Viber, the popular messaging platform second only to WhatsApp, today refreshed its iOS application with support for downloadable mobile games while introducing a new Sticker Menu to make finding sticker packs easier.
Viber Games, the headline new feature in Viber 5.2 for iOS and Android, allows users to play select mobile games with Viber characters Violet and Legcat and see how many coins they can earn.
Back this summer, Snapchat introduced Geofilters, a set of custom image filters that only work on photos taken in specific geographic locations. Up until now, only Snapchat devs have been able to create these. Tuesday, the company has opened up Geofilters to the community at large.
Now everyone can create interesting images and share them with friends who will be able to see them when they're in a specific location.
Once shared, your little pieces of art will be also available through the newly set up Community Geofilter website.
After receiving an iOS 8 focused update earlier this month bringing a nice Share menu extension, Interactive Notifications and other improvements, Viber on Tuesday pushed a small update adding the Public Chats feature.
With Public Chats, Viber users can finally follow group conversations for specific topics that they’re into. Once you start following a group chat, you can then like any piece of content in the group chat, including messages, photos, videos, links and more.
Facebook on Thursday issued a small update to its Messenger app for the iPhone and iPad, bringing out additional features to touch up the photos you take within the software using the built-in camera feature.
Now available in the App Store at no cost, Facebook Messenger 16.0 fixed an issue with sending messages while introducing a pair of new controls to adjust the focus and lighting of photos you take in the app.
WhatsApp, the most popular instant-messaging platform with more than 600 million users which Facebook snapped up for $16 billions earlier this year, has started to protect data with end-to-end encryption, The Wall Street Journal reports.
For the time being, text messages exchanged between Android users of WhatsApp are being encrypted by default.
It shouldn't be too long until the company adds encryption to the iOS app and other mobile platforms. Encryption protects users' communications from governments and hackers alike by making the data unreadable as it travels between servers.
In a pretty significant move Microsoft on Friday announced Skype for Web, an upcoming web application that lets the popular instant messaging and VoIP service run directly in a desktop browser, no plug-in needed, making Skype readily available across desktop, mobile and on the web.
Supported browsers include Microsoft's Internet Explorer 10, Google's Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox or Apple's Safari 6.
Unfortunately, Chrome for Windows is the only supported version of Chrome so Mac users on Google's browser (and Chromebook owners) are left out in the cold for the time being. Chatting and video/voice messaging don't require a browser plug-in. “With WebRTC, there won’t be any downloads or installs – you can just get straight to your conversation”, the software giant said.
Facebook's dedicated instant messaging application for iOS, Android and Windows Phone, Facebook Messenger, is now used by more than 500 million people around the world each month, said the social networking giant Monday.
That's a massive number, but still half of what Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said constitutes a platform in the truest sense.
By comparison, WhatsApp, which Facebook acquired in February 2014 for $19 billion, currently has more than 600 million active users. Instagram, another Facebook property, counts more than 200 million users.
As we patiently await an update to make WhatsApp support native display sizes of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the tremendously popular Facebook-owned messaging service on Wednesday enabled a new check mark in the chat UI indicating that the recipient has read your message.
Now when you're chatting with someone, pay attention to read receipts in the form of blue check marks, as discovered by designer, Dutch translator at Twitter and jailbreak developer Timon Olsthoorn (and many others on Twitter).
This is an over-the-air update so those with WhatsApp installed on their iPhone can start using this feature immediately, without the need to update the app manually.
WhatsApp, which has more than 600 million active users, is free in the App Store.
The nation's second-largest carrier, AT&T, said on Friday that it will be increasing monthly data allotments for two of its Mobile Share Value plans.
Beginning Sunday, November 2, Mobile Share Value customers will get three gigabytes of high-speed 4G LTE data for $40 a month instead of two gigabytes.
In addition, customers on a pricer tier will be treated to six gigabytes for $70 a month instead of four gigabytes like before.
Furthermore, all Mobile Share Value plans now get unlimited international messaging for text, picture and video for no additional cost.
After updating Skype for Mac with Yosemite support earlier this morning, Microsoft on Thursday issued a new Skype for iPhone refresh. Now sitting at version 5.7, the app finally makes it easy to save and delete images from chats.
People who roam between devices and platforms will notice that chat avatars now stay in perfect sync when picking up on one device where they left on another.
You should also notice faster performance, especially when opening chats from a notification, and improvements to Skype's contact filters such as All Contacts, Skype and Online.
Skype for iPhone is available free in the App Store.
The social networking giant Facebook on Wednesday pushed a small update to its Messenger client for the iPhone and iPad which lets you preview sticker animations.
Facebook Messenger 12.0 (what's up with version numbers, Facebook?) allows you to press and hold down on a sticker to expand it and view any animations before sending it.
The app is available free in the App Store.
Facebook Messenger has received its iPhone 6 compatibility fix nearly a month ago, unlike their main iOS client which only got refreshed with half-baked support for the new iPhone screen sizes yesterday.
Be that as it may, Facebook today issued a small Messenger update adding the ability to adorn your photos with captions and casual scribbles and sketches.
Messenger 14.0 (what's up with version numbers, Facebook?) is free in the App Store.