Instagram has announced today that it is rolling out support for higher resolution 1080 x 1080 pixel images. This doubles the previous upload resolution of 640 x 640 pixels, and you’ll probably notice very soon that the photos in your stream are looking a bit crisper.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Not many apps have managed to hit 1 billion installs on the Play Store, but today another has been added to the list. Facebook Messenger became the 10th app to hit 1 billion installs early last month, Google Hangouts managed to hit the same milestone just a couple weeks ago, and now Google Chrome is following suit to become the 12th app to hit 1 billion.
Not many apps have reached this number, and third-party apps from Zuckerberg and Co. are the only outside of Google to do it. Only three, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp, have managed to see this many users. As you might expect, other popular Google-made apps like Google Maps and Gmail passed 1 billion a while ago.
(via Android Police)
Swappa is a relatively small player in the online marketplace space, only dealing in mobile phones and tablets, but it’s quite popular in the Android community and has a new app out that should make it even easier to decide whether or not now is the right time to buy or sell a device.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Update: Google says that the issue has now been fixed and limits have been reapplied.
The new Google Photos service saw its launch last month at Google I/O 2015, and its announcement came with much fanfare thanks to its “unlimited” storage option—which lets you store as many photos and videos as you want for free as long as you’re willing to sacrifice some amount of quality. Now, it looks like some users who have tried to take advantage of this offer are actually hitting an invisible limit…
Expand
Expanding
Close
Pushbullet has redesigned their app a bunch of times since the service launched, and now they’re pushing yet another big update. With the latest version of Pushbullet, things have been reorganized to be split between three distinctive categories: friends, me, and following….
We’ve completely reorganized our app, putting things where you expect them to be. Instead of a big chaotic list of messages, they’re now categorized based on where they came from. The most important category is Me, which are things you’ve shared between your own devices.
The company has also completely re-thought how messaging with friends works. Instead of a confusing list of all the pushes you’ve received, messaging friends looks a lot more like… well, messaging. You can tap any friend, see your messaging history with them, and quickly send a message or file.
This move toward the Pushbullet app being more similar to any other messaging client is odd to me, as it makes the app seem parallel with other —more popular — offerings such as Facebook Messages and Hangouts. But Pushbullet makes sure to note the difference here: “They’ll receive your message on whatever device they happen to be using, whether phone, tablet, or computer.”
The company’s Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Opera extensions have also been updated, along with the Pushbullet desktop client for Windows and the company’s web interface. The Windows app in particular has some nice features, including real Facebook-inspired chat-heads for messaging.
Head over to the Play Store to grab the Android client update for free.
The Google app — previously known as “Search” — was updated to version 4.8 last week, and now a new teardown has revealed some interesting new details about some features that might be coming in future versions. Most notably, it looks like offline support for “OK, Google” is likely to be on the way, letting you give your device some voice commands without having a connection to the Internet…
Expand
Expanding
Close
Spotify told us last month that support for Android Wear was on the way, and now it looks like it’s finally here. With the latest version of the Spotify app, rolling out on the Play Store right now, you’ll be able to access new menus for controlling your music on your Android Wear device…
Expand
Expanding
Close
Hangouts, Google’s messaging platform in long need of an overhaul, has today passed 1 billion installs on the Google Play Store. The app is the 11th app to hit this milestone, followed most recently by Facebook Messenger and Google Play Books. Other than Hangouts, there are 7 apps from Google that have 1 billion, and 3 apps owned by Facebook.
Passing 1 billion installs isn’t very exciting considering the app comes pre-installed as the default messaging client on most Android phones, but it’s worth noting that not all of Google’s stock apps have come anywhere close to this milestone. Google Docs, for example, which comes shipped on all Nexus devices and others, is only in the 50-100 million range.
Meanwhile, we’re waiting patiently for the long-anticipated overhaul of Hangouts and, just as importantly, its upcoming Android Wear counterpart.
(via Android Police)
After introducing a new free tier of Play Music radio this morning, Google is now rolling out an update to the Play Music Android app to add support for the feature. As we reported this morning, Google’s new free streaming radio feature is supported by ads and they are now present in the Android app with this update.
Instagram is rolling out an update today for its Android app bringing two major new features, including a redesigned Explore tab and improved search functionality. The company said the updates will “help connect our community to the world as it happens,” or in other words, a more real-time experience thanks to new trending Tags and Places within the Explore tab.
With more than 70 million photos and videos posted to Instagram every day, wherever something is happening, chances are you can see it here. Whether it’s behind the scenes at the NBA Finals, on the runway with the latest fashion trend at a favorite club with a local band, people are capturing moments large and small on Instagram. But, until now, there’s never been an easy way to find these moments.
On top of the new trending tags and places in Explore, the company said it will be adding curated collections of images based on various themes, such as specific people or places, and featuring content from across the network.
The updated Explore feature is first rolling out to users in the US as part of the 7.0 update for Android that also adds improved search functionality:
For everyone on Instagram, we’ve dramatically improved the ability to find what you’re looking for. With the new Places Search, you can now peer in at just about any location on earth, allowing you to scout out your next vacation spot in the South Pacific, get a look inside that hot new restaurant or experience your favorite music festival — even if you couldn’t make it this year. The new Top Search also lets you search across people, places and tags all at once.
You can grab Instagram version 7.0 for Android on Google Play today.
Partly-owned-by-Nintendo The Pokémon Company has today launched its very first Android app on the Play Store, called Pokémon Jukebox. As you might expect, this isn’t one the five actual game titles that we should expect to see from Nintendo before March 2017, but it is an official offering from The Pokemon Company and it’s available right now. With Pokémon Jukebox, you can play hundreds of sounds from a huge catalog of Pokémon games. But sadly, while the app itself is free, actually using Jukebox is far from cheap…
Expand
Expanding
Close
Google has today released its stock Android Clock app on the Play Store, providing a new avenue to update it on devices that include it. The app is following in the footsteps of many other Google apps and services that have made their way to the Play Store, and — as is the case with the rest of them — the app is completely free.
Also, as you may already know, this means that those with devices that don’t ship with this app can simply download it from the Play Store. It’s well-regarded as being one of the best Clock apps available, sporting the ability to set alarms and timers, add cities to the World Clock, and connect with Android Wear for alarm snoozing.
It seems that the app is the same as the version currently available, albeit with a minor upgrade to version 4.0.1.
Plex today announced an update for its Android app that brings with it several improvements and new features. The update, which bumps the app to version 4.4.0.069 is available on the Play Store now. One much welcomed change for mobile users is that there is now a “jump to letter” feature to make scrolling much faster within the library.
We told you Wednesday that Nest has some new hardware in the works (likely to be announced at its upcoming June 17th event), and now droid-life has come out with press images of the new Nest Cam—an update to the hardware and branding of the current Dropcam Pro. We also mentioned yesterday that Nest has a new app in the works that will work with all of Nest’s hardware, and it looks like we get to take an early peek at that too…
Expand
Expanding
Close
Update: It looks like there’s going to be an Android Wear app too.
Android Police today has shared a handful of images of what are believed show the 4.0 update that is coming to soon to Google’s Hangouts app on Android. The images show a refreshed interface that Google seemingly hopes will silence the complaints regarding the app’s current interface and design.
In a teardown of the official Camera app’s most recent update, evidence has surfaced that Google is likely working on introducing a new “Smart Burst” mode. Taking “burst” photos isn’t a new concept, usually leaving the user with dozens of slightly-different images to sift through (and manually pick the ones that are worth keeping). As its name suggests, “Smart Burst” is probably a smarter version of burst photography, picking the best photos for you based on a variety of metrics.
Of the metrics that Google will reportedly be using to grade photos are the number of faces in the photo, streaking, facial expressions, whether eyes are open, and more.
While bringing a burst mode to the Camera app isn’t exactly groundbreaking (especially as this feature has been done by countless Android OEMs, Apple, and others), it’s nice to see Google bringing more features to its feature-light Camera app. And rather than just copying what others have done, it looks like Google is really trying to improve on an already-existing feature.
But maybe the app’s straightforward and low-bloat interface—with limited features—is one of the reasons the Camera app is so popular. Either way, this feature is almost certainly on the way, and it would make sense that Google would maybe tie it in with better camera hardware in a future Nexus (now wouldn’t that be great?).
For now, you can get version 2.5 of the Camera app, which is where all of this information was pulled from, via the Play Store.
Following Google Play Books passing 1 billion installs earlier today (the 9th app on that list), Facebook Messenger has now officially passed the same landmark, making it the 10th app on the Play Store to do so. I think it’s fair to attribute this to Messenger’s growing adoption since Facebook required that it be installed on iOS devices. It’s still not required for messaging on Android, however.
While several other apps have also passed this mark, only two other apps not created by Google have done so. Facebook’s own official Facebook client is one, while the other is the Facebook-owned WhatsApp client (which notably passed the 1 billion install mark long before Messenger). It’s clear that Zuckerberg and co. have a foothold on the Play Store that no other company does.
Yesterday, at WWDC 2015, Apple introduced transit directions to its native Maps application for the first time. It’s a feature that has long been in the works, and it’s still not actually coming to consumer devices until later this year. But those who have access to the iOS 9 beta can try out the feature in select cities, including New York City, San Francisco, and others.
Transit directions aren’t new, though, and you probably know that Google has offered them in its own official Maps app for many years. But since Apple split off from using the Google-powered Maps app with iOS 6, the company has been struggling to match Google’s offerings. Here, we take a look at Google’s transit directions in comparison to Apple’s new offering…
Expand
Expanding
Close
Apple today announced its self-branded music streaming service, and the Cupertino company also mentioned that—for the first time ever—it is launching an Android app made in-house. While the Beats Music app has remained on the Google Play Store since the Apple acquisition, the fruity company didn’t create it and has barely updated it and mostly ignored its existence. Now, though, Apple is planning to launch an official Android app made for Apple Music to be released later this year—specifically in the “fall”.
Expand
Expanding
Close
While Sony has yet to officially announce a second generation SmartBand fitness tracker, it briefly released a companion Android app this evening for the device before quickly taking it down. The app, no longer available in the Play Store, was simply titled SmartBand 2 and gave a handful of features we can expect to find in Sony’s upcoming wearable (via Xperia Blog).
Slack, the workplace communication service that has taken the corporate communications space by storm, has released what is says is a “better, faster, and all around Android-ier” Slack app for Android, rewritten from the ground up. The biggest changes to come with this new version are a faster user experience for navigating around the app and the introduction of new user interface elements which follow the Material Design guidelines set forth by Google.
Dexcom, the company behind one of the leading continuous glucose monitor solutions for diabetes patients, has announced today that their “Follow” mobile app—which has long been available on iOS—is now available for Android devices. There have been many unofficial solutions available in the past, but now Dexcom’s system is officially supported on Google’s mobile OS…
Expand
Expanding
Close
In addition to updating its iOS app, Imgur this morning has also unveiled an entirely new version of its Android app. Imgur says that this is its first ever fully native app for Android users and was built completely from scratch. The app features a redesigned card-based gallery that offers large and easily viewable images. Users can navigate throughout the interface by swiping left or right to view more content.
Google Photos was just announced this week, and—assuming you’re okay with Google having all of your photos on their servers—it’s a great new way to keep all of your life moments safely stored in one place. This isn’t just a redesigned mobile app. It’s a complete rethinking of how Google approaches its photo storage offerings, and it already has me convinced to just throw every picture I’ve ever taken to their cloud…
Expand
Expanding
Close
