According to a report from VentureBeat, Google is working to compete more directly with live streaming app Periscope. The report claims that Google will launch an app called YouTube Connect that will allow anyone to immediately begin broadcasting live onto YouTube from their smartphone.
Google is apparently kicking off the April Fools’ Day jokes super, super early this year. As has been noticed by several Android developers (via Android Police), the company seems to putting a new section called “Reviews from Space” in the developer console. The review, as you can see above, comes from one “Alex Scott”, sports 5 rocket ships, and was written on April 1st, 2029. Oh, and the device and physical conditions of the user are hilarious, too…
To reflect the recent expansion of its Google Cast streaming platform, Google’s Chromecast app is being renamed to the “Google Cast” app. Google is also announcing some new Google Cast-enabled speakers and TVs from Vizio.
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Uber is beginning to test a new feature that will make it easier for family and other close-knit groups to share an Uber account. That means that your family could use a single credit card for Uber across several devices, making it easy for parents to pay for their kids or other family members, for example.
Following in the footsteps of Facebook, Instagram today announced in a blog post that it will soon adjust the way in which content is presented in its iOS and Android apps. While content is currently shown in chronological order, Instagram will soon switch to a new personalized algorithms based on each user…
Microsoft’s Garage Projects seem to constantly be coming and going, but the last couple of months have seen more releases than usual. Last month Microsoft released a quirky new alarm clock called “Mimicker Alarm,” and now the maker of the flopped Android competitor Windows Phone has released two more projects: Hub Keyboard, and Sprightly…
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In a blog post today, Snapchat has announced that it is expanding its geofilter feature to be open to all users, businesses, and brands. Previously, Snapchat’s geofilters were available to public places, such as cities, colleges, and neighborhoods. With today’s expansion, however, anyone can pay to create a custom geofilter.
After being all the rage when it launched on iOS last month, social network Peach has finally made its way to Android. Peach is basically another status sharing app, but its novelty comes in its heavy use of GIFs, multiple ways to ‘poke’ a person, and the use of “Magic Words” to send information and communicate in fun ways.
Google recently pushed out an update to its Clock app, and this one’s a game changer. You know the clock widget that lets you put analog and digital clocks on your home screen? Until now, dragging it around and resizing the widget simply changed its alignment. Now, when you resize the widget, the clocks themselves actually change size too…
Voxer is a relatively popular messaging app for Android and iOS, and has long been considered one of the best solutions available for those looking for a great PPT (push-to-talk) experience on mobile. It received a ton of funding a few years ago, and while it never really took off in the mainstream, it’s still being updated even today with new fixes and features for its dedicated group of users. It has somewhere between 10 and 50 million Play Store installs.
George Kola, a software engineer that was most recently Chief Technology Officer of the company for more than a year, has now joined Google according to his LinkedIn profile. While it’s of course possible that Kola could have joined Google on his engineering merit alone and could be working in just about any department within the Mountain View company, it’s still worth asking: Could Google possibly have its eyes on bringing some walkie talkie features to Hangouts?..
Apple has some good news for all of the Apple Music users on Android. The company has just released an update to Apple Music in the Google Play Store that allows users to download songs to an SD card so that they may store even more music for offline listening.
In Alphabet’s earnings call today, Google CEO Sundar Pichai mentioned that Gmail has joined a list of 6 other Google services that now have more than 1 billion active monthly users. The other services include Search, Android, Maps, Chrome, YouTube, and Google Play.
To go along with the announcement, Google posted a really creepy video on Twitter:
Thanks a billion for helping us make Gmail better and better!https://t.co/Rd82YqwGjl
— Gmail (@gmail) February 1, 2016
WhatsApp also announced on its blog today that the service has passed the same milestone.
As of today, one billion people are using WhatsApp.
That’s nearly one in seven people on Earth who use WhatsApp each month to stay in touch with their loved ones, their friends and their family.
While Gmail and WhatsApp may now have more than 1 billion active monthly users, both apps have long since passed the 1 billion stall mark on the Google Play Store. Speaking of that—it’s been a while since we’ve seen a new 1 billion+ install app. It’s probably time.
According to a report this morning from The Wall Street Journal, Spotify is getting ready to finally launch its video content offerings. The rollout is set to start with the Android app getting video by the end of this week, but the iOS app is following suit by the end of next…
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Microsoft is back with another Garage Project (cute and novel apps made for iOS and Android phones), and this time it’s an alarm clock called Mimicker Alarm. At first glance, the style of this app looks eerily similar to that of the stock Android Clock app, but a deeper dive shows us that there’s a little more to it. Microsoft wants you to actually wake up when your alarm goes off, and to help you do that the company makes you play mini games powered by its Project Oxford machine learning APIs…
A new app called Document Viewer for Android Wear was recently released by appfour, and you’re probably either excited or rolling your eyes. I’m definitely in the latter category. But then again, most times developers have tried to take apps that typically require a decently sized screen and shrink them to the size of teeny tiny Android Wear, the results haven’t been great. I’m looking at you, emulators that are definitely cool–proofs–of–concept-but-completely-impractical.
This one may not be as ridiculous as running a PSP game, but I’d say—and I mean absolutely no offense to appfour—it’s very unlikely to become an app you use daily…
The developers behind the popular media playback software VLC have today announced that the app is now available on Chrome OS. The team explained in a blog post that Chrome OS was one of the last operating systems on which you couldn’t run VLC, so today’s release has been a long time coming for users of the operating system.
The well-connected Derek Ross took to his Google+ profile yesterday, sharing a post entitled “Things that’ll piss people off”. In said post, he details something that — indeed — will piss people off. According to Ross (who has a pretty good track record when it comes to Google software), the Mountain View company is planning to strip SMS support from Hangouts in an effort to make the app better at its job…
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Yahoo today released a new “Yahoo Video Guide” app for mobile devices that acts as one central location for users to find content from across a long list of competitive video services and networks.
The app allows users to search from one place and then offers links to buy or start streaming the content in other apps like Amazon, Netflix, HBO GO, and many others. So you’ll still need to be a subscriber, have the app downloaded, and or purchase the content once the Yahoo Video Guide app redirects you.
And while you can just search for something you’re looking for, the app also has a Mood Picker feature that lets users pick a from GIFs to search through curated lists.
Yahoo of course has its own Yahoo Screen app for mobile devices, but it also links to content on iTunes, Amazon Video, Hulu, Netflix, HBO GO, ABC, FOX, CBS, NBC, Xfinity, YouTube, A&E, BET, Cartoon Network, Cinemax, Comedy Central, Disney, Food Network, and others. In total it says it’s promoting over 30 video services through the new Video Guide app.
The Yahoo Video Guide Android app is available to download for free in the US.
According to a post today on the Google Search Help Forum, Google will soon push a fix for a long standing search bug that falsely shows iTunes App Store listings as having 1 star ratings (via MacRumors). The problem was first reported by several iOS app developers in late October, and it seems Google has finally acknowledged the issue…
Today, a Community Manager on the forum said that a fix is scheduled for the next release:
Hi everyone, thanks for your continued reports here. As Spencer mentioned, he’s been following up thoroughly with us regarding this and I’m happy to share that we’ve been working hard on providing a solution, and a new fix has been scheduled for the next release, which should be rolling out early next week. Appreciate your patience here.
Twitch has announced the launch of its app for Android TV, bringing the site’s video game streaming experience to your living room. With the new app, you’ll be able to watch both live and recorded video from the site, follow the channels and games that you love, and browse profile pages just as you would on the Android mobile app…
Our Android TV app gives you a more personal viewing experience, including the ability to login and follow content you love, search for your favorite games and broadcasters, and an integrated chat experience. Here’s the full breakdown of the features you can expect:
- Watch live and recorded video of top games, players, and esports events.
- Follow channels and games you want to keep tabs on.
- View profile pages to learn about broadcasters, including the ability to check out their VODs.
- Hi-res video (1080p/60fps) support for Android TV devices.
Additionally, Twitch says that Whispers 2.0 has launched on mobile in the latest versio, bringing an updated chat experience. You can read more about Whispers 2.0 at Twitch’s blog.
Google today has updated its Google Admin mobile app with a handful of enhancements that admins will greatly appreciate. The update makes it much easier to manage users and groups, further reducing the necessity for admins to always be near a full-fledged computer.
The first new feature is the ability to import a contact from their contact list and have all of that user’s information be auto-filled into the “Add user” form in the Admin mobile application. The information can then be edited if needed, but it makes it much easier to quickly add new users to your team.
The second major new feature is the ability to quickly change a user’s role in a group and to more easily remove them all together. Now when you tap on the member of a group, you’ll see to new options to quickly “Change Role” of a member or “Remove Member” with just a few taps.
The update to the Google Admin app on Android is rolling out now to users. The latest version is available on the Play Store now.
• Integration with your Contacts App – Create new users by importing your existing contacts directly from the App.• Better Group membership management – Quickly change a member’s role or remove them from the group.• Bug fixes – Resolved issues related to app crashes and minor UI elements.
Google has today released a new app called “Arts & Culture,” but it’s pretty much the most disappointing app to come from the Mountain View company in quite some time. Actually, I don’t really know why it exists. It’s just a Chrome shortcut.
Yes, really. If you don’t want to download this app from Google Play, you can simply head over to the Google Cultural Institute website on your Android phone and add a shortcut to your home screen.
As you can see for yourself on the Play Store listing, the new app comes in at just 52KB. Once you open the app and navigate around, you quickly find out that it’s not a native app — the hamburger menu, for instance, is a laggy mess. Moving around the content found within the app (which is exactly the same content you can find at the Cultural Institute website) is not really enjoyable at all.
Ranting aside, you can grab the app for free on the Play Store.
Google today has updated its Drive app on iOS with a handful of notable new features and enhancements. First off, today’s update to Drive, which bumps the app to version 4.4, adds 3D Touch support for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus users. Now, pushing with more pressure on the Drive app icon will bring up two options, one to quickly upload photos and another to quickly search the contents of your Drive.
In the wake of some absolutely tragic and terrifying events tonight in Paris, Google has made international phone calls to France free on Google Hangouts. In other tragic past events, many companies that offer calling services have offered similar opportunities.
In a related initiative, Facebook has tonight launched a feature called Safety Check, which allows you to “quickly find and connect with friends in the area” and mark them safe if you know they’re safe. You can also let your friends know if you’re in the affected area.
We’ve made international calls to France free via Hangouts. #ParisAttacks
Android→ https://t.co/RLNSn2HPHd
iOS→ https://t.co/UKRrBZgBGT— Google (@Google) November 14, 2015
You can head over to the Play Store or the App Store to grab the app for free, or head to hangouts.google.com to make free international calls to France straight from your browser.
My thoughts are with all the victims and their families on this sad night #Paris Great to see everyone come together to support France
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) November 14, 2015