Android Discussions Related To Software, Apps, Phones & News

[Nairrk]

How to manage notifications in Android smartphones, tablets

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With Android smartphones getting powerful and big each passing day, we are downloading more and more apps/games. But an irritating side effect of having too many apps is a continuous flow of notifications. They constantly nag you and becomes irritating sometimes. For instance, it feels really awkward to receive a notification right when you are in the middle of a meeting. Also, no one likes to get disturbed by notifications while they are asleep.

Apart from that too much notifications, especially from non-essential tasks like games, clutter the notification panel and waste a lot of time of users. Also, sometimes it creates a privacy issue; imagine a Whatsapp message notification on the locked screen - it can be read (atleast some portions) by anyone even without unlocking the phone!

Read: How to manage notifications in Android smartphones, tablets

 

[Nairrk]

WhatsApp for Android Gets Text Formatting, File Sharing via Google Drive, and More

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We have already seen WhatsApp Messenger bringing numerous features to its app, from sharing of pdf files, a redesigned Settings page, to showing end-to-end encryption notification. Well, the Facebook-owned messaging application has now received a new set of features as a part of the version 2.12.535 for Android.

The version at the time of writing is not available to download from the company website but is showing up as an OTA update on Google Play for beta testers (via Android Police). One can become a beta tester by visiting WhatsApp for Android. It is currently not available for iOS, regular Android users with app version number 2.12.510 or lower

Read: WhatsApp for Android Gets Text Formatting, File Sharing via Google Drive, and More | NDTV Gadgets360.com

 

[Nairrk]

WhatsApp for Android to soon add quick reply feature, solid color wallpapers and multiple selection tools

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WhatsApp is preparing a set of new features for its Android users, which have been rolled out on beta version 2.12.560. These new features include support for quick reply in notifications, new wallpapers and multiple selection tools for contacts and groups among others.

One of the highlights in the upcoming WhatsApp update, spotted by Android Police, is the ability to quickly reply to message from the notification itself. This maybe a native feature on Android N, but with the update just about anyone will be able to reply directly from a notification. Post the update, a message notification will have a reply button at the bottom, clicking on which will open a pop-up box with a text input field. You can either reply with a text or emoticon, or hit the View button to open the app.

Read more: WhatsApp for Android to soon add quick reply feature, solid color wallpapers and multiple selection tools | Latest Tech News, Video & Photo Reviews at BGR India

 

[Nairrk]

WhatsApp recently introduced several new features for its Android app. Now, it is working on a new update that is focused on its in-app camera feature. The new beta version 2.16.4 overhauls the in-app camera making it closer to the Material design of Android.

The updated WhatsApp, spotted by Android Police, now does away with the old big blue shutter button and flash and switch camera icons. It has also removed the ‘Send to’ icon on the top. Now, it has a big white shutter button and new icons for flash and switch camera. It also has a quick access to images in gallery of the smartphone.

Read: WhatsApp for Android update brings in an overhauled in-app camera UI | Latest Tech News, Video & Photo Reviews at BGR India

 

[Nairrk]

New Android App Makes It Easy to Log All Your Call Drops

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Not sure whose telecom operator is causing call drops? With an aim to bring transparency and accountability to network-related call drop issues, Pune-based Optinno Mobitech Pvt Ltd, makers of prepaid bill tracker app Smartbro and SMS Blocker, an MIT Award winning spam blocker app, released a call drop management app for Android users earlier this month.

Called Smartbro Range Call Drop Alert, the app notifies users if the network quality is low and call drops are likely to happen. Available for prepaid and postpaid users, as well as those with dual-SIM smartphones, it also keeps a log of call drops, and how many phone calls were made and received on a daily basis.

Read more: New Android App Makes It Easy to Log All Your Call Drops | NDTV Gadgets360.com

 

[Nairrk]

Android Auto Enters India and 17 More Countries

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Soon after the Search app update and Android April security update, Google on Wednesday tweeted a bunch of new countries where its Android Auto platform is now available.

The company's tweet from the official Android account now says that Android Auto has finally entered 18 new countries including India, Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Russia, Switzerland, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

It is worth mentioning that Android Auto is already available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, the UK, and the US, taking the total to 29. The company also updated Android Auto in the meanwhile, bringing it to v1.6.

The latest build brings several features (via Android Police), including improved phone-car connection reliability, as well as the ability to browse your music collection without lockouts while the vehicle is stopped - essentially bringing in a more detailed music collection interface that's . The publication reports that despite the update, the features are not reflecting on the front end - giving rise to speculation that a Google Play Services update is required to finally enable the new features.

The rollout to India with country-specific features should see increased adoption by local and international manufacturers of in-dash infotainment systems and cars. So far, few domestic car manufacturers have made their plans clear on the adoption.

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd last year plans to bring Android Auto in its vehicles. The technology, which links smart phones and tablets with an in-vehicle infotainment system, will be available in Mahindra's sports utility vehicles XUV 500 and Scorpio as well as future platforms.

Source: Android Auto Enters India and 17 More Countries | NDTV Gadgets360.com

 

[Nairrk]

Android N Developer Preview 2 arrives on Sony Xperia Z3, here’s how to install

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Good news Sony Xperia Z3 users. Google and Sony has announced the expansion of Android N Developer Preview 2 program and the Xperia Z3 is the first non-nexus smartphone to get the official developer preview apart from Google’s Nexus and Pixel devices. The move sounds rather surprising, especially considering the fact that there are other popular devices such as HTC 10 and Samsung Galaxy S7 among others. However, there were rumors that Android N Developer Preview program may soon expand to non-nexus devices.

The Xperia Z3 saw a wider release back in September 2014, whereas the Xperia Z3+ and Xperia Z5-series hasn’t reached most markets across the globe, mostly due to the staggered release. So that makes perfect sense to release the dev preview for the Z3.

For those who aren’t aware, this is not the first time, in October last year; Sony had allowed around 10,000 Z3 users to test drive the Android 6.0 Marshmallow Beta. Similar to installing the dev preview on Nexus devices, Google and Sony have worked together to make the installation process easier for the Xperia Z3 users as well.

This time around, the dev preview is compatible with Xperia Z3 D6603 and D6653 models. If you own any of these models and want to try out the ‘N’ dev preview, follow the installation instructions below.

How to install Android N Developer Preview 2 on Sony Xperia Z3
To begin with, you must ensure that you have the Xperia Companion v1.1.24 installed on your PC or Mac. For those who don’t, you can download it from here.

Step One: Connect your Z3 to a computer using the USB data cable, which will open the Xperia companion app.

Step Two: Hold down the ALT key on the keyboard and click on ‘Software Repair’ which will appear on the home screen.

Step Three: It will ask you to disconnect and turn off the device, then reconnect while holding the ‘Volume Down’ button. This will start the software flashing process. Once the installation is complete, your Z3 will restart and voila, you’ll have the latest Android N Developer Preview 2 running on your smartphone.

The preview brings all the goodness of Android N, including multi-window split-view multitasking, bundled notifications, direct reply from notifications panel and under the hood tweaks such as Project Svelte to optimize memory use and the battery-saving Doze mode.

Do note, as it’s an early beta version, it may contain bugs, due to which your Z3 may get unresponsive or apps may force close at times. At anytime you want to rollback to factory settings, you can connect back the Z3 to the companion app and restore it using ‘Software Repair.’

Android N Developer Preview 2 arrives on Sony Xperia Z3, here

 

[Nairrk]

How to make Facebook posts in Hindi from your Android smartphone’s English keyboard

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Facebook has updated its Android app with a feature that will be a treat for its nearly 150 million monthly active users in India. With the new transliteration feature, users will now be able to post Hindi messages while typing in English. This is a very useful feature while conversing in Hindi, but aren’t that well versed in writing. Here’s how to activate and use the Hindi transliteration feature on Facebook.

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The transliteration feature is not automatically activated, and requires you to follow a couple of steps. At the top bar, click on the grey button made up of three lines, which opens a menu with quite a few options. Scroll all the way down till you see App Settings listed under the Help & Settings menu.

Click on App Settings and towards the bottom of the screen you will see an option called ‘Hindi keyboard’. Click on the button on the right to activate it. Once activated, go back to the Facebook main page and click on Status. Here notice a small grey keyboard with the letter ‘आ’ on top. Hit the button to post a message or status in Hindi.

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But instead of changing the keys to Hindi letters, the keyboard here is the same QWERTY keyboard you use for all the apps. But when you start typing in English the words on screen will appear in the Hindi Devanagari script.

Facebook reveals that the keyboard has been built using feedback from its users, and also warns that it is far from perfect. In the short time we spent using the keyboard we did come across a few errors, but it is fairly easy to correct them as well. Facebook not only suggests Hindi words as and when you are typing, but also offers a detailed chart of Roman characters and their corresponding Devanagari character.

Mobile keyboards with Hindi transliteration feature isn’t exactly a new feature, and Google for one had added it to Android keyboards a few years back. Apple too added the same ability to iOS keyboard with the launch of iOS 9 last year.

Facebook has nearly 150 million monthly active users in India, with over 70 million of them active on a daily basis. A more important statistic is that over 90 percent of these users access Facebook from their mobile phones. While it is no doubt fun to converse in Hindi, typing in Devanagari isn’t the easiest of jobs, and transliteration really helps. While the keyboard is far from perfect at the moment, when more people start using it and suggest better words, the keyboard is bound to get better.

The latest version of Facebook for Android is now available on the Google Play Store.

Source: How to make Facebook posts in Hindi from your Android smartphone

 

[Nairrk]

YouTube for Android and iOS Revamped, Gets Better Recommendations

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YouTube Android and iOS app on Tuesday got a facelift as the company updated the app's home feed design and also improved the recommendation engine. The team also introduced Bumper ads for short YouTube videos.

Until now users saw a similar YouTube home feed design on the Android and iOS app like they did on the desktop. However, after the update the app's feed design focuses on large, high-resolution thumbnails of videos with as little text as possible. The new design also prominently shows profile icons of the creators under their videos.

More options to remove the video from the feed, add it to Watch Later list or playlist, saving the video offline, and share it on other platforms can be accessed from the three dot more icon on the right side of each video listing. In addition, groups for recommended videos have now been completely removed as all the videos now appear in a single ranked list. We are not sure how well the interface changes will go down with users. Opinion on the revamp is divided at Gadgets 360, with some liking it, and some hating it.

Read: YouTube for Android and iOS Revamped, Gets Better Recommendations | NDTV Gadgets360.com

 

[Nairrk]

Facebook introduces Messenger Lite for Android

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Just like Facebook Lite, Facebook Inc today has launched a lite version of its famous Messenger App for markets where internet connection is not fast enough or people doesn't have proper access to fast internet connections.

As of now, Messenger Lite will be available in Tunisia, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Venezuela but Facebook is expected to soon expand the service to other parts of the world as well. Messenger Lite basically use less data and load content much faster on slow internet connections.

More:

 

[Nairrk]

Just for Teenagers Facebook app hits Android

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After launching for iPhone users a couple of months back, Facebook's teenager-only "Lifestage" app has come to Android.

Aimed at the high-school goers, the app is a sort of video diary where you answer biographical questions about yourself and share a visual profile of who you are with your school network.

"The app is a clear counter-punch to Snapchat, emphasising quick video clips, filters and emoji," Engadget.com reported on Thursday.

To fill out the profile, you need to answer questions with short videos -- your favorite song, your best friend, that sort of thing.

They are visible to your peers and should be updated regularly, otherwise a poop emoji will appear next to your name, the report said.

Technically, Lifestage only works for those who are 21 and younger and allows users to discover video profiles created by others in the school to learn more about them.

Source:

 

[Nairrk]

Android O Developer Preview: Here’s everything you need to know

Last year, Google surprised everyone by dropping the Android N Developer Preview earlier than usual. Google also eased the way of installing the preview updates via OTA (over-the-air updates). Now, after months of rumors and anticipation, Google has once again surprised by dropping the developer preview version of its upcoming mobile OS – Android O.

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Read:

 

[Jeremy]

APP - GrammarPal - Find out any of your grammatical errors be it spelling style etc.

https://youtu.be/x7nPwT7yYXo
GrammarPal checks your texts for grammatical errors. Unlike the spell checker that's built into your phone, this app aims to also find all other kinds of grammatical errors. Be it spelling, style or any other form of error, GrammarPal helps you find and fix them.

Play Store link - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kizitonwose.grammarchecker&hl=en

 

[vijay79]

Android tv anti virus

Hello everybody. I am having an android tv but i m confused. My doubt is whether android tv needs antivirus or not ?

 

[carcommentor]

Re: Android tv anti virus

Hello everybody. I am having an android tv but i m confused. My doubt is whether android tv needs antivirus or not ?

It is always good to have antivirus. However, if your TV doesn’t have camera and microphone, and you avoid financial transaction via TV browser /TV app, you needn’t worry much. Ensure that the default router login (admin/admin or admin/password) is changed to avoid your TV becoming part of botnet.