Tag: apps

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Mobile Syrup

Google’s Home app could be getting a significant redesign

Google has plans to revamp its iOS and Android Home app less than six months after changing how the platform’s toggles work.

In a listing seeking app testers, Google says that it is developing a “next generation design of the Google Home App” (via 9to5Google). It’s unclear what Google plans to change about the app, but if the tech giant plans to bring in testers and calls it “next generation,” it’s likely poised to be substantial.

If you’re interested in signing up for the testing program and don’t mind signing an NDA, you can do so via product testing platform Centercode.

Google’s Home app is the center of all its smart home devices, including the Nest Audio, Nest Hub, Nest Wi-Fi, Nest Doorbell and other supported third-party devices. The app is available on iOS and Android.

Source: Google Via: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Google’s Photos Print store is coming to Canada

Google is expanding its Print store services to Canada and Europe. Once available, users can create and order photo prints and canvas prints to be delivered to their home.

The Google Photos Print store originally launched in the United States. The company provides options for users to order prints of their memories and other photos taken on their smartphones and devices. In its latest expansion, Canada and 28 European countries can now select this option.

To order photo prints in Canada, Google charges a nominal fee of $0.39 each (plus shipping and taxes). Google Photo prints are available in the following sizes (in inches): 4×4, 4×6, 5×7, 8×10, 11×14, 12×12, 12×18, 16×20, and 24×36. Canvas prints, on the other hand, are available in sizes ranging from 8×8 inches to 20 x 24 inches.

As for Europe, Google’s service costs $0.15 EUR (plus shipping and taxes.) The following sizes of photo prints are available (in centimeters): 10×10, 10×15, 13×18, 20×20, 20×30, 30×45, 40×60, 50×50, 50×75, 60×90. Canvas prints range from 20×20 to 75×100 centimeters.

The full list of European countries gaining access to the Google Photos Print store includes Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

In addition to offering photo prints that can be perfect for framing, Google also includes a Photo Book service. The company offers the ability to create a memory book made up of a series of your photos. Across Canada, the U.S., and Europe, users can select softcover and hardcover options.

Image credit: Google

Source: Google

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Mobile Syrup

Samsung releases new photo upscaling ‘Galaxy Enhanced-X’ app

Samsung has added a new app to the Galaxy Store called ‘Galaxy Enhanced-X’, an AI-based photo upscaler.

After you import an image, you’ll see edit options like HDR, Brighten, Fix Blur and Sharpen. There’s also Fix More, Remove reflection, face enhancements and portrait mode edits. To be fair, several other apps are also capable of making similar edits, including Adobe Photoshop Express and even lesser-known apps like Snapseed, so it’s unclear why Samsung opted to release Galaxy Enhanced-X now.

The Galaxy Enhanced-X app also lets users remove unwanted blur/reflections, sharpen/upscale resolution, improve dynamic range and brighten photos captured in low-light conditions. It’s worth noting that when you edit an image using Galaxy Enhancer-X app, both the original and enhanced photo in JPEG format.

The image editing app is compatible with Android 10 and can run on the Galaxy S9 series, Note 9 series, S10 series, S20 series, Note 20, S21 series, Galaxy S22 Ultra, S22+ and the Fold 3 series.

Galaxy Enhanced-X is available in Samsung’s Galaxy Store.

Via: SamMobile

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Mobile Syrup

Google Play Store swaps permissions with new Data Safety section

Back in April, Google started rolling out a new ‘Data Safety’ section to app listings on the Play Store. Similar to Apple’s app privacy labels, Google’s Data Safety offers information on what data apps collect, why it collects that data, and more.

Now that the feature is more widely rolled out, some have noticed it replaces the Play Store’s permissions list. As spotted by Esper’s senior technical editor Mishaal Rahman (via Android Police), Data Safety has taken over the permissions spot on app listings.

On the one hand, this change isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The new Data Safety details do include information about the permissions an app needs, and it’s arguably more helpful than before since it shows, for example, that an app needs location data and why it needs location data. However, the permissions info is a tap away from where it used to be.

From left to right: App with no Data Safety info, App with Data Safety info, Expanded Data Safety info page.

The bigger issue is that the deadline for providing this information is July 20th. That means several apps don’t list any information in the Data Safety section, making it pretty useless at the moment. Meta apps like Facebook, Amazon apps, Twitter, Disney+, Discord, and more don’t list any Data Safety. Interestingly, Android Police notes the DuckDuckGo browser doesn’t include any Data Safety information yet. One app I found that did include information in the Data Safety section was TikTok. Imagine that!

Another frustration: what’s listed in the Data Safety section is up to app developers. Rahman points to Telegram as an example of how this could not work in users’ favour — Telegram effectively provides a list of all the permissions and says it needs access to them for “app functionality.” Cool. Android Police points to the Google Go app as the opposite extreme, listing so much information in the Data Safety section that it’s overwhelming for users.

All this is to say, why roll out Data Safety in this incomplete state? The old system would have worked fine until July 20th. All the same, developers will (hopefully) update the Data Safety information by then anyway. However, it’s not clear what — if any — enforcement Google will apply to non-compliant devs. We could end up with a similar situation to the App Store where some developers add misleading info or just don’t add info at all (ahem, Google).

Rahman does note that those who want to see permissions before downloading can still find them in other places. For example, open-source Play Store client Aurora Store still lists app permissions, which indicates Google still stores permission data even if it’s not visible on the Store itself.

Source: Mishaal Rahman, Android Police

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter rolls out ‘Unmentioning’ feature to let you easily leave conversations

Twitter has announced a new feature that is sure to make many users happy: ‘Unmentioning.’

With it, you can “take control of your mentions” by removing yourself from a conversation. To do this, click the three dots beside a tweet and select ‘Leave this conversation.’ This will untag you from the thread while preventing you from being re-added or receiving any notifications about it. You can, however, still see the conversation if you so choose.

This is a welcome feature for Twitter, as people often find themselves undesirably in the middle of discussions between others. Previously, the person replying would be the only one who could untag another user, effectively leaving you at the mercy of strangers. The only thing you yourself could do was mute a conversation, which hasn’t always been consistent.

Twitter says Unmentioning is rolling out now to all users on all devices.

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Mobile Syrup

WhatsApp now lets you react with any emoji, not just six

WhatsApp users on Android and iOS can now react to messages with any emoji.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckberg announced the news in a Facebook post. This feature comes just a few months after WhatsApp began offering the ability to react to messages using only six emoji.

To access the feature, long-press the message you want to react to, which will bring up a menu containing six common reactions and a new plus icon to reveal every other emoji.

It should be noted that the emoji reaction expansion is starting to roll out globally now, so you might not see it yet. (For what it’s worth, I still only have the original six on my iPhone.) Therefore, you may need to stay tuned to WhatsApp in the coming days.

Source: Facebook

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Mobile Syrup

Apple issues statement to developers, clarifying decision to remove older apps without updates

Barcelona, Spain – June 7, 2018: Logo of Apple Inc. on a Apple store. Apple is the multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California and sells consumer electronics products.

Apple is clarifying its decision to begin removing “outdated” apps from the App Store. The criteria surrounding this decision stem from the iPhone maker’s new policy. It requires developers to provide updates to their software every three years.

Following developer complaints last week, Apple now states in a press release that this is all a part of the app Store Improvements policy. Moving forward, the company now requires developers to provide consistent updates within a three-year window and hit a minimal download threshold. Failure to do so results in Apple issuing a notice that their software will be removed from the App Store.

“As part of the App Store Improvements process, developers of apps that have not been updated within the last three years and fail to meet a minimal download threshold — meaning the app has not been downloaded at all or extremely few times during a rolling 12 month period — receive an email notifying them that their app has been identified for possible removal from the App Store.”

A handful of developers came forward last week after receiving a notice regarding their app. Moitivoto developer Robert Kabwe received Apple’s App Store Improvement Notice, stating the game has “not been updated in a significant amount of time.” Likewise, Emilia Lazer-Walker reported receiving the same.

Both developers express their personal frustrations. In both cases, the developers believe their apps and games are in a finished state. Kabwe believes his game is “fully functioning” and has been for the last three years.

Of course, this also brings the conversation of software and game preservation into the fold. Apple confirms that any user who has already purchased a removed app will experience no interruptions. Though, if an app or game is in a working and complete state, users should be able to theoretically purchase and install it for years down the road. Additionally, Apple hasn’t clarified its threshold when claiming an “app has not been downloaded at all or extremely few times.”

At the time the first reports came through, Apple warned developers that they had 30 days to submit an update. Though, Apple now states that developers will be given up to 90 days to update their apps.

This new policy puts additional pressure on developers. Smaller indie teams may not have the time or budget to invest in additional updates to completed projects.

Image credit: Apple

Source: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Google released security report stating it blocked over 1 million malicious apps

Google has released a report outlining the ways it fought against malicious apps and developers throughout 2021. In the report, the company states that 1.2 million apps were blocked for policy violations.

“We continue to enhance our machine learning systems and review processes,” team members state in the report. The team continues and states that “We also continued in our efforts to combat malicious and spammy developers.”Google also shut down 190,000 “bad accounts” and 500,000 inactive developer accounts.

Google is adding its new Data safety section for Google Play. Developers now must give users insight into the privacy and security practices within their apps. This also provides transparency into the data the app collects. Google requires developers to complete these sections for their respective apps by July 20th.

Additionally, Google continues to partner with SDK developers to improve app safety. “Last year we introduced multiple privacy focused features, enhanced our protections against bad apps and developers, and improved SDK data safety,” the report states.

Google also confirms that Google Play Protect “continues to scan billions of installed apps each day.” This security measure helps protect users around the world from potentially harmful and otherwise malicious software.

As a result of protecting its platform and users, Google is safeguarding against developers releasing harmful apps. “As a result of new platform protections and policies, developer collaboration and education, 98% of apps migrating to Android 11 or higher have reduced their access to sensitive APIs and user data,” the report notes.

Google Pixels now utilize machine learning models to improve the detection of malware in Google Play Protect. The privacy-preserving technology runs on Google Pixel devices called “federated analytics” to discover malicious apps.

The company closes out by stating to look forward to more “exciting announcements in 2022.”

Source: Google Via: TechRadar

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Mobile Syrup

Instagram is now testing a pinned post feature

Instagram is testing a new feature that lets users pin posts to their profiles. A pinned post will show above their photo grid, according to TechCrunch. 

The feature is only available for select users while the company tests it out. These users will see a “Pin to your profile” option from the three-dot menu next to posts.

“We’re testing a new feature that lets people feature posts on their profile,” a spokesperson from Meta told TechCrunch in an email.

All users have the option to pin Stories to their profiles, but posting posts can expand Instagram’s customizability. Like Twitter, you’ll be able to highlight a post for a longer period, especially if you’re frequently adding new posts to your profile.

You can always highlight a post in your Story and then pin that with your Story pins.

Source: TechCrunch

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter’s edit button could show the tweet’s edit history, according to reverse engineer

Twitter’s highly requested edit button is not officially available quite yet. However, reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong has been able to break down its inner workings.

According to Wong, Twitter’s in-development edit buttons may leave a history of the tweet’s edits. Wong states that the edit feature is “immutable.” This would mean that when a tweet is edited, Twitter creates a brand new tweet, leaving previous versions intact in some capacity.

“Instead of mutating the Tweet text within the same Tweet (same ID), it re-creates a new Tweet with the amended content, along with the list of the old Tweets prior of that edit,” Manchun Wong says in her tweet.

What this means for visibility on the user’s end is still unclear. Twitter could perhaps show records of a tweet’s edit and its previous versions. Many users and critics of the idea of an edit button have raised concerns over transparency. Showing records of a tweet could avoid the inevitable backlash if and when a tweet is edited to fix public records or mislead an audience. However, there’s also a chance that Twitter could avoid providing a visible history of edits altogether.

Alessandro Paluzzi, an app researcher, tweeted a screenshot showing the updated UI, which includes the ‘Edit Tweet’ feature. Apparently, the ability to edit a tweet is in the three-dot menu on the right side of an individual tweet. Hitting this button, users are lead to a screen to compose a tweet with the option to “Update” the original text. Paluzzi’s screenshots do not indicate whether an edit history will be available, though.

Users have been extremely vocal about wanting edit functionality on Twitter. The company first publicly announced the development of the feature on April Fool’s Day. The Twitter Comms account later followed up, clarifying that yes, the company is working on the feature. In fact, Twitter has “been working on an edit feature since last year,” the account states.

As for when an official rollout will kick off, it does appear to be further down the line. Twitter Blue subscribers are the first to gain access to the edit button “in the coming months.”

Source: Jane Manchun Wong Via: The Verge