Elon Musk’s own social network X is rolling out the ability to make audio and video calls directly from the app to its Android client.
One of the X engineers working on the project posted about the feature release and said it will be available to Android users after an app update.
audio and video calls on X slowly rolling out for android users today!
It’s one of the long list of things only paid users can do on X.
Users can enable or disable calling through Settingle > Privacy and safety > Direct Messages > Enable audio and video calling.
Alongside Samsung’s launch event today, Google announced a new way to search on Android phones dubbed “Circle to Search.” The feature will allow users to search from anywhere on their phone by using gestures like circling, highlighting, scribbling, or tapping.
The search results users will see will differ based on their query and the Google Labs products they opt into.
For a simple text search, you may see traditional search results while a query that combines an image and text — or “multisearch” as Google calls it — uses generative AI.
The feature was one of several Google AI announcements across Gemini, Google Messages, and Android Auto announced at today’s event.
Over time, more Android smartphones will support the feature, Google says.
But don’t expect the EV maker to drop Android Auto or Apple CarPlay as a result.
GM, for instance, decided not to make the new 2024 Chevy Blazer EV compatible with Android Auto or Apple CarPlay.
Meanwhile, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay is a secondary interface that lies on top of an operating system.
Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are apps that runs on the user’s phone and wirelessly communicates with the vehicle’s infotainment system.
Automakers have been scrambling to achieve the so-called “software-defined vehicle” and have largely used Android Auto and Apple CarPlay as a stop gap.
Google announced today at CES that it has collaborated with Samsung to combine their sharing solutions into a singular cross-Android solution under the Quick Share name.
The new offering grows the network of devices that users can share content with across the Android ecosystem, including Chromebooks.
Back in 2020, Google introduced Nearby Share to make it easy for users to share files across devices.
Samsung also has its own similar capability called Quick Share.
Google also announced that it is working with PC manufacturers like LG to expand Quick Share to Windows PCs as a pre-installed app.
Google announced Tuesday at CES 2024 a new feature for EV drivers that will track and display real-time battery information in Google Maps.
The new Android Auto feature will rollout today on Ford Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning.
Google built-in adds Chrome, Weather ChannelGoogle also added new trip planning capabilities, the Chrome browser and the Weather Channel app to Google built-in.
The company said that starting today drivers of vehicles with Google built-in can send the trip they’ve planned on their smartphone using Google Maps directly to their car.
Cars with Google built-in will also get, starting today, PBS KIDS and Crunchyroll and the Weather Channel app.
Beeper is giving up on its mission to bring iMessage to Android after implementing a series of fixes that Apple has knocked down one by one over the past month.
The latest workaround requires users to own or rent a jailbroken iPhone to get iMessage working via Beeper.
You then need to install a Beeper tool to generate an iMessage registration code, then update to the latest Beeper Mini app and enter your code.
The process is quite complicated and significantly takes away from the original appeal of Beeper, which was supposed to provide an easy way to bring iMessage to Android.
Although Beeper is done trying to bring iMessage to Android, the company says it’s “shifting focus back to our long-term goal of building the best chat app on earth” in the new year.
Spill, a platform founded by ex-Twitter employees, is closing out its first year on the market by opening up its beta to all users, whether they’re on iOS or Android.
Spill is like the polar opposite of X, a platform that continues to alienate users with platform policies that make the app actively less inclusive.
Around his one-year anniversary of being laid off from Twitter, Spill CEO Alphonzo Terrell told TechCrunch that the app has amassed around 200,000 users.
Spill may not be growing as quickly as other Twitter competitors like Bluesky, Mastodon or Threads, but Terrell isn’t worried.
“People are looking for something new,” Terrell told TechCrunch last month.
Firefox maker Mozilla announced today the launch of over 450 new extensions — aka browser add-ons — which are now available on Mozilla’s Firefox Browser Add-ons page.
While Firefox’s nightly builds later enabled more extensions, the publicly available Firefox for Android browser did not have access to these hundreds of extensions, meaning most of Firefox’s mainstream users were also without.
It then began to test and make hundreds more extensions available to Firefox for Android users, culminating in today’s news that there are now 450+ extensions available.
Safari, Samsung’s browser, Opera, and others are also ahead of Firefox in the mobile browser race.
With extensions, you’re free to change the way Firefox for Android looks and behaves.
Beeper Cloud users were also impacted, the company’s post said, referring to its original messaging app aggregator, but said those users could contact Beeper Help for a fix as well.
Apple appears to be deliberately blocking iMessages from being delivered to ~5% of Beeper Mini users.
Uninstalling and reinstalling Beeper Mini fixes the issue.
But although Beeper believed Apple would not be able to shut its service down, as Beeper Mini users communicated directly with Apple’s servers, just as iPhones do, Apple quickly reacted on Friday to put an end to Beeper Mini’s operation.
As a result of Apple’s meddling, leading to Beeper Mini’s instability, the startup made its new app free for Android users for the time being.
One of the more intriguing alternative Twitter platforms to emerge in recent months is Bluesky. This app promises a future of decentralized social networking and choose-your-own algorithms, which could provide…
