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There are plenty of reasons why you'd want the same app running twice on your phone. Prior to Facebook Messenger or Instagram adding multiple account support, many users had resorted to downloading modded APKs of the apps to be able to log in with different usernames on the same device. But many other apps still don't allow you to use multiple accounts simultaneously, like Facebook and Skype for example. There are also other reasons why you'd want another instance of an app: if you just want to test something without breaking the main app, if you want to have two different progresses of the same game, if a watchface application only allows one setting and you want an easy way to switch without fiddling with the preferences each time, and so on.
Ever spent some time talking to your friends on Facebook Messenger about basketball and looked at that nice orange emoji and wished you could just swipe it across the screen and into the hoop? Ever yearned for a little bit of friendly competition between you and your friends inside a chat to pass those boring classes or long waits? Facebook Messenger has just the answer for your woes.
Given the fast rate at which WhatsApp betas are rolling lately, we keep getting frequent tips about certain small changes to the app that have occurred over one of the many revisions but that we can't pinpoint to a specific version of the app (unless we go ahead and install and test each version, but ain't nobody got time for that!!!). So here we are today with a list of changes that have been implemented at some point during the past week or two and that are all available in version 2.12.535 of the app.
Raise your pitchforks and prepare to be outraged. Instagram is following in the footsteps of its big brother / master Facebook and working on switching its feed from chronological order to algorithmic. Maybe it was awed by how much love Facebook users felt toward that change in their feeds and it wanted a piece of the pie.
Android N is all around us — seriously, have you seen the number of Android N Feature Spotlight stories we've published in less than a week? (Hint: there are 40 and more are pending), but there's a lot we don't know about the next version of Android yet. We know the preview will get more frequent updates than L or M prior to release, we know the final release will be available in the summer, and we know that it's the bestest, awesomest, and most feature-packed'est version of Android yet. We don't know the name though, nor the software version.
You've hoped, you've asked, you've prayed, you've waited, you've stomped your feet, you've revolted against the institution, you've given up, you've rekindled your faith, only to be let down again. But the wait is over. Hangouts is finally fiiiiiiiiiinally adding the option to record and send 1-minute videos*.
A couple of days ago, Google revamped the Android Wear website to make it more interactive and today it's rolling out an update to another website: Android Auto. This time though, it's not the whole site that's getting completely overhauled, just the section at the bottom for supported manufacturers.
One of the benefits of buying into popular flagships is that all the odds of community support are in your favor. Provided that the manufacturer wasn't being a colossal pain, you shouldn't have to wait long to see some enterprising developers and modders provide a root method, a custom recovery, a bootloader unlock, and more custom ROMs than you dare imagine.
Let's not beat around the bush. You know what a MicroSD card is, you know which devices can use it and which ones can't, you know some new flagships support it but don't have adoptable storage, et cetera. What you came here to see is what this card is all about and the link to get it before stock runs out as fast as Scooby-Doo from a haunted house.SanDisk makes great MicroSD cards. This model in particular has 200GB of storage which is the most you can get from the company now. It's more than six times the size of a modern flagship's 32GB internal memory. Yes, that much. It's also fast with read speeds up to 90MB/s — you'll need that if you're transferring 200GB worth of files. It comes with an SD adapter and the whole family is super well rated at 4.6 out of 5 stars.We've never seen its price dip below $79.99, but now it's $59.99. That is considerably cheaper, namely 25% cheaper than the cheapest. CamelCamelCamel corroborates that claim. The discount is part of Amazon's Gold Box deal of the day, which has other SanDisk products on sale like the 128GB MicroSD card for $34.99, the 128GB Dual USB/MicroUSB flash drive for $29.99, and more.
Ever looked at your smartwatch and wished there were real LEDs inside that lit up and turned off to tell you the time? Ever checked all those Android Wear watchfaces and wanted them to feel a little more vibrant and a little less dull? Well, here you go, you'll love Real LED Watchface.
You know what I hate? Being at the airport or a café and trying to watch a few YouTube videos to pass the time only to be hit with a buffering animation and interminable amounts of waiting. Well, it doesn't really bother me now, because I haven't had time to travel or go chill in a café in years (you do realize I work two full-time jobs, simultaneously?!), but I suppose it would if I was the kind of person who did that. I'm just very sympathetic to everyone who's tried it and I have very good news for them: YouTube is about to make you wait less and watch more.
Did you know that Chrome on Android can handle downloads in two different methods? Before we got this tip, I sure didn't and it took a little investigative work to get to the bottom of this difference. See, there are two ways you can trigger a download in Chrome. One is by clicking on a link that opens the bottom pop-up asking you if you want to save a file (think APK Mirror) and the other is by long tapping on any embedded content (usually media) and selecting save. The first triggers the Downloads app (or Download Manager) from Android, the second triggers Chrome's built-in download manager functionality. Changes are coming to both of these — we've already discussed how Android N's Downloads notification has gotten a new Cancel button and now we're going to talk about how Chrome's built-in manager is changing in version 50.
Spotlight Stories is one of the remnants of Motorola that Google kept after selling the company to Lenovo. It's a fun project that releases interesting movies every now and then that aren't like anything you've seen before. They're interactive, shot in 360-degree, and each time you watch them, you can unveil a different storyline and ending by simply moving and looking elsewhere.
Despite how much we praise and love Material Design, it's not the be-all end-all of interfaces and it's definitely not unanimously loved. We've seen many users lament the waste of space, excess of white, and other aspects of the design language, but what's ultimately the most important factor in MD acceptance is how well the developers adapt it to their specific app. The Imgur team appears to have fallen on the wrong side of that equation and garnered the wrath of some of its users with the app's latest update.
In Android M, the System UI Tuner included a Broadcast tile that allowed users to create their own custom tile to be added to the Quick Settings area. However, users had to be savvy enough to know how to create that tile and then use an app like Custom Quick Settings to personalize its look and actions. It's safe to say that the feature wasn't ready for primetime and only enterprising and techie users could benefit from it.
Android N isn't all about the small tweaks and pixel changes, it's also a significant update when it comes to your safety. Well, provided you discover how to set it up and other people know how to get to it. What is it exactly? It's the new Emergency information feature that's accessible in Settings > Users and lets you display all the crucial info on your lockscreen for anyone to see, without requiring an unlock. It'll also show up in the setup wizard when you finish setting up a new Android N phone.
When I took my first look at AmpMe, the app that turns your phones and tablets into multiple speakers for the same song, I applauded the app's interface, automatic sound syncing, SoundCloud implementation, and iOS support. However, a few missing features were holding it back (especially compared to SoundSeeder), namely the lack of local music and Google Play Music support as well as the requirement for an active and fast connection to stream everything.
We get it, some of you don't like Microsoft's apps. But there's no denying that the company has been doing a real kickass job on Android lately, updating its different applications and adding new and interesting features that either put it up to par with Google's offerings or make it leapfrog it by a few miles. I mean... did you hear that Microsoft Translator can now translate Klingon?
If you're preparing a presentation in Google Slides, chances are that you're going to be doing it in your native language or your secondary one. If you speak Arabic or Hebrew, however, you were out of luck because the Android app didn't support RTL languages. Now that's changing since the Slides app on Android is able to create and edit presentations in RTL on version 1.6.092.07.
If you were a diligent Android Police reader over the past 24 hours, you must have noticed that somewhere along the deluge of Android N news and coverage, Ryan managed to sneak in his review of the Nextbit Robin. In it, he praised the phone's design, front-facing speakers, and mostly stock Android 6.0 software, but found little usefulness to the Robin's highlight feature: Smart Storage and its cloud backup support for freeing up space on the internal storage.