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Congress scrutinizing Google’s RCS deal with Huawei to provide carrier infrastructure

huawei p20 pro android

While the Executive Branch is warming up to Chinese companies like ZTE following the reversal of an export ban, Congress is continuing to scrutinize US companies working with China. The legislative body is now particularly focusing on a Google and Huawei partnership announced in January to push RCS adoption.


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Todoist developer launches Twist, a team messaging system that’s a cross between Slack and email [Video]

Doist, the company behind the popular task-management app Todoist, has launched Twist, a team messaging system designed to compete with Slack and Hipchat. The app is available for Android, iOS, Windows and Mac.

Twist takes a different approach to real-time team chat apps, aiming to provide a kind of cross between chat and email …


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Snapchat update adds new voice and video features, stickers, and more for messaging

Snapchat Android

Snapchat is changing how you communicate with friends in a major way through what it’s calling Chat 2.0. The social network says it focused two years ago on making chatting more like face-to-face conversation with features like letting you know when your friends were present and “listening” to what you were typing, and the latest Snapchat update refocuses on the 1-to-1 chat aspect of the app with new features around voice and video calling plus stickers and more. How you watch Stories is also getting a change in the new update.


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Scores of new emojis coming soon to WhatsApp, and you can get them today

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Android Police spotted that WhatsApp is testing a new version of the app containing scores of new emojis in line with the web version and iPhone app.

There are new facial expressions for hugs, upside down smiles, dollar signs, rolling eyes, nerds, and extreme sadness, among others. There is a new sign of the horns gesture that joins the previously added vulcan (Spock) salute and raised middle finger. Family emojis have been extended with the addition of plenty of LGBT choices. Among other novelties, the nature tab sees a turkey, shamrock, spider, unicorn; the food tab has a popcorn box, popped champagne bottle, taco, burrito, hot dog; and sports/activities get their separate tab and now include racing cars, medals, ice skating, volleyball, weightlifting, and a quirky levitating man in a business suit.

The emojis have also been reorganized – so if you can no longer find the hearts, that’s because they’ve moved from faces to symbols.

If you’re too impatient to wait for the new version to hit the Play Store, you can download it today … 
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Viber Android app updated with easier video calling, rich links, lower data usage & more

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Viber has updated its Android app to add a range of improvements based on user requests, says the company. Version 5.5 allows you to start a video call directly from your recent calls list, rich links now display content previews when links are posted into text chats – and Viber says more efficient data compression has allowed it to improve the quality of both audio and video calls while reducing data usage.

Users can also now share contacts within both one-to-one and group chats, and invite an entire group to follow a public chat.

Viber is a free download from Google Play.

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Google Hangouts now lets you drag and drop images on the web

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Google Hangouts on the web now lets users drag and drop images directly from their computer or web browser. That goes for the little chat window within your Gmail inbox and through the standalone Hangouts Chrome app. Googler Mayur Kamat shared the news and the image above demonstrating the new feature through a post on Google+ today.
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Google testing new direct-to-business chat platform powered by Hangouts

Matt Gibstein on Twitter: %22Super interesting: @Google search now offering the ability to chat with local businesses (a la @Path Talk). http:::t.co:eksoBhZ6wk%22 2015-02-24 16-08-49

Google is testing an interesting new feature in search, as spotted by one Matt Gibstein on Twitter. As you can see in the above screenshot, there’s a small “Chat” icon next to the phone number of a business called “Dizengoff” in Philadelphia—and it looks like clicking it will launch you into a chat session directly with that business via Hangouts. 
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Google Hangouts for Android getting smarter with natural language parsing, consolidated contacts

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You’ve long been able to share your location with contacts in Hangouts chats, but the Google Hangouts for Android app is today getting a little smarter, noting when someone has asked where you are and automatically prompting you to share your location on a map.

Google indicates that this is merely the first step in building more intelligence into the app, describing it as “the start of something new.” Future versions of the app are thus likely to recognize more questions, offering the ability to answer them with a single tap.

The latest update to the app – which is rolling out during the course of the day – also offers a number of other new features … 
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Head of Android design Matias Duarte talks future of mobile, wearables

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[vimeo 91688685 w=700 h=365]

Matias Duarte — the man behind the design of every version of Android since Ice Cream Sandwich — recently took the stage with Joshua Topolsky of The Verge at the Accel Design Conference in San Francisco to participate in a fireside chat on topics ranging from Android, the future of mobile, design methodology, and wearables.

The video is available on Vimeo (via AndroidPolice), and includes 37 minutes of talk between the two. The beginning covers Duarte’s thoughts on design methodology, and he stresses that good design is always a middle ground between appearance, emotional appeal, and usability — perhaps a shot at iOS 7’s stark interface.
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Google adds new profile pictures and one-click group chat to Drive

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Group-chat-Google-drive-profile-picturesGoogle announced some new handy features for Drive on its official Google Drive Blog today. To make it even easier to quickly see who you are collaborating with inside a file in Drive, Google has added profile pictures in addition to names at the top of the web app. Hovering over the new profile pics will let you see details and add users to circles on Google+:

Now when you open a file in Drive, you’ll see the profile pictures of other viewers at the top instead of just their names, making it easy for you to do a quick scan of who else is in the file. You can hover over a photo to see details about the viewer and add them to your circles on Google+ — all without ever leaving Drive.

Google is also providing easy, one click access to starting group chats with both new features rolling out to users in the next couple of days. Google also confirmed it will be adding support for new files types soon, such as Google Sheets.

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WhatsApp says it’s not holding sales talks with Google despite earlier rumor

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This past weekend, a rumor had claimed that Google is holding talks with WhatsApp to acquire the messaging service for around $1 billion. Tonight, WhatsApp has told AllThingsD that it is not holding sales talks with Google. Meanwhile, Google is rumored to soon be launching its own “Babel” messaging service.


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Survey: Students love their Gmail and Chat, Sites not so much

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Gmail was the most widely used Google Apps service for Brown University (above), but Chat tops the customer satisfaction charts (below)

Brown University conducted a telling survey in May, asking some 1,100 students and faculty/staff members to evaluate Brown’s migration to Google Apps for Education eighteen months ago. Like everywhere, Gmail was the service of choice for a whopping 98 percent of the respondents, but satisfaction index for Chat – used by two-thirds of the respondents – topped the charts: 99 percent for Chat versus Gmail’s 90 percent. Nearly five out of five undergraduate, graduate and professional student respondents were “Very Satisfied” or “Satisfied” with Google’s web-based email.

Google Sites was less popular, having been used by one in three respondents. Docs and Calendar were used by the respectable 85 percent and 79 percent of the respondents, respectively. Most frequently used apps on a daily basis? Gmail (97 percent), Calendar (60 percent), Chat (33 percent), Documents (29 percent) and Sites (eight percent). And when issues rose, nearly half the respondents sought answers on Google’s official help pages and Google search.

More food for thought and four additional pretty charts bellow.


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