiming that Apple would at long last unveil iMessage for Android. Seeing how Apple had made its streaming music service available on Android, many found this report to be somewhat plausible. As you’re probably aware of by now, however, iMessage for Android was nowhere to be found at WWDC this week. Now, we’ve gotten a little bit of insight into Apple’s reasoning for not bringing its messaging service to Google’s smartphone platform…
Pinterest has today announced that they have acquired the team behind the popular keyboard app Fleksy. Pinterest is solely acqui-hiring the developers behind this application, not the technology or app itself. The app will remain live on both Android and iOS ‘for the foreseeable future’ and app updates will be very minimal.
Apple took the stage today at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, California to announce the latest new features — for developers and consumers alike — for its four main platforms: watchOS, tvOS, macOS (previously called OS X), and iOS. There is tons of new stuff in these releases set to go public later this year, but one thing that became increasingly clear as the event progressed was that the Cupertino company is playing a lot of catch up.
It’s not a new trend, really. Google has always introduced features and potential products to the public not long after they become barely workable experiments, leaving other companies like Apple to appear behind at times — whether or not they actually are “behind” in reality. It goes without saying that there are always things being worked on in the background (that’s why I put “copied” in quotes), but with many of today’s announcements, Apple brought those things to light.
Faster load and search times are the highlight feature of an update to the Google app on iOS. Like on the mobile web and Android, AMP articles will now show up in search results. Other improvements include sport video highlights on Now cards and more keyboard shortcuts for iPad users.
Following the announcement of its Assistant digital helper as well as the Amazon Echo‘s competitor Home, Google is now focusing on messaging and videos.
Allo was the first app announced at I/O 2016, and now Duo, a mobile exclusive one to one video service has been unveiled…
Since the introduction of Material Design exactly two years ago at I/O 2014, Google has put a lot of emphasis on design, and streamlining even seeming minutiae like icons has become a priority.
Today it’s the turn of Google Play‘s Developer Console (via Android Police)…
Update: Spaces is now live on the Play Store, App Store, and on the web.
Google can’t seem to stop making social networks and messaging apps. In fairness, the just announced Spaces is referred to as a tool for small group sharing. While similar to the Communities feature that Google+ is now built around, the new app seems like a much more focused version of group messaging that better highlights content.
Following the launch of Gboard yesterday, Google has released a version of the I/O 2016 conference app for iOS. With the dedicated app, attendees who use iPhone won’t have to rely on I/O’s mobile site.
Google’s web-based alternative to Microsoft PowerPoint is getting a big update today that adds the ability for members of the audience to easily ask questions during a presentation. Additionally, Google Slides is adding more presentation options on iOS and a cool laser pointer tool.
eBay has begun rolling out major UI and overall app improvements to its mobile applications today. Most notable will be both iOS and Android apps seeing a redesign of the main navigation menu. Previous versions of both mobile apps utilized a custom navigation menu: a mix between a top navigation bar and hamburger menu. The app update rolling out from today utilizes standard UI navigation elements for both iOS and Android. Android will be seeing the update released today, and the iOS update will be available in the coming days.
Google has just released an Android TV app for iOS which supports all Android TV devices, whether that be the NVIDIA Shield, or one of Sony’s fancy 4K TV sets running Google’s OS. As long as the Android TV and iPhone are on the same network, you can control your TV set with your iOS device.
Accelerated Mobile Pages load much faster than regular mobile pages and earlier this year launched in mobile search results. Now, Tech News on Android, iOS, and the mobile web will soon include AMP articles for a faster reading experience.
For both Google and Apple, the operations on their virtual stores are hugely important, as they account for millions of dollars. However, there has historically been a disparity between the number of downloaded applications and the actual money generated by them, a trend that seems to have peaked in the first quarter of this year.
According to App Annie‘s Index Market for Q1 of 2016, in fact, Google’s Play Store saw a number of downloads that roughly doubles that of the iOS App Store, which in turns represents the platform with the highest profitability, with over 90% more revenue generated over its counterpart…
After the big splash made by smartphones and then, albeit with less of an impact, tablets, various forms of smartwatches have tried to sneak in into everyone’s digital life. As companies like Google and Apple try to extend their reach with increasingly bigger ecosystems that attempt to lock users in, the smartwatch race may prove to be an important area, despite the generally lukewarm reception consumers seem to have so far given.
Indeed, much like with chatbots, companies like Microsoft and Amazon may be interested in having a part of their services used right on your wrist, and while not directly coming from the Seattle company, it looks like Alexa may be your next wearable’s digital assistant. iMCO and Chronologics, the two companies behind the project, seem to be on track to deliver the “CoWatch” smartwatch, and have started an Indiegogo campaign that already raised over $10,000 in the first day of debut…
