In November 2016, the RCS Universal Profile (Rich Communications Services) was introduced. The technology takes text messaging to the 21st century, emulating many of the features found in IM apps like WhatsApp and iMessage, but working through your phone number like regular SMS or MMS. The only thing is, your carrier needs to support RCS-UP to use the feature. Thankfully, the list is growing.
Apple has packed a lot of new features into the iOS 13 update, and practically no core app has gone untouched. The Messages app, in particular, got plenty of love, including new ways to dress and use your Memojis.
WhatsApp stickers can make your chat more fun. The stickers that come with WhatsApp are fine, but they're standard and accessible to everyone. What if you wanted to show off unique stickers that your friends haven't seen? To take things to the next level, you can create your own WhatsApp Stickers.
In 2018, augmented reality went from the vague promise of interesting things in the near future to tangible developments in software and hardware, proving that immersive computing is indeed the future.
Apple officially released iOS 12 to everyone on Sept. 17, and while the new iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max will come with the software by default, you have a choice on whether or not to update your current iPhone model from iOS 11. There are a lot of tempting features to want to update right away, but there are also some compelling reasons to wait it out and install at a later time.
Using Netcat to backdoor a macOS device has its short-comings. If the compromised Mac goes to sleep, the Netcat background process will occasionally fail to terminate correctly; This leaves Netcat running infinitely in the background and the attacker with no new way into the device. As an alternative, we'll use the lesser-known Tcl shell which can handle abrupt backdoor disconnections.
While iOS 11.3 doesn't have as many new features as iOS 11.2, there's still a lot to love about Apple's latest update for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, even if some of the best features we were expecting didn't make the cut.
One of the most popular things to do on Snapchat is to earn a Snapstreak. This occurs when you and one other friend have sent snaps (not chatted) to each other within 24 hours for at least three consecutive days. One you've passed the three-day mark, then you and your friend will receive a fire emoji next to your names.
Google is on a mission to bring a better messaging experience to Android users. We've seen them try and fail over the years with various messenger apps, but this time, they're taking a different approach by working with industry leaders to create a new messaging standard. The result is RCS Universal Profile, or simply Chat, and it's finally catching on.
The latest update to iOS 10 brought with it a number of great new features. Of these, the one that will likely have the most impact on people's iOS experience in the long term are the new apps and stickers for iMessage.
With portable devices being a necessity in modern everyday life, they may be subject to overuse, improper charging, or normal wear and tear. For those people who carry around their smartphone or iPod with them all of the time, how many times have you been out and about just to have your portable device die on you?
There's an epidemic on the Internet, and the disease—Facebook. It's an addiction comparable to a hot cup of coffee in the morning or a soothing cigarette throughout the day—in worse case scenarios, a hit from the crack pipe. If you're on Facebook, you know what I'm talking about. You're addicted to finding out what's going on with your friends and addicted to telling those friends everything you're doing. You can't stop, even when you're at work.
After a few months and a couple of beta versions, Android 11 is now ready not only for Pixel devices, but also handsets from OnePlus, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Realme.
Although Facebook has some questionable privacy and security practices, you'll find it still offers you ways to protect the information that's important to you. One of those ways is locking Messenger behind biometric authentication protocols such as Face ID and Touch ID, ensuring that no one else can access your private chats.
With Zoom and Google Meet, you can zoom in using your rear camera on a video call to focus on something far away or to get a closeup view. But in Messenger, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Skype, Instagram, and most other video chat apps, zoom functionality is disabled. And it may appear to be blocked in FaceTime too, but that's not the case — the feature is just hiding in plain sight.
Snapchat doesn't prevent you from taking screenshots of snaps received, but the other user will get an alert either as a prominent push notification or a subtle note in the app. Snapchat has improved its screenshot detection abilities over the years, so it's much harder to circumvent its technology for truly undetected screenshots — but not impossible.
Having emerged as one of the leading augmented reality video conferencing apps, Spatial is ready to improve upon the experience.
After stealing the show at the HoloLens 2 launch and starring in Qualcomm's unveiling the Snapdragon XR2, holographic video conferencing app Spatial has landed a leading role in Magic Leap's second act with the enterprise segment.
There's something about alcohol that compels you to contact people. Most of the time, the drunken calls or messages you send out will have you cringing hard tomorrow morning. But if you have a jailbroken iPhone, you can help prevent this potential embarrassment with a free tweak.
Dark mode themes for mobile apps are all the rage these days, but YouTube is taking that a bit literally with its latest augmented reality experience.
The mystery surrounding Overture, an app that showed up in the Magic Leap World app store along with the latest Lumin software release, has been cleared up.
The Association for Computing Machinery's annual Siggraph conference, taking place next week in Los Angeles, will bring researchers from around the to show off their latest innovations in imaging and display technology.
Game streaming has never been better. Not only can you watch your favorite Twitch streamer play, but with the new tools being added to YouTube, you can even play along with them. And now, with a solid internet connection, you can stream your Xbox One games to your phone to enjoy console games on the go.
Message effects in iMessage lets you add a touch of flair to otherwise bland communications. With the feature, you can complement a birthday wish with a stream of balloons, send a congratulatory text along with a shower of confetti, or make the chat bubble slam itself in the thread. If you're on the receiving end, however, they may be distracting and even jarring.
While iOS 13 might have made waves for some of its more prominent features — most notably system-wide Dark Mode — some of the more interesting tools lie with its smaller, unannounced updates. One of those updates is a new Reminders setting to tag contacts in a to-do task so that iOS pings you when texting that person in Messages.
After improving hand-tracking and adding multi-user sharing features in the last Lumin OS update, Magic Leap has upped the ante yet again.
Every model iPhone since the 6s has boasted a 12-megapixel rear camera. You can take some pretty spectacular, professional-looking photos with it, especially on devices that have more than one rear lens. But the file size of each photo can become a problem when sending as an iMessage, which can eat up data.
Visitors to the Unity booth at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco will get a special augmented reality treat courtesy of Magic Leap and Weta Workshop.
Mobile augmented reality company Snapchat now has a special option for romantic message exchanging this Valentine's Day, a day which, incidentally, happens to be the first one in 116 years where Sweethearts, the original heart-shaped candy, will be unavailable for purchase.
The last few months have delivered some great new Magic Leap releases, but that doesn't mean the development team is resting on its laurels when it comes to the platform itself.
We are in the midst of a mini-boom for communications tools designed for augmented reality headsets, with the introduction of Avatar Chat and Mimesys for Magic Leap One and Spatial for the HoloLens within the last few months.
So, you accidentally sent a voice message to someone in an Instagram DM. Maybe it contains an unflattering conversation about the recipient. Maybe it's a record of something embarrassing you said. Whatever your message contains, it's out there, on someone else's smartphone. You might think you're out of luck, and that your life is over. If you act quick, however, it won't be.
In the aftermath of the launch of the Magic Leap One, Magic Leap has ejected two more executives from their leadership roles.
Later this week, Black Friday will mark the start to the holiday shopping season, but if you're buying for a Magic Leap One owner, you can buy their ideal gift now.
While iOS 12 is arguably the best iteration of Apple's mobile operating system yet, one major fault so far is security. On Sept. 26, Videosdebarraquito discovered a passcode bypass that gave access to contacts and photos from the lock screen. Apple has since patched that security flaw, but Videosdebarraquito has discovered a new one that affects all iPhones running iOS 12.1 and 12.1.1 beta.
Last week, Twilio showed off how avatar-based chat communications will work on the Magic Leap One, and now a new startup has unveiled yet another way that augmented reality telepresence and remote collaboration can take place on the device.
While there were a ton of features added in iOS 12, one that Apple had been bragging about since June was nowhere to be seen. Until now. With the iOS 12.1 update, your iPhone gets a huge feature, as well as a few smaller ones to boot.
Public beta testers will be pleased to know that the second iOS 12.1 beta has just become available for iPhones. The Tuesday, Oct. 2 update features an impressive 70+ new emoji for testers to enjoy, including bald emoji, emoji with red hair, gray hair, and curly hair, among many others, as well as a patch for iPhone XS and XS Max devices suffering from charging issues.
While it might be more common to chat with friends on apps like Twitter, Messenger, or WhatsApp, direct messages on Instagram are becoming more and more sophisticated. Case in point, the app is rolling out a new feature to users that shows a "green dot" next to friends who are online. Luckily, you don't have to let your followers know when you're browsing photos if you don't want to.
It's no secret that Android has a messaging problem. iPhone users can turn to iMessage as a one-stop shop for all their messaging needs — features like read receipts and the ability to text from a computer have been standard with Apple products for quite some time. Android has no such solution, but Google's looking to fix that with a huge update to the Android Messages app.
