Facebook Reels launches worldwide for iOS and Android alongside new features

Similar to Instagram Reels, Facebook is launching its own take on the feature first influenced by TikTok, outside of the USA from today (February 22), rolling out to 150 countries, including the UK.

In a blogpost, Facebook is also announcing features to help creators earn money from the reels that they create, alongside reels that can last for up to 60 seconds, and more features to come.

Facebook Reels launched in the USA back in September 2021, with users being able to access short videos from friends and pages, all in one section.

But the elephant in the room is to wonder where Instagram fits in this, and whether Facebook Reels has a place alongside TikTok, Snapchat and others.

New features also arrive

Alongside the ability to create 60-second reels, you can also create remixes of existing reels that others have created. This works similar to duets on TikTok, where you can use an existing video to showcase your reactions or respond to the original video.

If you're midway through making a new Reel and you need to pause, a new 'save to draft' option can help you pick off where you left off later in the day.

There's also going to be ways to share your Reels through Stories, alongside a dedicated Reels label at the top of the Facebook app to make it easier for users to find other videos.

Finally, ways to monetize Reels are slowly arriving, such as an upcoming feature called Stars, which is a way to 'tip' creators while a live Reel is ongoing.

Facebook Reels in action on iOS

(Image credit: Meta)

Reels looks to mimic what's made TikTok so successful so far. Instagram Reels has seemingly done well for Meta, but Instagram Stories is still its shining jewel.

Time will tell whether having two types of Reels from Meta will be worth having, but for now, better features with a worldwide rollout could help Facebook pivot to video in a better way, compared to its previous efforts of Facebook Live and Facebook Video feeds.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More

This Google update will help you free up much-needed space on your Android phone

One of Google's most unsung apps is getting a useful upgrade that could help you clear out unwanted items from your Android phone.

As the name suggests, the Files by Google app governs all the files, apps and other items on your Android device, but can often provide a somewhat cluttered and even confusing experience.

However, an update to the app is adding a number of new search chip filters to help you quickly and easily find items that can be deleted to free up cloud storage space.

Files by Google update

Search chips essentially look to display possible results as a user is typing in the search bar, offering autofill suggestions and other possibilities for what it thinks they could be looking for.

Now, users will see new filters when accessing the “Browse” menu in Files by Google. For example, selecting Apps within this menu will now offer the chance to filter out into certain groups – currently “large apps”, “unused apps” and “Games” – with each list also displaying extra information such as the size of the app and when it was last updated.

The app allows multiple filters to be active at the same time, so you could, for example, quickly spot which games you've installed but have never actually played.

The tool appears to be active now, so users should look to update their Files by Google app as soon as possible to benefit.

The company has also recently introduced chip search filters to a number of its Google Workspace software tools, including Gmail and Google Drive, giving users a faster way to find the exact file they are hunting for.

Going forward, instead of just using keywords such as “marketing plan” or “sales report,” which may return results that are too broad, users can use search chips to surface more relevant results.

The results can be file types, such as a Google Doc, PDF or image, but also related to a specific person, location (such as in a shared drive or folder) or when a file was last modified.

Via AndroidPolice

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More

Your WhatsApp voice calls are getting a needed overhaul for iOS and Android

WhatsApp is testing a new look for being in a call, both on iOS and Android, which shows who's speaking in a group call with waveforms, alongside a more modern design.

The company has been working on improvements across the app for the last year, with multi-device support, a desktop app for Windows 11, and more to better rival other messaging apps.

But calling in WhatsApp has been relegated to the standard user interface of what iOS and Android offer to third-party apps with call features.

However, version 22.5.0.70, currently available to beta testers, the new look for calling in the app is going to benefit group calls more than those that are one-to-one.


Analysis: Making your voice calls look much better

WhatsApp audio wave form call

(Image credit: WABetaInfo)

For years, the interface when you're in a call on iOS and Android has barely seen any improvement since their first versions. While iOS 14 brought a compact view for when you would be in a call, the full-screen view has been relatively unchanged.

More users are preferring to choose to call over other apps, from WhatsApp to Skype, especially with group calls, which is why an update to the interface for WhatsApp is welcome.

Here, you've got an elegant design that shows who's speaking thanks to the audio waveforms for when someone speaks, alongside three options that's available to you at all times if you want to go on mute, end the call, or go on loudspeaker.

It's a modern design that only goes to show how much of an update the call screen in iOS and Android needs, especially for group calls.

Via WABetaInfo

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More

Android app support in Windows 11 comes with a few nasty surprises

One of the most exciting new features coming to Windows 11 is its ability to run Android apps, but Microsoft has revealed a few requirements that may dampen people’s enthusiasm.

According to Microsoft’s new FAQ for the feature, if you want Android apps to run on your PC, you’ll need to meet certain requirements to do so.

So, you’ll need to have a device that runs Windows 11 version 21H2, or later, which is the version that introduces the new feature.

You’ll also need a solid state drive (SSD) and have a modern x64 or ARM64 processor. While these requirements aren’t too bad, and most people running Windows 11 will have them, things then become a little trickier.

Microsoft says you need 8GB of RAM minimum, but16GB is recommended. That 16GB recommendation is quite surprising for a feature we wouldn’t have thought was too demanding (these are apps that are supposed to run on smartphones, after all).

However, the 8GB minimum setting means people running Windows 11 on devices with 4GB of RAM – which is technically possible – won’t be able to use this feature. So low-powered, older, or embedded devices, which may have benefitted the most from getting Android apps, will be left out.

You’ll also need to turn on the Virtual Machine Platform, which is a setting found in Windows 11’s Control Panel.

There’s also one final requirement that may annoy people. As we’ve reported before, Windows 11 uses the Amazon Store for Android apps, rather than Google’s own Play Store.

This means you don’t get the vast collection of apps that you’d find in the Play Store. Nor can you use Play Store credit to buy apps, and any apps or games you’ve bought on your Android devices through the Play Store will need to be re-bought.

You’ll also need an Amazon account as well. While many people probably already have one, due to the popularity of the online store, there will be plenty of people who don’t want an Amazon account for various reasons. Having to sign up for yet another account you don’t want may be too much of an ask.


Analysis: Does this kill the Android app hype in Windows 11?

Are these requirements enough to kill off some people’s excitement for getting Android apps in Windows 11? While the potential of having thousands of apps instantly available in Windows 11, and which can be installed via the Microsoft Store like other Windows 11 apps, remains exciting, we have to admit having our hype has reduced a bit.

The 8GB RAM requirement, for example, means that hopes of making an old, less powerful, Windows 11 device essentially an Android tablet, are less likely now.

Microsoft’s decision to go with the Amazon Appstore also continues to baffle and annoy. Many of us will have a large library of Android apps installed on our devices, and the thought that we’d have to pay for certain apps and games again because we bought them through Google Play instantly puts a damper on things.

If you want to give Android apps a go in Windows 11, you can download the Windows 11 KB5010414 update, which is an optional update that adds an early look at how Android apps will be integrated into the operating system. At the moment, this feature is only available in the US.

Via WindowsLatest

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More

The first Android 13 beta is out now and it’s big on privacy

Right on schedule, the first beta version of Android 13 has now been released by Google, but as usual this first release is a developer preview, so it’s not designed for consumers.

In fact, if you download it and you aren’t a developer then you probably won’t see much that’s new or different, as the initial changes are largely hidden features aimed at developers.

Highlights of this release include a photo picker tool, which allows users to select media files (such as photos) without having to grant the app they’re in access to their entire media library. So that’s aimed at maintaining your privacy and not giving apps more access than they need.

See more

There’s also a new ‘Nearby device permission for Wi-Fi’, which allows apps to discover and connect to nearby devices over Wi-Fi, without also needing access to your location. So again, this is a feature that has privacy in mind.

Another change is the ability for the color of all app icons to match your theme if you’re using a Pixel phone.

Currently, Google’s dynamic theming will change the color of app icons and other interface elements to complement whatever wallpaper you use, but it doesn’t work with third-party apps. With Android 13 it will, though developers will need to provide compatible icons. Google claims this support will eventually come to other phones too.

Three screenshots showing themed icons in Android 13

(Image credit: Google)

There are also other tools very much aimed at developers, like a simplified process for adding custom Quick Settings tiles, while one other user-facing change is a per-app language preference, so you don’t need to have all apps defaulting to the same language, which could be handy if you’re multi-lingual (or trying to be).

That’s about it. If you have a Google Pixel 4 onwards then you can grab this preview, but we’d strongly advise you don’t if you’re not a developer. It won’t be stable, and as you can see, there’s not much here for you. We’d expect more exciting features will appear in public betas.


An image showing the Android 13 roadmap

(Image credit: Google)

Analysis: the Android 13 roadmap

Alongside this beta, Google has handily released a roadmap for its Android 13 plans, so we can see that the first public beta will probably land in April, with the software becoming stable in late June or early July. This might coincide with Google I/O, where the company typically reveals a bunch of big features for its upcoming OS version.

The final release then looks like it might land in September, though October is possible too, as that’s when Android 12 was released.

We wouldn’t really suggest grabbing any of the betas before Google reaches platform stability, but at a minimum you should probably wait for the first public beta in April.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More

Closing tabs in Chrome is getting much better on Android

In a future release of Google's web browser on Android, you'll be able to avoid the mistake of closing all your tabs at once, thanks to an additional message box to confirm if you want to go ahead with it.

Google Chrome is the most widely-used web browser app on Android, mainly due to it being pre-installed on the majority of Android smartphones. But there may be an occasion when you've got multiple tabs open at once.

Some could be related to shopping, birthday ideas, or brainstorms for holidays in the summer for example. You may want to close all of these at once when you're finished.

In Chrome Canary, the test version of Google's web browser, you can enable a flag that will display a message box to confirm if you want to close all your tabs at once. This will help prevent occasions where you accidently close all the browser tabs when you didn't mean to.

How do you enable the message box confirmation?

By going to chrome://flags when running Google Chrome Canary 100 on Android, there will be a 'Close all tabs modal dialog' option.

Switching this on will make the message box appear when you're about to close all your tabs.

This can be useful if you've found yourself having mistakenly closed all your open tabs, and having to go through your history to open the links again.

This may sound like a very obvious feature, but if you mainly use Google Chrome on your phone as you're sharing links on social media and messaging apps, having all your tabs closed can be a huge annoyance.

Sometimes the little things like this can make a big difference, so it's encouraging that Google has this ready to go in its development releases for now.

Via XDA Developer

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More

Windows 11 update will introduce support for Android apps

Microsoft has outlined the next big steps for Windows 11, and that includes Android apps coming to the OS next month, albeit still in testing.

Panos Panay, Chief Product Officer (Windows + Devices) at Microsoft, spilled all the details in a blog post, explaining first and foremost that there would be a public preview of Android apps in February.

If you’ve been following the progress of Windows 11, then you’ll realize that support for native Android apps arrived in testing for Windows Insiders (in the US) back in October 2021. A public preview means it’s come to the release version of Windows 11, but there may be some flakiness evident given that it is still in beta form.

Panay also highlighted various taskbar improvements, including “call mute and unmute, easier window sharing and bringing weather to the taskbar”, although of course we’ve already seen the latter happen in testing (the infamous weather widget returned with a preview build in December).

Finally, Panay mentioned that two core apps which have been redesigned, namely Notepad and Media Player, would both soon be debuting in the finished version of Windows 11.

The Chief Product Officer also revealed that with Windows now on some 1.4 billion devices across the globe, Microsoft has “seen strong demand and preference for Windows 11”, with users accepting the upgrade when offered at double the rate at which Windows 10 accrued new recruits. Although of course shifting from Windows 7 to Windows 10 was a much bigger change – Windows 11 is really quite similar to Windows 10, when you get down to it, so it’s less of a leap for folks to make.

Panay also observed that: “Windows 11 has the highest quality scores and product satisfaction of any version of Windows we’ve ever shipped.”


Analysis: Better late than never

Android apps were one of the big new features touted for Windows 11, but disappointingly didn’t turn up at launch (in fact, when they didn’t appear in later testing phases pre-release, it soon became clear enough that they wouldn’t arrive for kick-off). Better late than never, then, and it’s still exciting to finally get native Android apps on the Windows 11 desktop – even if the applications are limited to those delivered from the Amazon App Store (via the Microsoft Store).

The next step, of course, is not just these Android apps, but games from the Google Play Games store, which will be delivered to Windows 11 and 10 systems in the form of an app that’s due to arrive at some point this year. The idea is to be able to seamlessly switch between your phone and desktop with the progress you’ve made in whatever mobile game you’re playing maintained across platforms – pretty neat, huh?

It’s also good that more core Windows apps are getting the redesign treatment in Windows 11, and we’ve already seen the likes of the new Notepad in testing, complete with a Fluent Design makeover, dark mode compatibility, and more, making this dated application look a lot more at home in the new OS.

We can expect more of these default Windows 11 apps to benefit from an overhaul as the year rolls on, no doubt, although this piecemeal approach adds to the overall feeling of Windows 11 having been released very much as a work in progress.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More