Snapchat today has announced that it’s brining an entirely new search functionality to its iOS and Android apps. The feature will partially solve one of the long-standing complaints about Snapchat, with the company hoping that it will help users quickly find content to explore and new users to add as friends.
With live streams being a popular way for internet stars to communicate with fans, YouTube has announced a new way to monetize them. Super Chat allows any viewer to purchase messages that will be more visible during a live chat. However, this new feature coincides with YouTube discontinuing Fan Funding.
Last year, Google Maps added the ability to see rides and estimates from Uber and other ride sharing services when looking for directions. This year, the rides interface on Android and iOS is getting a revamp, as well as direct Uber integration that allows you to book and pay for rides without leaving Maps.
Chrome 56 is currently in the beta channel and should hit stable in about a week. When released, it will bring support for the FLAC audio codec directly in the browser. This will provide a quick way to play those files, with the Mac being the biggest platform to benefit due to a lack of native support.
Following several weeks of testing, Samsung has today officially kicked off the rollout of Android Nougat for all Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge users.
Back in November, Google showed off a machine learning technique that enhances low-res and blurry images. The RAISR technique is now being used in Google+ to display high-resolution photos while using an impressive 75% less bandwidth.
Cloud-backed and featuring smart tools, Google Classroom is the company’s take on modern educational technology. Used by 20 million students and teachers, Classroom is getting a number of updates today that add support for personalized learning, more notifications, and an improved API for developers.
Earlier this year, Google Maps started testing out a new, and very useful feature called lists. The functionality has been limited to only certain levels of Local Guides users, but now Google is finally expanding the program.
WhatsApp is a popular messaging service worldwide, and it’s also one that tends to stay on top of adding new features. In recent months, the app has added the ability to send GIFs, but now that’s being taken further with integrated Giphy search directly within the app…
While impressive in some areas, Google Assistant on the Pixel is lacking in others. Once present functionality like recognizing songs or verbal podcast controls have yet to make their way into Google’s new interface, but it now appears that screenshot functionality is making a return.
Even without a major update in years, Google Voice continues to be a remarkably important and criticial day-to-day service for some users. As such, a new banner on the site today sparked excitement that a “new” version featuring a long overdue update may finally be coming soon.
Spotify’s app for Android has changed quite a bit over the past few months, most recently by introducing a new bottom-bar oriented UI. However, it seems that Spotify isn’t done quite yet, as some users are currently reporting a new ‘now playing’ interface on their Android devices.
Google is currently rolling out an update to Google’s beta application which hints at several new features to come in the future. One of these is the ability to input text when talking directly to the Assistant on the Google Pixel. Other changes include further work to get Assistant working on Android Wear plus something new called “Search gestures”…
A server-side update rolling out to many users of the Google app today adds an interesting new Notifications page to settings. At the moment, the only option is to turn on notifications for Google’s homepage doodles, but nevertheless is quite notable for how high-level it is.
The pre-requisite step in any guide to sideloading an OTA or flashing a factory image is installing the Android Device Bridge. Previously, the official way to get adb or fastboot was by downloading the entire set of Android Studio development tools. Google (spotted via Android Police) now conveniently provides a direct way to just download the platform-tools.
Google Home is one of our favorite products of 2016, and as we go into 2017, we’re only expecting it to get better. That includes integrations with more new services, such as popular radio streaming service iHeartRadio, which has announced that it will be coming to Google Home.
With the addition of intelligent Goals last year, Google Calendar became more than just a regular scheduling and to-do app. Today, the Android and iOS apps are gaining Google Fit and Apple Health integration that will automatically mark as finished and adjust your fitness-related Goals.
With enterprise products and services taking an ever bigger priority at Google, the number of partnerships and purchases have increased. With the acquisition of Limes Audio, Google hopes to improve the audio experience in Hangouts video conferencing and Chromebox for Meetings.
While powerful, the Google Drive mobile apps have long lacked a few features found on the desktop site. With the first updates of the year, Docs, Sheets, and Slides for Android add Page setup, image improvements, and EPUB and ODF support.
Back in October, Twitter announced that it was shutting down the popular 6-second video sharing service Vine. After outcry from users, however, Twitter slightly revised those plans, saying that the Vine app would be replaced with a new Vine Camera app, but that the community as is would still be shuttered.
Now, Vine has confirmed a date for the shutdown, saying on a FAQ page that the Vine app will transform into the Vine Camera app on January 17th.
Update 1/5: After a last minute bug, Android 7.1.1 is now available for the Nexus 6, with the corresponding factory image and OTA available on the developer site.
With last month’s update coinciding with the release of Android 7.1.1, January’s is a more straightforward security patch. Slightly delayed to account for the first Monday of the month falling on a holiday, there are fixes for 95 vulnerabilities.
Productivity services are a dime a dozen, but that hasn’t stopped Samsung from releasing their own app that combines email, calendar, and contacts. Featuring a unified view and universal search, Samsung Focus has wide support for a number of consumer and enterprise services.
Initially announced and released as an iOS first in mid-December, Super Mario Run now has a Google Play Store listing. While not immediately available, users can pre-register and be alerted when the game is available to download.
Twitter has announced today that it is bringing support for live 360-degree video to the broadcasting service Periscope. The move comes as Twitter continues to heavily invest in live video and faces increasingly strong competition from Facebook and others. Twitter and Periscope outlined the new feature in blog posts.