iPod Touch

Coming soon to Allo for iOS: animated emoji, revamped GIF picker, and one-tap Google Assistant

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 2, 2017

Allo, Google's cross-platform messaging app for iPhone, Android and the web which made its debut at Google I/O in March 2016, will soon receive three major enhancements. The first integrates Assistant, Google's conversational AI helper, deeper so you can access it with a single tap.

Aside from improved Assistant access, Allo will let you browse GIFs to add to your messages easier than before with a redesigned picker, plus use animated emojis in chats.

Keep in mind that these new features will be rolling out on Android starting today, and will come to iOS soon (don't worry, we'll keep you posted).

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Tip: open video pages in Safari from YouTube app

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 22, 2018

Thanks to iOS's deep linking feature, YouTube URLs automatically open in the mobile app on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Unfortunately, you cannot temporarily disable this feature for those times when you might prefer YouTube links to always open in Safari instead of the mobile app.

But don't you worry—you just have to work around a bit to have the mobile app open a video link in YouTube's mobile interface in the Safari browser.

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All YouTube links now open in mobile app instead of browser

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 28, 2017

Google's mobile YouTube app takes advantage of iOS's deep linking capability to automatically launch itself when a user taps a video URL in their browser. That useful feature doesn't always work as intended, however, prompting Google to push an update to YouTube for iPhone and iPad to rectify this. If clicking a YouTube link in Safari or Chrome doesn't launch the app and iOS doesn't display the “Open this page in YouTube?” pop-up, be sure to update your copy of YouTube for iOS to version 12.07.

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Apple seeds fourth betas of iOS 10.3, macOS Sierra 10.12.4 and watchOS 3.2 to developers

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 28, 2025

Apple today seeded fourth betas of iOS 10.3, macOS Sierra 10.12.4 and watchOS 3.2 to members of the Apple Developer Program. iOS 10.3 beta 4 (build number 14E5260b), macOS Sierra 10.12.4 beta 4 (build number 16E175b) and watchOS 3.2 are now all available as over-the-air downloads through the Software Update mechanism on devices with an appropriate configuration profile. We'll update the article if we find new features or important under-the-hood changes in the new betas.

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Google Maps gains 3D Touch place previews

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 27, 2017

Last week, I whined about Google dragging its feet when it comes to implementing support for important iOS features, like 3D Touch, in apps such as Gmail. Other iPhone and iPad apps from Google have been more aggressive in adopting 3D Touch features, including Maps. In the latest update, Google Maps was bumped to version 4.28 and now allows users who have an iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus to press places on the map to get quicker access to popular actions.

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EnableCCMute enables the hidden mute toggle in Control Center

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 24, 2017

It seems like Apple is hiding some pretty useful functionality from us in the iOS 10 Control Center that might remain hidden until a future release of iOS, such as a toggle for recording your screen and a toggle for Low Power Mode, but from the looks of things, it doesn’t end there.

If you have an iPad, then you're probably familiar with the Mute toggle that appears in Control Center, which it's not present on other iOS devices despite still existing in the system. A new free jailbreak tweak called EnableCCMute by iKilledAppl3 enables this hidden toggle on all jailbroken iOS 10 devices.

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Gboard gains voice typing, Google Doodles, new languages & iOS 10 emoji in latest update

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 23, 2017

Gboard, Google's iPhone keyboard that comes with Google Search, glide typing, GIFs, emojis and other advanced features built in, received a notable refresh on App Store. Bumped to version 1.3, Gboard includes support for fifteen new languages and brings a useful dictation feature that Google is calling Voice Typing. Additionally, you can now see a day’s Google Doodle right from the keyboard and enjoy Apple's latest iOS 10 emoji.

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Vidicast lets you broadcast live videos to your friends in iMessage

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated October 17, 2018

Sometimes you cannot help but feel the iMessage App Store still owes us a couple of unique entrants to wholly justify its establishment last year. Games and stickers aside, the depth and breadth of the store leaves a lot to be desired and must-have iMessage extensions are few and far between. With that, it is always refreshing to welcome a new aspirant to the ranks that sets out to shake things up a little by bringing genuinely new functionalities to your keyboard. Vidicast, a video broadcasting app operating autonomously inside iMessage, does just that.

The iMessage application is best synthesised as a cross of any video broadcasting feature on the most popular social networks today (Instagram, Facebook, etc) and FaceTime. When hooked up, it provides the recipient of the iMessage invitation with a one-way live video stream, which then can be responded to in real time. The ambition of Vidicast is bold, bold enough in fact that one should be willing to give it some rope in regard to early days hiccups. Before you whizz to your iMessage App Store, here’s what you need to know about Vidicast’s attempt to break the mould of iMessage app extensions.

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17 months later, Gmail gains a single 3D Touch shortcut

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 22, 2017

Google today refreshed its mobile Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch on App Store, adding very limited 3D Touch support nearly a year and a half after Apple first brought pressure sensing to iPhone's display with the September 2015 release of iPhone 6s.

Owners of the iPhone 6s/7 series can now press Gmail's icon to quickly compose a message, but that's about it. Thank you, Google, but seriously?

In my view, Google doesn't really have a clue how to properly build 3D Touch gestures into Gmail in a manner that would save users time and boost their productivity.

The app still lacks Peek and Pop gestures., but we'll get those next year, right?

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You can now share multiple photos and videos in one Instagram post

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 22, 2017

Photo-sharing service Instagram announced today that users are now able to share up to ten photos and videos in a single post and swipe through to see them all. Such multi-item posts are presented inline in your feed in a carousel format that displays only the first item of the post.

The first photo or video shows a new icon, denoting there’s more to see. Simply swipe to reveal additional media.

You can adjust the order in which your photos and videos appear, edit them one by one or apply a filter to everything at once. Instagram 10.9 for iOS is required for this functionality.

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iOS 10 now powers 79% of active devices, Android Nougat’s adoption barely 1%

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 22, 2017

iOS 10 now powers nearly eight out of ten active devices—less than six months since officially releasing to the public in September of last year, as measured by App Store on February 20, 2017.

To be precise—iOS 10 now powers 79 percent of active iPhone, iPad and iPod touch device out there, representing a three-point increase over iOS 10's adoption rate of 76 percent recorded 48 days ago on January 5, 2017.

Contrast the rapid pace of iOS adoption to Google, whose latest and greatest version of Android is currently found on less than one percent of active devices. Over and over again, Google's lack of control over hardware and other factors are hurting its ability to deploy the latest Android features to its customers.

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