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WhatsApp starts digital payment tests in India
WhatsApp has finally started testing the digital payments feature it's been working on since early 2017. The Facebook-owned chat app is currently giving a limited number of users in India the chance to give its built-in payments feature a spin. Based on the screenshots shared by UI designer Nagender Rao Savanth, testers will have to verify their phone number via SMS to be able to use the government-backed Unified Payments Interface within the app. They can then choose among the pretty large list of banks available, including the State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank, which are some of the biggest in the country.
Discord makes it easier to jump into your friends' games
Gaming chat app Discord is quickly becoming a full-fledged social network. The latest move toward this is the ability to set a status for yourself and let folks know what game you're playing. More than that, Discord is launching an entire SDK (called "Rich Presence") so developers can directly integrate the app within their games, which should make joining your friends for a round of Call of Duty: WWII (one of the first supported titles) a little easier. "It gives players a clear at-a-glance understanding of what their friends are playing, how they are playing it, where they are at in the game and a one-click way to jump in and join," CEO Jason Citron said in a statement.
Chat app Discord opens official game channels
Gaming-focused chat app Discord is partnering with developers on official chat channels. Verified Servers are places where a game's community can hang out, talk and get news straight from the teams that made the games. Think of them like official forums, but with real-time communication versus asynchronous. Just look for the checkmark badge next to a server profile and you should be good to go. Developers can even add Discord badges to their website's social links and directly to their game's main menu. As Polygon notes, so far Minecraft, Offworld, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Supercell have set up shop.
Facebook's Workplace chat app brings screen sharing to the desktop
It seems like everyone wants to take on Slack these days when it comes to virtual office systems. The latest is Facebook, which, according to TechCrunch has quietly added screen sharing and released a desktop client to its Workplace chat app. The program is available for both Mac and PC, and this could signal that similar moves are en route to consumers. That could take a bit, though. As of now, the desktop client is in beta. The screen sharing feature allows for sharing your entire desktop, or just one specific app. Because, seriously, do you really want anyone at work to know you're playing with Facebook's Gameroom desktop app on the clock?
Signal test uses DRM to keep your contacts private
Signal is generally viewed as the most secure encrypted communications app. So secure, that even the US Senate has approved it for staff use. And, to keep privacy experts on its side, Open Whisper Systems (the non-profit behind the app) has kept Signal open source and peer-reviewed. But, the developer is having to juggle robust privacy with all the popular features a chat app is expected to provide in this day and age. It's proven a tricky balancing act -- particularly in regards to access to user contacts. Just like its (now encrypted) rivals, Signal asks to import your phone contacts in order to tell you who's using the app. For the stricter privacy advocates, that's always been a niggling issue. But, Signal claims it has a fix. With its latest test, the app is trialling a completely private contact discovery service.
A billion people use WhatsApp daily
One billion people check WhatsApp every day. Not every month -- it hit that number way back in early 2016 -- but every single day. The Facebook-owned chat app has announced the milestone number in a post thanking its users, though it was also mentioned in passing during the company's earnings call. Zuckerberg mentioned during the call that Facebook's own Messenger app has reached 1.2 billion monthly actively users (MAU), but WhatsApp still has more patrons in that regard at 1.3 billion MAU. Taking those numbers into account, 76 percent of people who use WhatsApp don't go 24 hours without firing it up on their devices.
Google's latest addition to Allo is custom GIFs of your face
It seems like Google hopes tickling your funnybone will keep its Allo chat app installed on your phone. The latest update adds selfie clips so you can add a personalized touch to your responses. Essentially, they're just looped GIFs made from a video of whatever's in front of your phone's camera. Allo's head of product Amit Fulay tweeted the info out earlier today, including the GIF below. In the thread, Fulay says that the update is available to all users. Now, it's worth noting that this sort of thing has been available via Giphy Cam before, but it being built directly into Allo (among the recent slew of updates) suggests that Google isn't giving up on its latest chat app just yet.
Google is still adding basic chat features to Allo
Slowly, Google is bringing its Allo chat app's basic functionality up to speed with the likes of iMessage and Telegram. The application's latest update adds the encrypted incognito mode to group chats (previously it was only available in one-on-one conversations). As Droid Life notes, you can even set an expiration timer for when your conversation goes out of incognito mode. Then there are link previews, which many other chat apps have had for awhile now. But hey, having Assistant in your chats from the get-go was impressive, right?
Telegram launches a blogging platform for the impatient
If you've ever wanted to write something online really quickly but didn't want to go through the hassle of signing up for a Medium, Wordpress or Blogger account, maybe Telegram's new Telegraph platform is for you. The messaging app launched the service today, and as VentureBeat notes, it's really fast. Dropping links to Twitter posts and YouTube videos automatically embeds them, and you can upload photos, too. For example, this post took me under five minutes to go from a blank page to being published.
WhatsApp can quote messages you want to respond to
WhatsApp now has the ability to quote messages you want to reply to, which sounds especially useful for group chats with friends or family. Only problem is, it's unclear if everyone already has access to it. It first came out a day ago or so as an experimental feature for the Android app's beta version (v.2.16.118). However, we were able to quote messages on our stable apps (v. 2.16.6) for Android and iOS without having to update either of them. Note that we also didn't see a new update on iTunes or Google Play.
Facebook intros diverse Messenger emojis for all platforms
Facebook has created brand new emojis for Messenger, redesigned its old ones and standardized them for all operating systems. The social network will begin rolling out 1,500 newly designed emojis tomorrow, which will show up the way you see them on your device no matter the recipient's platform. No more empty boxes taking their place if you're chatting with someone using another OS. Even better, the new graphics embrace diversity -- they include hand gestures and human faces in different skin colors, as well as images of same sex couples.
Google isn't abandoning Hangouts for its new chat apps
The launch of Google's new mobile-only chat apps Allo and Duo doesn't mean death for Hangouts. A spokesperson told Business Insider that the company is "continuing to invest in Hangouts" and that "it will remain a standalone product." While these two new applications might make the company's messaging products seem convoluted to the average user, they cater to different audiences. As BI notes, Hangouts is a cross-platform app tied with Google's enterprise offerings, and offices will most likely continue using it.
Facebook Messenger gets group calling with up to 50 friends
While Facebook is obsessed with bots, it's not the only new feature the company has been working on for Messenger. The app will soon be getting group calls which, as its name implies, allows you to have an audio-based conversation with multiple people. With the latest version of the Messenger app, it's just a matter of tapping the phone icon while you're inside a group chat. Once you've done this, Facebook will give you a secondary screen to manage the people on the call. TechCrunch reports that you can have a maximum of 50 friends on a single group call.
