Apps

Twitter introduces searchable #Stickers for your tweet images

Twitter on Monday announced a new feature that will start rolling out soon, searchable #Stickers to adorn your tweet images with. With this feature, users can put multiple stickers on a photo, resize and rotate them and place them anywhere on the image before it's tweeted out.

These rotating sticker sets are categorized and include hundreds of accessories, emoji and props to make your photos more interesting and fun.

“Use them to share what you’re doing or how you’re feeling, to show support for a cause, or to just add some flair,” said Twitter.

Bvddy, Radar, WalletHub and other apps to check out this weekend

In this week's installment of our Apps of the Week roundup, we've put together a list of unique apps and great games for you to check out over the weekend. Looking for a gym partner or tennis buddy? Bvddy can help. Going on vacation soon? Grab Radar for tips on the best places to visit. Keep reading for the full rundown.

YouTube adding ability to live stream video to its mobile app

On Thursday, during its VidCon keynote address, YouTube announced that it's updating its mobile app with a brand new live streaming option. This will allow users to easily broadcast and watch live video from within the app with little friction.

The feature will initially be limited to top influencers like The Young Turks, AIB and Alex Wasabi, but it will roll out more widely soon. Once it's enabled, all you have to do is tap the big red capture button, select a thumbnail photo, and start rolling.

Apple’s free app of the week: Give it Up! 2

Apple on Thursday updated its App of the Week promotion with Give It Up! 2. This means that for the next 7 days, you’ll be able to download the popular rhythm-based platformer for free for both iPhone and iPad, saving yourself a buck.

As the title suggests, this is the sequel to the hit game Give It Up, which garnered more than 10m downloads worldwide. In this installment, you're tasked with helping Bob and his friends navigate a surreal grayscale world full of deadly spikes.

Instagram is working on a text translation feature

Yesterday, Instagram took to its own photo-sharing service to announce that it's working on a text translation for its mobile app. The new feature will begin rolling out in the coming month.

A Translation button will appear on feed stories and profile bios if they're written in languages different from your own. Captions and comments on posts in your feed and the bio on your profile will be translated automatically based on the language they're written in and the language settings of the person viewing it.

WhatsApp is about to get a whole lot better

Facebook-owned WhatsApp has some notable improvements in the pipeline, including support for large emoji characters, all-new public groups, the ability to share locally stored tracks and Apple Music songs with friends and family, deeper Facebook integration, profile codes, stickers and multi-account support, to name a few.

But we're just getting started.

Dropbox gains document scanner, secure file sharing and other productivity improvements

Dropbox today announced a major update to its mobile and desktop clients across platforms, including the ability to scan documents in the mobile app, create Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel files on the go, share files securely with others using access privileges and much more.

On the downside, Dropbox's existing Camera Sync feature has been removed from the mobile app so you now must manage photos using the desktop client. Dropbox for iOS is available at no charge via the App Store. The Mac client must be downloaded directly from the Dropbox website.

Quick review: traveling smart with Radar, Yahoo’s new iPhone app for planning trips

Yahoo today released a brand new mobile application for planning trips, Radar for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The app is available at no charge in the App Store and includes a smart chat bot that you can interact with. Using data from a number of popular third-party services, like Yelp and TripAdvisor, Radar delivers personalized recommendations of sights to see, activities and restaurants in an attractively designed mobile user interface.

After using it briefly, I can safely say that Radar is one of the best mobile apps Yahoo has published in a while.

Vine starts an experiment with longer video, too

Twitter today said its users will soon be able to tweet out 140-second videos, a major increase in video duration compared to the current 30-second limit. The company also announced that its shortform video-sharing app, Vine, will start an experiment with longer video as well.

Twitter now accepts 140-second video uploads, rolls out new full-screen viewing experience

Micro-blogging startup Twitter on Tuesday announced a major expansion of native video length, with users able to upload videos to the service which can now be up to 140 seconds long, or two minutes and twenty seconds. Before today, Twitter video uploads were capped at thirty seconds. This change is scheduled to go into effect soon and will require an updated mobile app.