Allo, Google's cross-platform smart messaging app with built-in Google Assistant, was bumped this morning to version 2.0 following its App Store debut a month ago.
Allo's built-in Assistant now supports voice dictation so you can now converse with it instead of typing. Another new feature: you can draw right on your image attachments. Google Allo 2.0 for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch is a free download from the App Store.
Microsoft today refreshed Skype for iPhone and iPod touch and Skype for iPad with the ability to send messages to your Skype contacts using Siri. Just say something along the lines “Send message to John on Skype saying what's up?” and Siri will do the right thing.
Earlier, the app integrated with iOS 10's CallKit to make VoIP Skype calls behave like traditional phone calls with Lock screen, Phone, Favorites and Contacts integration.
And earlier this week, Microsoft announced a number of other changes that will be coming to Skype for iOS in the coming weeks.
I was just reading a post titled “On iMessage's Stickiness” from Apple pundit John Gruber, published last evening on his Daring Fireball blog, and stumbled upon an interesting passage alleging that Apple's created several mockups of iMessage for Android.
One of the mockups of iMessage for Android reportedly looks like a carbon copy of its iOS counterpart, with another one based on Google's Material Design guidelines.
“I’ve heard from little birdies that mockups of iMessage for Android have circulated within the company, with varying UI styles ranging from looking like the iOS Messages app to pure Material Design,” reads the post.
I use Facebook Messenger literally every single day to message my friends and family and have always hated how the mobile app discriminately downloads media content regardless of whether I open the message or not.
Sometimes my friends would attach really long videos or high-resolution shots to their messages, prompting me to completely disable cellular access for Messenger on my iPhone, but then I don't receive their texts on the go.
Wouldn't it be better if Messenger handled data-hungry attachments more intelligently when the user is connected to a cellular network? As per a report by The Next Web a few days ago, a new data saver option is indeed coming to Messenger in a few weeks.
WhatsApp's latest update, which surfaced this morning on the App Store, brings the ability to draw on photos and videos and adorn your media with text or emoji. You can also express yourself by sticking huge emojis on top of photos and videos. Users automatically see the new editing tools when capturing a new photo or video or sharing one that's already on their phone. Coming soon: support for Retina flash for the selfie camera, zooming during video capture and a shortcut for quickly switching between cameras.
If you live in Poland or Australia, you might have stumbled upon a brand new feature at the top of Facebook's Messenger app, called Messenger Day. As reported by Mashable on Tuesday, Facebook has begun expanding this new feature across the globe following launch of Instagram Stories last month. Available in the mobile Messenger app for iOS and Android, Messenger Day is about sharing what you're up to in the form of auto-dissapearing updates, stickers and sketches.
Digital Touch debuted as a sort of gimmicky feature of the Apple Watch software. On iOS 10, Digital Touch has made its way into the stock Messages app, making it easy and to add various effects to photo or video attachments, send sketches, taps, kisses, heartbeats and more. In this step-by-step tutorial, you're going to learn how to express your feelings in style with the Digital Touch features on your iOS 10-enabled iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
With secret conversations in Messenger, Facebook offers support for end-to-end encryption, giving you peace of mind knowing that a third party cannot decipher any sensitive messages with friends and family. These encrypted chats rely on a device key that ensures only you and the recipient can see the message.
You can verify the device key to confirm that the messages are end-to-end encrypted, set a timer to have secret messages disappear from the conversation, and so forth.
In this article, we show you how to set up and use end-to-end encrypted secret conversations in Facebook Messenger.
Apple on Friday threatened to pull Phoneys, a 99-cent sticker pack which lets you prank friends by putting words in their mouth. The #1 Top Paid item in the Messages App Store, Phoneys employs a simple trick to make the illusion work: it provides stickers that look exactly like the blue iMessage bubbles. Phoneys developer Adam Howell says Apple told him it would be pulling the app next Thursday unless it's fundamentally changed so that the stickers looked nothing like iMessage bubbles.
Microsoft today announced availability of freshly updated Skype for iOS apps. Bumped to version 6.25, both Skype for iPhone and Skype for iPad now include SiriKit support that lets them integrate with Siri so you can call people and send messages using just your voice. The apps also take advantage of CallKit, which allows VoIP Skype calls to behave like normal cellular calls with fullscreen contact images on the Lock screen and integration with Phone's Recents and Favorites on iSO 10 devices.
Apple's much improved Messages app in iOS 10 is more expressive than ever, especially with nicely done animations that take over the entire screen.
One of the fullscreen effects in Messages, a bunch of balloons that fly up from the bottom of the screen, is the central theme of a new iPhone 7 commercial that Apple posted on its YouTube channel today.
The 30-second commercial wraps up with the message, “The all-new iPhone 7, with expressive messages. Practically magic.”
Your expressive Messages app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch packs in some interesting and useful features related to emojis. For added impact, emojis can be made three times their normal size.
But that's not all.
Apple's stock QuickType keyboard now recommends emojis as you type and Messages has a cool emojification feature where you tap words to turn them into appropriate emoji characters.
We're going to take you through all emoji-related features in Messages for iOS and teach you how to use them. Are you ready to boost your emoji game?