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Facebook Messenger gains Photo Magic feature, per-chat customization and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 17, 2015

Less than twenty-four hours after rolling out Uber integration within Messenger, Facebook today announced a brand new update that enables per-chat customization and other enhancements for the popular messaging platform.

And as promised, the application now provides the Photo Magic feature to users in more countries following its recent soft-launch on Android in Australia.

Billed as an easier way to privately share photos with friends, Photo Magic taps into Facebook's advanced face recognition algorithm to automatically recognize people in your photos, offering to share them via Messenger.

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Facebook Messenger gains 3D Touch shortcuts, message requests and snowflake animations

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 16, 2015

Facebook has released an update to its Messenger software in the App Store, bumping the app to version 52.0 and bringing out 3D Touch shortcuts on the Home screen for owners of the iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus.

Just press Messenger's icon lightly with 3D Touch and up pops a menu with the New Message option, along with handy shortcuts for starting a chat with your top three most-frequently messaged contacts.

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Sony releases PlayStation messaging app for iOS

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 8, 2015

Sony today released a brand new iPhone application in the App Store, PlayStation Messages. Conceived as a messaging app for fans of the PlayStation console, the software provides messaging capabilities that used to be part of the official PlayStation app, including availability and presence indicators, group chats with up to a hundred players, rich media in messages such as photos, voice, stickers, attachments and more.

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Next-generation Yahoo Messenger now available on iOS, web and Yahoo Mail

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

Yahoo today announced it's re-launching its venerable messaging software—Yahoo Messenger—on iOS, Android, on the web and in Yahoo Mail on the desktop.

The app offers a fresh new messaging experience rebuilt from the ground up, integrates the best of the Flickr, Tumblr and Xobni, does photo sharing and animated GIFs and is focused on group messaging with features such as sharing, unsending and liking.

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Hangouts for iOS now supports Apple Watch, gains quick-replying from notifications and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 1, 2015

Google Hangouts, the search giant's instant messaging and VoIP mobile client, was updated in the App Store last evening with several new features and refinements.

For starters, Apple Watch owners can now respond to instant messages received from other Hangout users directly on their wrist and also from the notification banner on their iPhone, iPod touch or iPad (provided they use iOS 9.1).

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Viber for iPhone now lets you recall sent chats, attach files, reply from notifications and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 24, 2015

Viber today pushed a couple notable improvements to its iOS messaging app in the App Store. Bumped to version 5.6.5, Viber for iPhone now makes it easy to delete a sent message for everyone, not just for yourself, which could come in handy after accidentally sending a message to the wrong person, allowing you to recall it immediately.

You can now send media directly from your shared iCloud albums, in addition to your Camera roll like before.

As a bonus, Viber now includes the ability to reply to messages directly from the notification banner and permits you to search your Viber chats and contacts from the Home screen, using iOS 9's much improved Spotlight Search function.

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Pebble rolling out Text Reply for iOS feature

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

Pebble today announced a new messaging feature for iOS users designed to make it possible to send text messages through a carrier.

Dubbed Text Reply for iOS, this feature is in beta and available on the Pebble Time, Pebble Time Steel and Pebble Time Round family of smartwatches.

In addition, Text Reply for iOS is currently an AT&T exclusive though Pebble says it's working on bringing this capability to Pebble fans on other carriers.

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Skype for iPhone and iPad gains Maps integration and other improvements in latest update

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 23, 2015

Microsoft's Skype for iPhone and Skype for iPad apps received an update this morning in the App Store, bringing out new features including integration with Apple Maps. Now you can check locations in Maps directly from highlighted addresses and also call a phone number using Skype Credit directly from highlighted numbers.

The app is now easier to multi-task as well: you can now return to a call by pressing the Active Call banner in Skype.

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Facebook releases a version of Messenger that’s meant for the office

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 20, 2015

Facebook today launched a dedicated version of its mobile messaging software, Facebook Messenger, that's meant to be used at work.

As reported on by TechCrunch, the applications is called Work Chat and available now for Android smartphones over at Google's Play Store, while a version for iPhones is being worked on and scheduled to release soon.

The app is basically an expansion of Facebook at Work, the company's business platform which has been in private testing for months now.

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WhatsApp picks up 3D Touch Peek and Pop, redesigned settings and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 16, 2015

Facebook-owned WhatsApp today issued a new update to its iPhone application in the App Store which brings extended support for 3D Touch on the iPhone6s and iPhone 6s Plus with Peek and Pop gestures for previewing chats without actually opening them.

The app's also gained a redesigned settings interface, the ability to browse your starred messages in one place and optionally include rich previews when sharing links.

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WhatsApp rolls out responding to messages and calls directly from notifications to everyone

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 2, 2015

After testing out with a subset of its user base a new ability to quickly respond to incoming messages directly from the notification banner, Facebook-owned WhatsApp today began rolling out this feature to its massive 900+ million monthly active users. In addition, this edition of WhatsApp for iPhone also makes it easy to reply to incoming WhatsApp VoIP calls with a message, right from the call notification. Both features require Apple's latest mobile operating system.

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