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Look out ChatGPT, Discord’s Clyde is coming for your AI chatbot crown
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Clyde, Discord's cartoon mascot, is getting an AI makeover. On Thursday, the popular chat platform unveiled a wide collection of new AI tools and experiments including an OpenAI-powered chatbot update.

You may not use Discord every day, or at all, but it's become a go-to destination for people looking to have group discussions about topics like gaming, pets, anime, coding, and other nerdy pursuits. According to Discord, 150 million people chat on the service each month.

It's also become a key destination for AI content creation where, according to Discord, 30M users have experienced AI apps on the platform each month.

While most people are now familiar with OpenAI's DALL-E 2 AI image generation tool, Discord users have been creating images with Midjourney's generative AI image tools for just as long. The difference in Discord, though, is the community enhancement that revolves around AI content creation. 

As Discord CEO Jason Citron explained it on Tuesday, Discord provides, “AI at your fingertips, together.”

Next week, Discord rolls out the OpenAI-enhanced Clyde as a free public experiment.

Discord Clyde AI

Discord Clyde AI (Image credit: Discord)

Like Bing's new Chatbot, Clyde utilizes ChatGPT's large language model to engage in conversation. You invoke Clyde, opt-in to use him on your server and in your group, and can then start asking Clyde questions much in the same way as you'd converse with ChatGPT.

The difference is that because Clyde operates in Discord's chat environment, it has to be aware of group discussion dynamics. Clyde will not just pipe in and interrupt a group chat but a mention of it will allow Clyde to join in. Clyde operates like a real Discord member and can in its responses include GIFs and emojis (ChatGPT in Bing can use emojis, but not GIFs).

Clyde can look up information to settle a dispute or assist with the group project. As with everything else on Discord, admins can easily disable Clyde.

While we've seen a lot of AI chatbot abuse, Discord's Citron prefaced the announcements by reiterating how they work hard to enable all of this “in a safe and trustworthy environment.”

Other AI experiments

Beyond chat, Discord is actively spreading AI capabilities throughout the platform, with many of them launching as limited experiments next week. 

To help server moderators, Discord is enhancing its AutoMod tool which already uses preset keywords to actively ban content from group chats with AI that takes proactive moderation a step further.

Discord AutoMod AI

Discord AutoMod AI (Image credit: Discord)

If, for example, you posted in your group chat that the group does not allow self-promotion or topics outside the core one, which might be sailboats, AutoMod AI could use that post to ban posts skirting those rules. It can even do it if the post is in a different language.

Discord Conversation Summaries AI

(Image credit: Discord)

Discord chats are often quite active and since no one can spend 24/7 monitoring them, Discord is adding a Conversations Summary Experiment. As the name suggests, it can with a prompt read through previous Discord discussions to surface who was chatting, and the context of all the messages. 

If, for example, someone at the end of a long chat asks you if you're coming to “the event on Saturday,” you can ask the AI to summarize the previous chat activity to figure out what event they were talking about – and if you want to attend.

More AI tools

Discord Avatar Remix AI

Discord Avatar Remix AI (Image credit: Discord)

We also got a sneak peek at a couple of interesting AI tools, one productivity-focused and the other mostly pure whimsy.

There's the Avatar Remix App, which will let you use a prompt to apply a generative image update to a group member's avatar. Discord showed us how it could easily add a birthday hat to one avatar image and a mustache to the other. The effect is realistic and pretty clever. Obviously, there might be some concern about image abuse here, but at least the tool is only usable on people who already opted into your group.

Discord plans to place the open-source code on GitHub so developers can fork, mix, and extend the Remix code.

Discord Conversation Summaries AI

(Image credit: Discord)

There's also a powerful-looking new integrated Whiteboard with AI. It'll be the first shared, real-time whiteboard space inside of Discord. The AI integration lets you use simple sketches and text prompts to generate rich, expressive images. Discord claims it can “solve the blank canvas syndrome” many people have with these AI image-generation tools.

To try out any of these AIs, though, you need to be on Discord. That means setting up an account, joining a server, and finding or setting up your own groups. It's not hard but for the uninitiated, Discord can be overwhelming. However, these cool tools might inspire you to give it a try.

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A load of top Google Workspace programs are about to look a lot different
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Some of the most popular Google Workspace apps are set to look rather different following the rollout of a new design scheme from the company.

Users of the likes of Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides will soon start seeing a refresh as the company's “Material You” design expands to its office software.

As well as cosmetic changes, the upgrade will also bring some new features for users, including a redesigned Google Docs toolbar and a streamlined design interface across the apps.

Google Workspace changes

“In the coming weeks, you’ll notice a new look and feel for Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides on the web,” a Google Workspace blog post announcing the news noted. “Following the release of Google Material Design 3, the refreshed user interface is purposefully designed to streamline core collaboration journeys across our products.”

“These key visual and interactive design changes will help you get your best work done faster by emphasizing the tools within our products used most frequently.”

The move is part of Google's campaign to make sure its office software remains intuitive and attractive to use as the company looks to keep pace with competitors such as Microsoft 365.

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Inspired by Google’s Material Design 3, the company says the refresh provides some of its most popular tools with a more modern look that will deliver a simpler, more streamlined UI that helps users work more efficiently.

Some of the more obvious changes users will spot include the new Google Docs toolbar, which is now a long “pill” shape that is not just thicker, but also stretches across your browser window. There are more precise options to make your text size bigger or smaller by a single point (rather than by 2x or more) and a number of new dropdown menus that group together similar functions into a single location, such as paragraph formatting.

The ubiquitous “share” button is also a softer, more rounded design, and in a lighter blue/green/yellow shade depending on which program you are using, and the button to start a Google Meet call directly from a document has been simplified from a multi-color option to a basic camera image.

Elsewhere, the status information (including last edit and version history) is now gathered in a single clock-face icon in the top-right hand corner, and there is an improved interface for setting rulers and gridlines.

The changes are rolling out now, and will be available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers, and users with personal Google accounts.

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Google Chat is starting to look even more like Slack
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Keeping in touch with your colleagues around the world could soon be a lot easier thanks to a new update to Google Chat.

The online collaboration service is now allowing users to create group chats (known as Spaces) within Google Chat that you can then share with others in your organization.

Much like Slack, once a new custom Spaces group has been created, you'll be able to share it with whoever you choose, with participants able to join by clicking on a custom link. 

Google Chat or Slack?

“With this launch, Spaces are no longer restricted to only people added to the conversation,” Google said in a Workspace blog post announcing the news.

The company says the update will be particularly useful for creating and sharing “topic-based conversations” within your business, such as team discussions, how-to guides and mentoring opportunities. 

Google Chat spaces share

(Image credit: Google Workspace)

The change could also help leaders or admins share organizational and policy updates, or gather together a particularly interested or skilled group, such as when investigating an outage. Or, it could be great for just finding those with similar interests to yourself, allowing for custom groups to celebrate anything from sports to cooking.

Spaces will only be able to be shared with those inside your organization, and will have to be entirely new groups created from this date forward.

The feature is available and rolling out now to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers.

Read more

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> Gmail on Android notifications are getting a whole new look that might divide users

The news is the latest change to Google Chat to bring it more in line with some of its rivals, offering tools such as in-line replies and native content search, bringing Google Chat closer in line with services like Slack and Teams.

Google Chat officially replaced Google Hangouts earlier this year, with all enterprise and business users on “Classic Hangouts” having been upgraded to the new service by March 22, 2022.

The company says the move will ensure all Google Workspace customers are using the same platform, with anyone trying to access Hangouts being redirected across to Google Chat.

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Gmail on Android notifications are getting a whole new look that might divide users
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Android users will soon be able to quickly see whether they have a notification from Google Chat or Spaces right from the status bar as a new update is now rolling out to Gmail.

As Hangouts will soon be replaced by Google Chat for Google Workspace users, the search giant has added new status bar icons that make it easier to differentiate between Google Chat and Spaces notifications.

Up until now, Google's messaging app Chat and its Slack and Microsoft Teams competitor Spaces have both used a filled-in message bubble with another one behind it as their status bar icon. This made it difficult for users to determine whether they had a message from a single co-worker or if someone had said something in a group chat.

Thankfully, this will no longer be the case once Google's latest update for Gmail becomes widely available.

New status bar icons

As spotted by 9to5Google, Gmail for Android is currently in the process of rolling out separate icons for both Chat and Spaces notifications.

The new Chat icon is a single message bubble that's outlined and has an empty interior while the new Spaces icon depicts three people next to each other. If either of these new icons look familiar, that is because they're currently being used on Google's email client for desktop.

Read More

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> Most people use Gmail but don't know how full their inbox is

While the new Google Chat icon makes sense, some users might be confused by the new Spaces icon at first since it looks more like a social networking app than a workplace chat app.

According to 9to5Google, the publication has only seen these new status bar icons appear on a single Android smartphone running Gmail version 2022.02.20. However, Google will likely roll them out to more Android devices soon.

Via 9to5Google

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

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Gmail on Android notifications are getting a whole new look that might divide users
  • No Comments

Android users will soon be able to quickly see whether they have a notification from Google Chat or Spaces right from the status bar as a new update is now rolling out to Gmail.

As Hangouts will soon be replaced by Google Chat for Google Workspace users, the search giant has added new status bar icons that make it easier to differentiate between Google Chat and Spaces notifications.

Up until now, Google's messaging app Chat and its Slack and Microsoft Teams competitor Spaces have both used a filled-in message bubble with another one behind it as their status bar icon. This made it difficult for users to determine whether they had a message from a single co-worker or if someone had said something in a group chat.

Thankfully, this will no longer be the case once Google's latest update for Gmail becomes widely available.

New status bar icons

As spotted by 9to5Google, Gmail for Android is currently in the process of rolling out separate icons for both Chat and Spaces notifications.

The new Chat icon is a single message bubble that's outlined and has an empty interior while the new Spaces icon depicts three people next to each other. If either of these new icons look familiar, that is because they're currently being used on Google's email client for desktop.

Read More

> Gmail on mobile just hit a massive milestone

> Gmail is getting a sleek new look – but you may not like it

> Most people use Gmail but don't know how full their inbox is

While the new Google Chat icon makes sense, some users might be confused by the new Spaces icon at first since it looks more like a social networking app than a workplace chat app.

According to 9to5Google, the publication has only seen these new status bar icons appear on a single Android smartphone running Gmail version 2022.02.20. However, Google will likely roll them out to more Android devices soon.

Via 9to5Google

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

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The Microsoft Office app has a fresh new look, but not for everyone
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Microsoft has rolled out a fresh version of Office.com and the corresponding Windows application, with a revamped user interface that’s supposed to maximize productivity.

As explained in a Microsoft blog post, the changes will take effect for business and education customers first, with similar updates for personal accounts to follow “in the coming months”.

The company suggests that business customers took priority in this instance because the new functionalities are largely geared towards managing large volumes of files more efficiently, a challenge that professionals are more likely to encounter.

New-look Microsoft Office

First announced at Microsoft Ignite in November 2021, the changes to the Microsoft Office app and web client are designed to make managing and locating files simpler, by fine-tuning menu screens and introducing opportunities for customization.

“We designed Office.com and the parallel Office app for Windows to be the hub for your content – a place where you can get to all your files and documents, understand what needs your attention, and easily start creating content,” wrote Microsoft.

The most significant upgrade is perhaps the new-look home screen, which now features a Quick Access section that helps surface important files and filter options that allow users to organize files by those most recently opened, shared, favorites and various other parameters.

Microsoft Office

The new Office.com home screen. (Image credit: Microsoft)
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There’s also a new My Content pane, which Microsoft says “helps you get to all the work related to you no matter the file type, where it’s stored, or how it was shared with you”. This page also benefits from infinite scroll, which eliminates the hassle of tabbing through multiple results pages to find a specific file.

Lastly, the Create pane lets users create new documents and spreadsheets with a single click, using a variety of templates as the base.

“Just select the type of content you wish to create and you’ll be presented with various template options across multiple apps all at once so you can decide which works best for you,” Microsoft explained.

These updates should take effect for all corporate and education customers by the end of the week.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

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Gmail is getting a sleek new look – but you may not like it
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Your work Gmail client is set for a major makeover within the next few weeks as Google begins to roll out its new view of the future of working.

The company has announced that its new approach to email will be available for users to experience from the end of February 2022, ahead of a wider release by April 2022.

The approach looks to provide users with a one-stop shop for all their communication needs – whether via email, video conferencing, or just good old-fashioned instant messaging – without them having to open up extra tabs or windows.

Gmail integrated view

“We’re introducing a new, integrated view for Gmail, making it easy to move between critical applications like Gmail, Chat and Meet in one unified location,” a Google Workspace update blog noted.

When logged in, users will still see emails displayed front and centre, but shifted significantly over to the right-hand side of the display. This is to make way for a new sidebar on the left side that contains quick links to Chat, Spaces and Meet, shifting your email folders and label options over slightly.

Gmail integrated view

(Image credit: Google)

Google says that the new “integrated view” and navigation menu allows users to easily switch between their inbox, important conversations, and also join meetings without having to switch between tabs or open a new window. To demonstrate, it showed how a Spaces chat let the user jump straight into a Google Sheets without leaving the Gmail window.

The company adds that you'll also see all your notifications in one place, with bubbles flagging when you have a new message or chat to engage with.

Google is also working on the ability to see email and chat results when using the search bar, making it easier to find what you need by eliminating the need to search within a specific product.

“We hope this new experience makes it easier for you to stay on top of what’s important and get work done faster in a single, focused location,” the company added.

Read more

> Gmail is getting a new 'inbox zero' icon – but you'll probably never see it

> Most people use Gmail but don't know how full their inbox is

> Gmail on mobile just hit a massive milestone

The new-look Gmail will start rolling out to users in the rapid release pipeline from February 8 2022, with other customers following soon after. The new view will become the standard look by the end of Q2 2022. 

It will be available to all Google Workspace user accounts (except Google Workspace Essentials customers) as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

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Major WordPress update will make amateurs look like master web developers
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WordPress.org has announced the release of WordPress 5.9, a new version of the famous CMS that will change the way many people build their websites.

The new iteration of WordPress delivers a series of fundamental changes. Perhaps most notable is the introduction of new themes made entirely of blocks, which give users far broader control over the site experience.

To help users make the most of the changes, WordPress 5.9 comes bundled with a new default theme called Twenty Twenty-Two. The theme is designed to be highly flexible and can be moulded and tweaked from the Site Editor, where users can make global changes to color scheme, font combinations, page templates and more.

Beyond block-based themes, WordPress 5.9 also features new typography tools, layout options and detailing controls (for borders, spacing etc.), which WordPress says will give sites an additional feeling of polish.

WordPress 5.9

(Image credit: WordPress)

WordPress 5.9 update

The new release marks the halfway point of the Gutenberg project, a multi-year initiative that will eventually see the entire WordPress publishing experience reimagined. The overall idea is to streamline the building process such that non-technical users are incentivized to get creative with their sites.

“This release is a major milestone on the journey toward being able to manage all areas of your WordPress site using the same basic block concepts,” said Josepha Haden Chomphosy, Executive Director at WordPress.

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“It puts a focus on how people can and should be able to build their space on the web without necessarily requiring that they be a brilliant developer. Because publishing should belong to artists and creators just as much as it belongs to designers and developers.”

WordPress 5.9 is the first build to feature this new set of foundational tools, which will continue to be refined and improved over time with the help of the WordPress community.

To access the new full-site editing facilities, users need to either download WordPress 5.9 directly or update from their site dashboard, then activate Twenty Twenty-Two or another of the block-based themes available.

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WhatsApp for Windows 11 is getting a new look
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Last year we saw many new features come to Meta’s WhatsApp messaging service, and now a recent update to the Windows version looks to make it similar to recently refreshed apps in Windows 11.

The new update of the beta version that’s been available on the Microsoft Store for Windows 10 and Windows 11 since November showcases an updated design that’s more in line with the refreshed apps we’ve seen from Microsoft, such as Paint and Windows Media Player.

Besides the Windows 11-inspired design, there’s integration with the new Action Center where you can manage your messages, alongside the rest of your notifications for other apps on your PC.

Whether you decide to use WhatsApp on your laptop or tablet device, it’s a useful alternative for when you’re working in a coffee shop and you need to quickly reply to a WhatsApp message, without taking your smartphone out of your pocket.

Analysis: an easier alternative to WhatsApp Web

UWP (Universal Windows Platform) apps can use design standards that Microsoft has set, such as the appearance and layout, to match the overall look of Windows 11. Microsoft has done this with some of its older apps and features, such as Focus Assist and Clock.

Previously, WhatsApp on the desktop has been using an appearance that’s been mirroring the design of Windows 10. But with this new update, everything looks like it matches other refreshed Windows 11 apps.

Updated WhatsApp desktop in Windows 11

(Image credit: WhatsApp)

It’s another push by WhatsApp to help its users access the app for difficult situations that require it. There are going to be moments where you’ll be on a train with your laptop open for example, and your phone has run out of charge. Thanks to the multi-device feature in testing where you can manage your messages without your phone being connected, you’ll be able to use the desktop app on its own with no issue.

It solves a potential problem, but it also makes the desktop app ready for launch later this year with the updated look for Windows 11, especially with Sun Valley 2 coming.

However, it remains to be seen if a majority of users will be comfortable in using WhatsApp on their PCs, instead of primarily using their phone or a web browser.

Via Windows Latest

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