Yesterday Facebook announced that it was revamping its Messenger app, stripping it of SMS functionality and creating a more attractive, streamlined experience that the company hopes will draw more users to the app. The new version is currently rolling out to a limited number of users, with a wider release planned for the coming weeks. So when it arrives, what should you expect?

What's New?

To get started you're going to hand over the keys to everything, including your car, before using the app. The list of permissions requested is long enough to print out onto a belt and wrap around your waist twice. I noticed that some of the features seem to be holdouts from the previous release: Facebook said they're removing SMS support, but the app currently still wants the ability to read and send text messages. Though, there is a chance this could have something to do with two-factor authentication. You can see the full list for yourself below, just keep in mind that these permissions could change before the wide release.

  

The introductory splash screens also leave the impression that Messenger maintains support for SMS. It prompts for your phone number, but this is there just so you can use it to verify your account if you lose your password. A separate screen invites you to text friends, but it really wants you to invite all of your contacts into Facebook and use the service as your new way to send texts between phones. This version allows people to message contacts that they aren't Facebook friends with, scanning their list of phone numbers for those with Facebook accounts associated with them and letting users communicate without having to send out a request.

  

The new interface looks more iOS 7 than holo, but it's smooth and zippy. It still feels like an Android app, even if it doesn't look all that much like a Facebook one anymore. This new version of Messenger reminds me of third-party Facebook clients I've tried in the past. It doesn't match the general app, nor does it blend in with Facebook Home, but it's pretty, it's fast, and hopefully the company's other products follow suit. Though Facebook should tread carefully if it doesn't want its apps to end up looking too much like Skype.

 

Sending messages is quick, and while the new look is far airier, it still manages to feel familiar. The location tracking toggle is still present, and massive smileys are tucked away where you remeber, just waiting to scar unexpecting Facebook friends.

  

Messenger now has a tab that makes it obvious who is currently active on Facebook and shows whether they're using a web browser or a mobile device. A blue badge also shows who has the Messenger app installed. I would call this page one of the more delightful additions to the app.

Update: The new version also has a tablet UI that slightly differs from what you see above, a first for Facebook Messenger.

Download

Before downloading the new version from either of the two mirrors provide below, there are a few things you must do. First, you need to uninstall the previous app. Then you have to go to the Play Store and disable auto-update. For whatever reason, Messenger internally carries a lower version number than the app currently offered on Google Play, so your phone will want to "update" back to the previous release.

There you go. Have at it.

Mirror #1

Mirror #2

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Earlier today at a livestreamed event in San Francisco, Google's SVP of Engineering Vic Gundotra announced a slew of new features slated for Google+ and Hangouts.

While we're still waiting for the Hangouts update that will enable SMS support, animated GIFs, and location sharing to hit the Play Store, which should happen in a few days, the Google+ update 4.2 is already live.

What's New?

G+ Photos is now Photos

After playing around with this version for a bit, I'm glad to report that the annoying and superfluous G+ Photos shortcut is now gone.

Update: Doh, G+ Photos is now just Photos, so you still have two shortcuts. Admittedly, this makes some sense and isn't as obnoxious-looking as G+ Photos (thanks, Russel Taylor!).

  

Left: Google+ 4.1; middle, right: Google+ 4.2

New icon and menus

The cool new Photos icon we saw in the presentation is now official, and selecting the Photos menu item actually changes the slide-out menu altogether and exposes new filters, such as Auto Awesome, Videos, and Trash.

  

Left: Google+ 4.1; middle, right: Google+ 4.2

Folder-based local photo browsing

Folder-based browsing has been added to local photos (thanks, Joe!):

Auto Awesome Movie Maker

But probably the most important addition to Google+ 4.2 is the Auto Awesome Movie Maker, which can mash up photos, videos, and music into movies even Hollywood directors would be jealous of (OK, not really, but it's probably going to do a much better job than 95% of us could on our own).

As per Google, support seems to be limited to certain Android 4.3+ devices. We've confirmed one such device is the Nexus 4, which was used for all the screenshots.

  

New swipe animation

Swiping between photos in Google+ now uses the same animation as swiping through the app drawer instead of simple sliding (thanks, Faruk Ahmet!):

 

New photo sharing UI

Photos have a new slick slide-up sharing UI (thanks, Faruk Ahmet, for the spot!). Unfortunately, this doesn't apply to regular posts - you still have to go to the menu, copy the link, and share it manually. Oddly, if you tap on an image in a post first, then the new share UI is available. Can we have fix these inconsistencies please, Google?

 

Copy text option in posts

Posts now have a Copy text option. It grabs the text comment part for easy pasting.

Copy text, Reply to, and Report options in comments

Comments also have the new Copy text option, in addition to Reply to comment. Flag as inappropriate is now Report Comment and has more options (plus the inconsistency in capitalization made me twitch). But yay for Reply to comment!

  

New post UI for images and number of views

The elements in shared images within G+ posts have been moved around and now expose the poster's name as well as the number of views. Finally, you can share using the new share UI. Once again, unfortunately this UI is not implemented if you tried to share the post itself. Very inconsistent and odd stuff.

  

Left: Google+ 4.1; middle, right: Google+ 4.2

Updated Notifications pane UI

The notifications pane UI has been updated to the light theme, and now looks cleaner overall. TheDismiss all button has been slightly tweaked, and now tapping it pushes down the previously seen notifications by default. Last but not least, Mr Jingles is now animated (thanks, Denham!).

 

Miscellaneous

• Google+ now shows up as an option when you want to set an image as a wallpaper. Yeah, it's definitely gunning for the Gallery app and will likely replace it fully in the future.
• I haven't been able to confirm yet, but I'm guessing the new Auto Awesome Action and Erase features are also live - time will show if these start turning up in my gallery.
• On the search front, Google said it now recognizes over a thousand new objects, from "sunsets to snowmen."
• The notification slide-out can no longer be dismissed by tapping outside the box - that's super annoying and something Google should fix ASAP (thanks, Faruk Ahmet!).
• The YouTube tab that used to be present in user profiles is now missing. Odd.
• Check out the new User Locations widget.

All in all, this is a pretty innovative update, which rejuvenates my excitement for the future of Google+. Google has shown time and time again that it's not treating G+ as yet another social network. Rather, the company is constantly pushing the limits with design and capabilities, especially on the mobile front, and it's exactly the kind of outside-the-box thinking we need in the space.

Download

The APK is signed by Google and upgrades your existing app. The cryptographic signature guarantees that the file is safe to install and was not tampered with in any way. Rather than wait for Google to push this download to your devices, which can take days, download and install it just like any other APK.

File name: com.google.android.apps.plus-4.2.0.55778941.apk (Android 3.0+).

Version: 4.2.0.55778941.

MD5: 7874800094d6199704782b6ef669e28d.

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Android is now the undisputed champion of mobile marketshare, but certain companies are still releasing exclusive iOS apps, like the JARVIS-themed Iron Man 3 companion. It's a bummer, but iOS users can't make sweet custom boot animations like the one that Redditor hypd09 posted to /r/Android yesterday. It won't turn your phone into a suit of weaponized armor, but it will look pretty sweet with your elaborate Halloween costume.

  

The boot animation is shamelessly ripped from the iOS app's YouTube trailer. There's also a SHIELD-themed boot animation on the Reddit page, if you're a fan of Agent Coulson and/or mediocre ABC television shows. Sadly Paul Bettany's dulcet artificial intelligence tones are not embedded, but if your phone supports embedded audio in the boot animation, you can use the separate MP3 file. Of course you'll need to be rooted to get any of this to work with your phone - here's a handy guidefor Nexus devices, CyanogenMod, and other AOSP ROMs. It includes instructions for adjusting the resolution and embedding audio.

There's no indication that Marvel will bring the JARVIS app to Android, and since Iron Man 3 has been available on home video for more than a month, they may never do so. At least we've got user-made goodies like this to tide us over.

JARVIS boot animation (ZIP file) via Reddit Android

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Background audio

So, without further ado, I'm glad to report that background audio should be finally coming to a YouTube app near you, if all goes well during testing. This feature will let you start a video, exit the app, and switch to something else without the audio stream dying, which is incredibly useful when listening to podcasts or music videos, or just quickly checking an incoming text. Moreover, it should work with the screen off.

Based on my observations of users' comments with every app update, background audio is now one of, if not the most, requested Youtube for Android feature.

While the setting, UI, and the background service for background audio are currently hidden, we managed to reveal the setting long enough to pose for a screenshot and are currently working on a possible Xposed module to enable it on rooted devices. No promises, as this may be a tough task, though if you can help make it happen, you'd instantly become a hero in the eyes of many.

What’s new?

While 5.2.27 does have a whole bunch of changes under-the-hood which are mostly related to the upcoming offline download support, there are, surprisingly, no UI tweaks and new features that you can dive into right now.

Usually, when we see an app go from X.1 to X.2, there is at least something new to play with, but after looking at every screen I could think of, I saw nothing. Outside of the existing and pretty much broken preloading of videos in subscriptions and the Watch later list, offline support that is supposed to let us cache videos for up to 48 hours without a working Internet connection is currently still MIA. Perhaps Google will be able to flip the switch server-side and turn it on in November, or maybe there will be a follow-up update later. 5.2.27 feels like a ticking time bomb, which is strangely exciting.

However, I do have some good great awesome news. We're still combing through all the source files, but I can promise you right now that the APK teardown is coming, and a lot of you will be ecstatic after seeing it. In the meantime, grab the APK and start hunting for more changes.

Download

The APK is signed by Google and upgrades your existing app. The cryptographic signature guarantees that the file is safe to install and was not tampered with in any way. Rather than wait for Google to push this download to your devices, which can take days, download and install it just like any other APK.

File name: com.google.android.youtube-5.2.27.apk.

Version: 5.2.27

MD5: 212e281cf59916852c92e6d3ec3f090d.

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Recently, an unreleased version of Google's Play Store 4.4 update and discovered that Newsstand, an upcoming Play service we first learned about back in March, had made some progress.

When we first saw Newsstand, it was in the midst of Javascript and CSS in the web Play Store. At the time, it looked like Newsstand would be an addition to the existing apps, books, tv/movies, music, and magazines categories, adopting its own yellow brand color (#FFD700 to be exact).

Of course today we got a new Play Store APK (which you can download here) that had a bit more to say about Google's impending news service. Perhaps the most notable bit of Newsstand news is the menagerie of iconography found in the APK:

Download The Latest Version Of Playstore Here Or Here

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BlackBerry has announced that it will finally start rolling-out BBM for Android in Google Play later today. The BlackBerry Messenger should become visible in the store in the next few hours. 

“The demand for BBM on Android and BBM on iPhone continues to be amazing. About six million people signed up for information about BBM at BBM.com,” the company noted in a blog post. BlackBerry has also revealed that in order to better control the incoming hoard of new BBM users, it is not opening BBM for use at once for all. While all Android users will be able to download BBM right away, they will need to enter their email address to get in the queue to use BlackBerry Messenger and once their turn arrives, BlackBerry will inform them. This way, the company will be able to keep out millions of Android users flooding its servers at once and ruin its second roll-out plans. There is some good news for the Android users, who signed up on BBM.com. 

They get automatic beat the queue passes and will have immediate access to BBM. There is some more news for Samsung Android customers in Sub-Sahara Africa, who will be able to download BBM today from the Samsung Apps store. Other Android users in the region will however have to wait for next three days to see the app in Google Play.

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Getting interrupted because of an incoming text message is never fun. And replying to that text usually means switching to your messaging app and then switching back to what you were doing previously. While the sender may think that his or her lolspk is more valuable than your Angry Birds time, you may not always be inclined to agree.

Thankfully Paranoid Android had something to say about that with the revolutionary Halo, which they promptly open sourced. Despite its many merits, however, not everyone is running Paranoid Android. Luckily, we recently featured an Xposed module thatbrings some of the Halo experience to any device running Recognized Developer rovo89‘s Xposed Framework (thread).

But this is Android, and we like having options. After all, having options is what Android is all about. As such, XDA Forum Member manuja95 brings us a simple messaging app that lets you read and respond to your incoming SMS messages without having to exit your currently running app. Incoming messages come in as a floating and unobtrusive popup, and you can reply within the popup without leaving your current app.

Floating texts has a few nice features you’d not ordinarily expect. For starters, you can swipe through a list of your received text messages. You can also customize the message popup’s color and duration. Messages also update in real-time.

If you’re looking for a new way of viewing and replying to messages on the fly, head over to the application thread and give Floating Texts a shot.

Features:

- Display text messages on top of all apps
- Reply to texts instantly
- Swipe through multiple text messages
- Real-time updating texts
- Display text message after unlocking
- Turn on/off SMS popup
- Customize the popup duration
- Customize the popup color
- More!

Download It From Playstore

 

APK Download Link If Playstore Not Available In Your Country

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The Xposed framework has opened up some interesting mods. Most of them do only a few things. Some of them do a lot more. GravityBox does a lot more than that. This module from XDA Developers member C3C076 (keep 'em comin, guys) seems to incorporate all the little tweaks that people generally flash a custom ROM for, but it's built for stock Nexus devices and "clean" AOSP ROMs.

Here are a few of the highlights for GravityBox: PIE controls that replace the on-screen navigation buttons. CyanogenMod-style expanded desktop (hide navigation controls). Extra control buttons in the Jelly Bean Quick Settings menu. Right-side, single-finger pull down for the Quick Settings menu. Status bar tweaks including color options, center clock, brightness control, and even the ability to hide the cellular bars when you've got no SIM card. Reboot and recovery options on the power menu. You can even adjust the backlighting on your buttons, if your device has them. "Kitchen sink" doesn't even begun to cover it.

Unfortunately, GravityBox is somewhat limited compared to other modules in terms of device support. Xposed requires root, of course, but GravityBox only works on Nexus and Google Play Edition devices (Android 4.1 or above) or ROMs that are extremely close to "clean" AOSP. Even the minimal changes in popular ROMs like CyanogenMod or AOKP will break functionality. But of course, those ROMs include a lot of these features anyway. Add in the fact that the Xposed framework itself has a nasty habit of unforeseen consequences, and it might be a good idea to back up your data before giving this a try.

At the moment, GravityBox is only available on XDA. Here's the Xposed Framework if you don't have it already.

Source: XDA Developers

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