App Store Apps

Snapchat stickers can now move in tandem with objects and people in your videos

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 13, 2016

Snapchat today announced a very cool object-tracking feature that works with live video, in real time.

Now available in Snapchat for Android and coming soon to the company's iPhone application, users can optionally attach a sticker to an object or a person in the frame and Snapchat's algorithm will handle the rest and do all the heavy lifting for you, Engadget reports.

You could add colorful scribbles to your photos and videos before but these were static. By pairing stickers with specific parts of your recording, the Snapchat algorithm can make them move, rotate and change their size to follow the object it's attached to as it moves around the frame.

You can now attach Microsoft Office documents to your WhatsApp chats

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 13, 2016

After enabling complete end-to-end encryption for chats and adding support for sending and receiving PDFs and basic text styling, WhatsApp for iPhone in its most recent update brings the ability to attach Microsoft Office documents to your instant exchanges with friends on the service.

Although not mentioned in the official release notes accompanying the 59.1-megabyte app, the change was spotted this morning by the Italian blog iSpazio. This is a useful new feature for users that removes the need to convert Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents to the PDF format before attaching them to their WhatsApp conversations.

Google Calendar can intelligently find time on your schedule to work on your personal goals

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 13, 2016

Yesterday, Google announced a cool new feature to mark the tenth anniversary of its online calendar service: Google Calendar will now scan your calendar intelligently to find the time on your schedule to work on your personal goals.

According to Google, the updated Google Calendar app lets you add a personal goal to your calendar.

These can be things like “run three times a week” or “hit the gym every day except weekend”. After parsing your natural language input, it'll schedule time automatically for you and help you actually stick to it.

Chat bots go live in Facebook Messenger, Facebook opens up Live Video APIs

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 12, 2016

Facebook was supposed to announce the addition of customer service chat bots and Live Chat APIs soon, but it seems that the latest app update already includes the plumbing work necessary to support chat bots. As first noted by Engadget, the app now shows a Bots and Businesses section and already third-party chat bots appear in search.

Trigraphy photography app picks up new effects, gains albums and document support

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 12, 2016

Trigraphy by Nixes, a beautiful app for turning your photographs into low-poly artwork, was refreshed in the App Store earlier this week with a few new tricks. Bumped to version 2.1.2, the software gained two new effects alongside an effects bundle and other perks.

For starters, it's now possible to open images in Trigraphy from other apps because the app has gained its own Document Provider extension.

The built-in gallery now supports albums and users can change how images are saved and how 4K assets are handled, which should fix problems related to 4K download.

Airmail gains iPad and Touch ID support, adds tons of new features in latest update

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 12, 2016

Airmail, the popular Mac email client, has made the leap to the iPhone back in February.

As of today, this powerful email application is available with a native interface on iPads, with full support for iOS 9's Split View multitasking mode, wireless keyboards with fully customizable shortcuts, Touch ID, the ability to draw sketches within the app and much more.

“Never before has e-mail been so powerful and productive across your Apple devices,” developers told me via email. “Use the extended screen real estate to compose and communicate like never before.”

The refreshed iPhone and iPad app is available now in the App Store at no charge for existing users.

BBC releases iPlayer Kids app

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 12, 2016

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on Tuesday announced a kids-friendly version of its iPlayer video-streaming app, called iPlayer Kids. Available in the UK App Store at no charge, the ad and In-App Purchases free software offers kids a safe environment to watch all of BBC Children’s world-class content in one place.

These include over 10,000 episodes being made available this year alone, including both new and old CBeebies and CBBC favorites such as “Wolfblood”, “Blue Peter”, “The Dumping Ground”, “Topsy & Tim” and “Go Jetters”.

Facebook Messenger gains Dropbox integration

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated July 12, 2017

As Facebook continues advancing its mobile Messenger app, the company just announced in a blog post that users can now take advantage of a brand new integration to share their Dropbox files from within the mobile Messenger app.

The new feature is accessible through the More button in Messenger chats, where Dropbox is now listed as an available source. Simply tap the new icon to open the Dropbox app on your device and select cloud files that you'd like to share in a chat.

Google optimizes the layout of Now cards in native search app for iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 11, 2016

Google on Monday pushed a small refresh to its native Search app for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad in the App Store. Bumped to version 14.0, the software features an optimized layout of the Now cards to make better use of the iPad's screen real estate.

“Updated structure for Now cards on iPad, designed to keep your content organized and better surface the info you need most,” reads a line from Google's release notes accompanying the 65.4-megabyte download.

Doodling over live video coming soon to Periscope

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 13, 2016

Periscope is currently testing a brand new feature that allows you to draw with your finger on top of a live video feed, The Next Web reported today. You can pick any color to draw with by tapping on a live video feed or use the new selection interface to draw in three primary colors.

Facebook too is working on ability to draw on video as part of the Facebok Live features so we're not surprised that rival Periscope, which is owned by Twitter, would work on this.

How to combine multiple videos before posting to Instagram

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 1, 2022

To publish two or more videos to a single Instagram post, you can either select them as different slides of the same post or merge the videos together and post them as a single video. This tutorial shows you how to do both.

Upmind, Tweetcat and other apps to check out this weekend

Cody Lee ∙ Updated August 24, 2023

Looking for some new apps and games to try out this weekend? iDB has you covered with our latest Apps of the Week post. This week's list includes some great titles such as the language-learning app Upmind, and Espresso Chat, which offers a new take on group messaging. We also have two new games that you won't want to miss.