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Facebook lets you choose what to share with 3rd party apps
For ages, whenever you've wanted to use your Facebook credentials to log into a third party app like Foursquare or Candy Crush, you've had to give the app access to any and all data that FB has on you. There's simply been no way of choosing what information you can share--until now. Facebook announced last year that it would be implementing a new API this spring which allows the user, not the developer, to decide what sorts of private information each app is privy to. Well, that year is up and now whenever you "Log In Using Facebook," you'll be redirected to a landing page where you can select which individual data sets you want to share. Only want to tell Groupme your birthday and location? Done. Don't want to give Untappd access to your contacts? Easy.
Steve Cheney on the future of iOS and Android
As hardware innovations continue to push mobile devices into new areas of modern life, it's sometimes hard to guess where exactly the future is taking our favorite operating systems. Steve Cheney, the head of business development at GroupMe, has published a blog entry examining what lays ahead for iOS and Android based on their recent developments and current hindrances. iOS and Android are moving beyond mobile, with advancements in mobile now driving the progress of all hardware and software. Android is growing worldwide, but studies show its popularity is in decline after topping off in the US. While Android's mobile market share may be taking a hit, the OS is taking off on tablets and low-resource computers. Much in the same way that Linux has been a popular open-source OS for over a decade, Android is positioning itself to be an open-source OS player on non-mobile devices in the future. Meanwhile the great strength of Apple's iOS products is their consistency and battery life. The integrated hardware and software of iOS devices will likely help maintain a performance advantage over Android, tweaking and optimizing chips to work with iOS software in a power-conscious manor. Android is still struggling to deal with the repercussions of having an open ecosystem, with OS fragmentation perhaps one of the most prevalent issues. Apple's integrated ecosystem allows developers to be given access to the system's APIs, leading to more stable and consistent apps. The controlled ecosystem allows Apple to launch backward-compatible updates like iOS 7 across old and new hardware alike. A majority of Apple users have an iPhone 4S or higher, meaning that when new features like AirDrop are launched in iOS 7, almost the entire user base will suddenly have access to these capabilities. Meanwhile Cheney claims that only 30 percent of Android users upgrade, or are even able to upgrade, to new Android releases within a year of launch. The staggering of software upgrades creates a slow adoption of services thanks to an effective 12- to 24-month gap behind iOS users for the latest updates. Developers aren't going to start development of an app with Android when they can't count on a majority of its users being able to use it. They'll start with the less chaotic world of iOS. Cheney sees the issue of fragmentation as the biggest obstacle facing Android in the future. It isn't worth a developer's time to create different versions of cutting-edge apps to ensure that they'll work with every different variation of Android device in the ecosystem. Cheney points to Tile's recent US$3 million fundraising boom and its lack of Android support as an example of just one area where developers are already focusing just on iOS. Head over to Cheney's blog for his in-depth look at where the future of mobile operating systems appears to be heading. It paints a fascinating view of mobile computing's near future.
GroupMe moves up to v4.0, embraces the iPad
Group messaging service GroupMe has just been bumped up to version 4.0, and now plays well with the iPad. The refresh may not be as profound as the last big one, but brings with it a slew of design revamps, including Facebook app-inspired side drawers, bigger images and avatars, and centered chats. In addition, the app also allows sharing location using maps, inviting people to groups using URLs and rejoining previously abandoned groups. BlackBerry and Windows Phone users of the app can't board the freshly-painted bus just yet as the update is only available on iOS for now, while those on Android can get a taste via a beta that needs to be sideloaded atop the older version. There are other services vying for your attention too of course, with WP8's Rooms already open and RIM promising big things on BB10. However, if this sounds like what you covet, use the source links below to get in on the action.
Windows Phone 8 Rooms give every group its private space
Microsoft is already creating a safe, fenced-off area in Windows Phone 8 through Kids Corner, but it's expanding that to include nearly everyone through Rooms. A rough parallel to Groupme, Rooms lets families, friends or companies share calendars, chats, notes and photos without letting any prying eyes get a peek. And if others aren't following the Windows Phone way, they can still view some of the content from another platform. There's no doubt that Microsoft really hopes its communal addition is a way to squeak out an extra phone sale or two from those who like to stick together. For more, check out our Windows Phone 8 event liveblog! %Gallery-169556%
Skype adds Groupme to social portfolio, sets sights on mobile market
Sure, we're still waiting for that Microsoft-Skype deal to close, but it looks like Redmond's about to get more than it initially bargained for. Skype announced today that it has reached an agreement to snatch up Groupme, the mobile group messaging service that made a splash at Google I/O. Outfit head honcho Tony Bates told TechCrunch that Skype needs to invade the mobile space if it hopes to reach its goal of scoring one billion users, and cites Groupme's "sticky group messaging experience" as the ideal mobile addition to the Skype family. But don't take our word for it, hit the break and dig the PR for yourself.
Groupme 3.0 goes international and cross-platform, questions everything
Groupme, the little group messaging service that made a bit of a splash at Google I/O, turns 3.0 today. There are some shiny new features on board, including a simpler way to exchange private messages and "Questions" for sparking conversations when you're not sure who to talk to. But, the big news -- Groupme 3.0 is now platform and nation agnostic. With the latest update, the service will be available in 90 countries and add Windows Phone 7 to its list of supported OSes, alongside iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android. Even if you're sitting in front of your desktop you can still take part in the mass messaging fun. The website has been overhauled and now sports all of the same features, like photo-sharing and group management, as the mobile apps. Check out the source link to get the latest version for your handset of choice -- provided you're not a Symbian fan -- and don't miss the gallery below. %Gallery-129813%
Groupme's group messaging app demoed at Google I/O, complete with data / location (video)
Just because Google's hosting I/O, that doesn't mean that a few little guys can't do a bit of announcing on their own. Such is the case with Groupme, who stopped by doing their darnedest to upstage Disco and the host of other group messaging apps flooding app stores these days. The newest build -- v2.1.7 -- just hit the Android Market over the past few days, bringing with it the ability to share locations /photos and initiate conference calls within the group (amongst other niceties). For now, the service is limited to the US and Canada (though international expansion is "top priority"), and requires that any members have established phone numbers in case the data network fails anywhere in the chain. The good news, however, is that there is a data option, with SMS being used only as a fallback. There's also some pretty fancy integration with Gigbeat, which is detailed in the video just after the break. %Gallery-123308%
A primer on group messaging apps
If you follow our tech startup sister site TechCrunch, or if you've read any of the reports from the South by SouthWest (SXSW) conference this year, you've probably seen a lot of column inches given to current-media-darling "group messaging" apps. SXSW has a reasonable track record of predicting the Next Big Thing. It was where Twitter first came to many people's attention in 2007, for example, and it was an early success story for Foursquare in 2009, too. My usual reaction to hype like this is to roll my eyes and avoid the apps in question altogether, although that might just be because I've never blagged tickets to SXSW. Eventually, though, TechCrunch's relentless enthusiasm wore me down, and I took a look at one of the commonly mentioned apps, Beluga. To my surprise, what I found was a slick, well-designed app that solved a communication problem I didn't know I had. That'll teach me to be cynical! Before I explain what I liked about Beluga, an aside: there are a number of other significant group messaging apps, including GroupMe, Fast Society, Yobongo, the soon-to-relaunch Betwext Talk and the brand new, bought-by-Google Disco. However, international availability of these apps is spotty. For example, at the time of writing, only Beluga and Yobongo were in the UK App Store -- this is probably because these apps incorporate free-to-the-user SMS features that are tricky to make work cheaply internationally. As I'm in the UK, this means I can't do a detailed review roundup of all the apps. Look for this in a future TUAW post by one of our American bloggers. I'll use Beluga as an example to demonstrate concepts that are common to all the group messaging apps.
