Indeed, it seems that’s what Google’s plan is. Google employee Dori Storbeck, who is the community manager for Hangouts and chat said that “SMS integration is coming soon” in a reply in one of her Google+ posts. This confirms that users will be able to replace their text messaging service with the Google+ Hangouts interface.

Of course, this wasn’t the only confirmation that we’ve been hearing about. As it turns out, one of the permissions listed for the app in the Google Play store mentions the ability to read and send SMS messages, meaning that the feature could already be in the app, but simply just needs turned on by the folks in Mountain View.

Google+ Hangouts was announced during the Google I/O keynote yesterday, and it’s available for Android, iOS, and Chrome. However, the SMS integration will most likely only be available for Android, as we would have a hard believing that such a feature would come to iOS, knowing that Apple likes to keep things a bit more tight around the waist.

You can grab the Google+ Hangouts app right now for both Android and iOS, and Chrome users should already be seeing the new service if they have automatic updates enabled. You’ll be able to chat with friends on their mobile devices while you type away in the browser. There’s no word of a desktop app, but seeing has Google isn’t into that with Hangouts, we probably won’t see on anytime soon.

VIA: The Next Web

Google talked a lot about Google+ Hangouts during the keynote, and they essentially took all of their different chat clients and combined them into one. The app will let you message other Google users, as well as video chat with them using Google’s Hangouts feature that we’ve all seen before in Google+.

The cool thing with this new app is that you can message a friend and have it delivered to them without them actually being signed in, making it a viable option for a text messaging replacement, rather than just another IM client of sorts. The app includes the ability to insert photos and videos, and there’s even cross-platform support with a web version as well.

Of course, before you get to chatting using the new app, you’ll need to sign up for Google+. This isn’t time-consuming, as Google+ uses your Google account anyway, but you’ll simply need to confirm a few things and get your profile initially set up. Once that’s done, you’ll be all set and ready to chat away with friends and family.

However, Hangouts doesn’t have an “Invisible” status available, which could be a turn-off for some users, but we can’t say that many users will miss that feature. Other than that, the app is ready to go. We’re not sure when the iOS version will be releasing, but we’re guessing it’s currently in the hands of Apple as they take it through their submission process.

UPDATE: Google+ Hangouts is now available on iOS.

The BBM app will support all iOS devices running iOS 6 and higher, as well as Android devices running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and higher. BlackBerry said that it would be bringing some of the same features of BBM over to iOS and Android, including groups functionality, as well as voice features and screen sharing in later releases.

BlackBerry also announced what they’re calling BBM Channels, which is a new social feature for BBM that will allow companies and celebrities to create a fan page of sorts that BBM users can follow. Whenever a BBM Channel gets updated with new content, users who follow these pages will see notifications for the updates in BlackBerry Hub. Users will also be able to comment and share posts with friends, as well as the ability to create their own channels. In the simplest of terms, Channels is essentially BlackBerry’s version of a social network.

Channels is still in beta, but the company is planning to update it several times until it will fully launch sometime this summer — most likely in conjunction with the BBM launch for iOS and Android. It’s still up in the air whether or not Channels will be the boost that BlackBerry needs to gain more users, but we’ll certainly find out come this summer. The company already has 60 million BBM users, with 10 billion messages being sent every day. With the release of an iOS and Android version, those numbers should jump significantly.

TechRadar reports that their sources at Google have confirmed that the company is ditching the Babel moniker and will be going with “Hangouts” for its official launch. New screenshots also suggest that the new chat service has been rebranded as Hangouts, showing menu items that say “Sign out of Hangouts” and “add people to this hangout.”

This means that not only will Google+ Hangouts receive the new name that it pretty much already has, Google Talk will also be operating under the Hangouts name as well. Since this is an effort from Google to unify all of its chat services, it should definitely clear up any confusion between Google’s various chat services (like the confusing difference between Gmail Chat and Google Talk, which are essentially the same but operate under different names).

We started to hear babblings about a possible unified chat service from Google last month, when initial screenshots were also leaked by TechRadar. The images showed what the chat interface looks like, as well as some of the emoticons that would be available. However, the photos were taken at close range, so we aren’t able to get a good look at the big picture (pun intended).

As for how the new unified chat service will be implemented into Google’s various web services, that’s still up in the air, and we should take these rumors with a grain of salt anyway, but it’s possible that Google will simply incorporate Hangouts in all of their services with an icon that shows up in the bottom-right corner or something. We could also see a Hangouts mobile app from Google as well, which would get rid of the need for the Google Talk app. We’ll be at Google I/O 2013 next week, and we’ll keep our eyes and ears open for any discussions on a new chat service.

[Source: TechRadar]

Folks in the US or Europe probably have never heard of KakaoTalk, or if you have, you’ve probably never used it — it’s mostly the chat app of choice amongst those located in Asia, but Evernote is looking to expand its reach into that area by integrating some of its services into the chat window of KakaoTalk conversations, allowing users to share notes, images, and links within Evernote.

Evernote currently has around 1.5 million users in Korea alone, but the partnership deal with Kakao will most likely boost the company’s user base significantly in the country. As for how the integration will work, users can bring up Evernote with a swipe during a chat conversation, which will then them do a variety of Evernote actions without ever leaving the chat client.

Evernote CEO Phil Libin wants to change the way people think about the notes they store in Evernote. Libin says that the note-taking app has “traditionally been quite introverted,” meaning that a lot of users keep their notes, links, etc. to themselves, and it’s not really considered a sharing application, but it seems Evernote wants to change that with the their partnership with Kakao, opening up users to use Evernote as a sharing tool as well.

[via The Next Web]

The announcement was made earlier today in Line’s Tokyo office by its President Akira Morikawa. The growth is rapid, with the company having hit the 10 million user mark during April of last year at the same time it had rolled out its availability in Europe. Because of its diverse geographical support, the messaging system supports 12 different languages.

Line is offered as a default app by Nokia on its Asha series of inexpensive phones, the result of a deal that took place back in February and helped increase the number of users partaking of the service. The company also reports on the state of their current roll outs, simply saying that the service across several locations is both expanding and “gooding well.”

Line says that it has increased its push of the service to international markets, and that it expects to see growth as a result. You can see the steady climb of the company’s monthly users in the image above, which features what appears to be a small Gangnam style characters and a small duck in a bow tie. The announcement also briefly mentions LINE GAME, which is said to have hit 11 million users in March.

[via Line]

This information comes from current and former U.S. officials who discussed the new proposal with the Washington Post. They say that the FBI is concerned that without having access to real-time communications from suspects, they could be missing out on critical evidence. Michael Sussmann, a former federal prosecutor and partner at the law firm Perkins Coie’s, stated that if there’s data that can be used to solve crimes, “the government will be interested.” He also says,

“Today, if you’re a tech company that’s created a new and popular way to communicate, it’s only a matter of time before the FBI shows up with a court order to read or hear some conversation.”

The proposal would let companies come up with their own ways to implement a wiretap-like feature. As long as the companies are able to come up with a solution that provides the FBI the information it needs, anything can work. In 2005, the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), was expanded to require service providers and VoIP providers to implement real-time interception in their products. Now the FBI is seeking to expand the CALEA to cover social networks, messengers, and even online games as well.

The proposal has drawn a lot of criticism from civil rights groups, companies, and experts. Many companies assure their users before signing up that they will protect their privacy, so being required to implement wiretaps would result in a loss of customers for these companies. The wiretaps are also potentially susceptible to attacks from hackers seeking to use the wiretaps to spy on people and obtain sensitive information. Greg Nojeim, Senior Counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology, stated,

“This proposal is a non-starter that would drive innovators overseas and cost American jobs. They might as well call it the Cyber Insecurity and Anti-Employment Act.”

[via Washington Post]

Services like Apple’s iMessage and popular third-party title WhatsApp have become widespread, routing chat messages over the data network rather than using SMS or MMS. That usually means far lower cost, with basic text using tiny amounts of data versus the inflated per-message charge that SMS currently demands.

The simplicity and spread of IM, particularly on smartphones, will see SMS continue to lose pace in comparison to its cheaper counterpart. By 2014, Informa predicts, nearly 50bn IM messages will be sent every day; in contrast, the research firm expects around 21bn SMS to be sent daily in the same period.

Nonetheless, despite the rise of IM applications, Informa still sees a role for SMS, if only in developing markets where smartphone penetration is less advanced. For those with low-cost devices that lack either stable data connections or any app support whatsoever, traditional text messages may still present the best approach for non-voice communication.

[via BBC]

Whenever you send a message using one of those phrases, the last word would be omitted and be replaced with a series of spaces. However, when you copy and paste the message, the original message appears unaltered. The bug seems to be affecting mainly users who use iMessage on their iPhones or their Macs running Mac OS X Mountain Lion. Users who message via their iPads seem to be safe from the issue.

This issue has existed for a few months now, however, Apple has yet to issue a fix for it. But hey, at least it’s not as dangerous as the bug that allows others to spy on your iMessages. Last year, it was discovered that you can access someone’s entire archive of iMessages just by placing their SIM card into your iPhone. Even if you completely wiped your phone, others would still have access to your messages.

There’s also a potential exploit that hackers could use to DDoS your iPhone and your Mac via iMessage. Hackers who have access to your email address could send you an unlimited amount of iMessages at a fast pace, quick enough to stall your device. The message spam could stall your device, or crash your iMessages app and prevent you from re-opening it. The only way to prevent the attacks is by disabling the iMessage app altogether. Hopefully Apple has fixes for these bugs soon.

[via The Verge]

In order to initiate a free voice call, all you have to do is choose the contact that you want to call. You have to initiate a text conversation first. Afterwards, you will see an “i” icon at the top right of the message box. Click on that and you will have access to 3 separate options, one that says “Free Call”. If you’re using Chat Heads, you can initiate a free voice call by tapping the 3 dots that appear next to your contact’s name.

Facebook Messenger really has become an all-in-one messaging service. Not only does Facebook Messenger allow you to instant message your Facebook friends, it also lets you to integrate your SMS texts into it, allowing you to consolidate your conversations. Alongside this new free calling feature, all Facebook really needs to add is a video-calling feature for Android devices and it will truly be an all-in-one service.

Facebook is trying its best to get more users to stray away from other popular messaging apps, like WhatsApp, and migrate over to its messaging platform. Just a few days ago, WhatsApp announced that it has over 200 million active users on its service, a number Facebook desperately wants. Messenger poses a good threat against WhatsApp now that it has all of these features tied into it. This new feature will also be helpful in making its Facebook Home launcher more appealing to users. If you haven’t tested out Facebook Home yet, you can check out our review of Facebook Home here to see what it’s all about.

WhatsApp generates its revenue off of its annual 99 cents subscription fee. By charging such a meager fee, it is able to forgo ads and provide its users with the best messaging experience available. It is being used all around the world by millions and millions of users. Koum sees much more success in WhatsApp’s future. He says that he’s looking forward to the day when the world is filled with billions of phones. He says,

“And once that happens its going to be extremely easy to monetize. But a lot more people need to join the smartphone revolution and a lot more people need to buy more goods on their phones.”

Koum also says that there’s no chance of advertising ever making it to WhatsApp. He states that WhatsApp is completely anti-advertising, because no one likes ads. He feels that we already come across a lot of ads throughout our daily routines that there’s no need to bring any more into the picture. He believes that bringing ads to WhatsApp, or any app, is a bad idea. He states,

“Our phones are so intimately connected to us, to our lives. Putting advertising on a device like that is a bad idea. You don’t want to be interrupted by ads when you’re chatting with your loved ones.”

WhatsApp is widely renown as one of the most popular, if not the most popular, messaging apps for smartphones. It even plays the good guy by bringing its app to Blackberry 10, an OS with a small user base, while other social apps, like Instagram, won’t even bother to bring their apps to the platform because there’s “no real benefit” to it. With its huge success, its no wonder why rumors are floating around about companies wanting to buy it out.

[via All Things D]

With Facebook Messenger’s newest update you’ve got a row of “Heads” above your display that you can easily flip through to speak with different Facebook users. While before you’d have had to tap a couple of times before switching to a new person to chat with, now you’ve got but a swipe. Perhaps most important of all is Facebook Messenger’s new ability to appear on top of any screen – if it’s on, it’s everywhere.

This means that if someone sends you a Facebook Message and you’re watching a YouTube video, you’ll see their head pop up in a circle above the video. If you’re on a home screen and someone sends a message, their head will appear there – click in and you’re back to chatting. You can also hold down on their head and pull it down to the “X” that appears – this will dismiss their message.

Facebook for Android (the basic app) appears to have fewer changes that we can see at the moment – we’re expecting things to light up a bit more when the full Facebook Home app appears later today. The HTC First (see our full review here) smartphone with Facebook Home built-in is available in stores today as well – go grab it!

The cheapest celebrity you can message is Dara O’Briain, a comedian and TV game show host, who you can message for 65 pence, or $1.00, which is the same fee if you want to priority message any normal person. The highest fees so far is Tom Daley, an Olympic Diver, Michael Rose, a former children’s laureate, and Ed Sheeran’s fake account. They cost 10.68 pounds to message, or about $16.38.

This new feature is very similar to the feature it has in America, where users can pay $1, $5, or $15 to send a priority message to someone who isn’t on their friend’s list. The message is sent to the person’s main inbox, instead of being rerouted to their non-priority inbox. This way, the receiver will be notified of the new message. There used to be a $100 fee to send a priority message to a celebrity, but it was cancelled due to people being able to message Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, himself.

This new feature, if it becomes more widespread, will be a nuisance to celebrities. Having millions of fans being able to directly contact you can get bothersome quickly. All of the priority messaging fees will go to Facebook directly, with the celebrities receiving no benefit from this new feature. On the bright side, at least Facebook is only allowing people who are at least 18-years old to send a priority message, but then again, how hard is it to fake a birthday? In other news, be sure to check out our hands-on with Facebook’s new service, Facebook Home, which is set to be released in 3 days.

[via The Sunday Times]

In one of the screenshots, the user is hovering over the feedback button and the message, “What do you think about Babel in Gmail?” message pops up. In another screenshot, it shows that you have to sign into your Google+ account in order to share photos through Google Talk, and you are able to initiate a quick Hangout through the G-Talk chat box. There are also hundreds of emoticons you can choose to express your feelings, or represent your zodiac sign.

The major reason why we’re skeptical about these screenshots is because TechRadar states that the source isn’t able to verify their identity, and he/she sent the screenshots through a generic email address. The source states that he/she is a Google employee and they seem to have in-depth knowledge about Google’s communication services and Babel in general.

Nonetheless, if these screenshots are the real deal, it looks like we’re finally going to have a single application that we can use to chat with all of our Google contacts. There’s also speculation that Google will be purchasing WhatsApp for $1 billion and may be integrating its services into Babel. We’ll most likely hear all about Google Babel and Google’s supposed plan to purchase WhatsApp soon, possibly at the Google I/O conference next month.

[via Android Community]

Both Facebook and Google have been tipped to have approached the folks behind WhatsApp before today, and as they’ve continued to explode in popularity over the past few months, it would appear that they may have reached prime-time for sales. Included in this purchase would be their next-level pricing scheme which has users paying a cool $0.99 a year for a complete tossing of advertisements in-app. If Google were to pick the team up, it could be that WhatsApp itself is kicked in the pants while the technology is folded into Google – no more dollars for you!

Also if this does turn out to be true, Google’s next-generation service might be ready for Google I/O 2013. That is the rumored “Babble” or “Babel.” One way or another, a Google message service that folds all others into itself will be big.

So right here at the dawn of the Facebook Phone and the next wave of Android devices and their messager apps, could it be time for Google to take another swipe? Seems so! Have a peek at the WhatsApp timeline below and get pumped up about the future of the Google-run app universe!

Obviously this is good news for those who are hyper-conscious of their privacy and the snooping attempts of others, but not for government agencies trying to finger suspects for crimes. According to the DEA document, “it is impossible to intercept iMessages between two Apple devices.” iMessage uses end-to-end encryption, and is massively popular, with the service having been used to transmit billions of chat messages.

It seems that as part of the investigation discussed, DEA agents received court permission to grab suspects’ text message logs from Verizon, only to discover blocks of obviously missing content. That content, it turns out, was because the individuals under surveillance were intermittently using iMessage. According to the DEA, those messages can’t be grabbed using Title III interceptions, trace devices, or trap devices.

This is part of an ongoing problem for law enforcement, with various government agencies having pursued and actively pursuing measures to add ways for them to access these messages. The ACLU has another view of the issue, however, with its senior policy analyst Christopher Soghoian stating, “The real issue is why the phone companies in 2013 are still delivering an unencrypted audio and text service to users. It’s disgraceful.”

[via CNET]

Facebook Chat Heads works in any app that you’re in, so if someone messages you while you’re playing around in another app, a “chat head” will pop up in the corner, letting you know that you received a message from this friend of yours. From there you can tap on the head to reply to the message.

Facebook addresses the problems with messaging on smartphones today, including the fact messaging is treated like “just another app.” This means that you’re switching between apps, which can become really annoying. Facebook notes that you should be talking to people, not apps.

You can also move the picture around to different parts of the screen, and when you’re done with the conversation, you can toss it off the screen to get it out of your way. It looks pretty slick, and really easy to use at that.

With the Twilio API and the Google App Engine, developers are able to go above and beyond just “one-to-one” messaging and VoIP calls. They can easily build a group messaging app, implement messaging capabilities that will allow users to send business cards via SMS text messaging, develop an “on-call scheduling” system on their app, enable voice conferencing within their app, and much more.

Developers are offered 2,000 free text messages or voice minutes to help them get started with the API integration. Now that Twilio is integrated with the Google App Engine, there are 250,000 active developers have access to its solution. These developers have already developed a total of 1 million registered apps on Google’s App Engine, meaning that Twilio has potentially discovered a huge goldmine for its services.

Twilio isn’t the only one benefiting from this partnership, however. Google is also hoping that Twilio will be able to attract developers away from other platforms like Amazon Web Services. In order to do so, Google needs to offer developers a lot more functions that they can implement into their apps, as well as offer developers a way to create highly scalable apps. The Google App Engine product manager, Chris Ramsdale, stated,

“Finding a way to run applications quickly, securely and at scale is a hurdle for a variety of developers across web ad mobile, which App Engine is a strong solution for.”

[via Twilio]

Chorus.im is very simple to get started with. You can sign up using your email, or you can just link your Facebook or Google account to the service. To start a chat message, all you need to do is invite a contact via phone number or email to initiate a conversation. The contact can join in by clicking the “join” button sent to their emails. This will be efficient for contacting buyers or sellers from Craigslist or eBay. You are able to have an instant chat with the person without needing to divulge your phone numbers. This allows users to use what Chorus.im says are “disposable chats”.

When using Chorus.im on your desktop’s web browser, you will receive notifications on the bottom right of your screen. Push notifications have yet to make it to the mobile browser version of Chorus.im, which is why the startup has launched stand-alone apps. They’re hoping to incorporate mobile browser push notifications within the next few years. While using the Android app, I noticed that there are still many bugs that need to be worked on, but that’s not surprising considering this service is still new. Android users may experience screen blackouts from time to time.

In the future, Chorus.im will start advancing more towards being a browser app. Eventually, the service will get rid of its stand-alone mobile apps. Chorus.im will have a difficult time prying users away from Whatsapp, or convincing users that it’s different from Facebook Messenger, which allows users to message via their desktop or mobile device. Nonetheless, having “disposable chats” will be a major selling point for Chorus.im, and when it is able to enable push notifications through mobile browsers, it’ll be a major contender in the messenger market.

[via Forbes]

If you log in on your desktop computer, your Android smartphone, your Chromebook, or anything in-between, today you’re able to access your Gmail account. Not quite so solid is the connection between the many odds and ends in Google’s chat environment. If Google did indeed create a single chat service for any and all environments, anyone would be able to work with it as easily as they do Gmail – app or no.

The word on the street today is that Google Babble would work on many – if not all – mobile products as well as in-browser for desktop machines. BlackBerry own BBM – BlackBerry Messenger – continues to be one of their “unique” services that users love to a degree that keeps them stuck tight to the hardware. Apple uses Messages which now works between mobile and desktop machines seamlessly.

Even the app called WhatsApp has been trying to capitalize on the one-app cross-platform messaging gap that exists in the Google universe right this minute. So what’s holding Google back?

Perhaps nothing! If Google Babble does exist, you may want to bank on it being revealed around or at Google I/O 2013 – that’s starting on the 14th of May – coming up quick! Have a peek at the timeline below for more information on Google’s recent innovations with Hangouts in Google+ to see what we very well may be experiencing in Babble soon!

[via Geek]

MessageMe has become so successful in such a short amount of time that even Facebook has become threatened by it. In order to quell its growth, Facebook blocked MessageMe from accessing its social graph. Now users are unable to find their friends through Facebook’s network, causing a setback to the rapidly growing messaging app. This move by Facebook has been speculated to have happened for three reasons.

First, it’s speculated that Facebook cut off MessageMe’s access to its social graph because MessageMe poses a serious threat to Facebook’s own Messenger service. Facebook has been trying to make Messenger the top app for messaging. It has offered incentives, like adding free VoIP calling, and offering free/discounted data for the messaging app in select countries. The second reason is that Facebook believes MessageMe copies Messenger’s core functionality, which violates Facebook’s platform policy. The third reason is that MessageMe doesn’t offer any reciprocal benefits to Facebook. Facebook wants MessageMe to allow users to share information back to it.

Being cut off from Facebook is a big setback, however MessageMe has enough support from LOLapps and its current users to be able to thrive on its own. MessageMe also isn’t the only app to have been given the axe by Facebook. Many apps, like Twitter’s Vine, have also been cut off by Facebook, but they still went on to experience great success. MessageMe’s users aren’t too worried about the apps future, and they’re sure it will continue to thrive. Arjun Sethi, co-founder of the app, has stated that there will be more details on the issue on Tuesday.

[via TechCrunch]

The money-transfer feature is currently in testing, with Indonesia being the first country to test out the new program. It is currently dubbed BBM Money. Blackberry chose Indonesia, which has a population of 249 million people, because it still dominates the smartphone market share in the country. Blackberry launched BBM Money with PT Bank Permata. Users are currently able to transfer money to their Blackberry Messenger contacts using Blackberry’s renowned secure servers.

It’s speculated that within a year, there will be a few hundred thousand people using BBM money through PT Bank Permata. Bianto Surodjo, head of the electronic channels in Permata, said, “We want to put financial activities into customers’ habits because Blackberry messenger is becoming like the culture here for people to communicate.” Transfers between two Permata accounts will be free, but if users want to transfer money to a person who uses a different bank, a small fee will be charged.

BBM Money is only available for those with a Blackberrry OS 5, 6, or 7 device, because the Blackberry Z10 has yet to launch in Indonesia. For users who want to use the money-transfer services, they have to download the separate Blackberry Money app from the app store. T.A. McCann, VP of Blackberry Messenger, stated that if the trials go well, we can see more expansion of the service “whether it be additional banks, additional countries, additional devices and of course all kinds of functionality.”

[via Bloomberg]

Each video you’ll be leaving as a message will be able to be approximately 3 minutes in length. Inside the USA and the UK this update will be rolling out over the course of the day with other countries coming soon if enough interest is shown. Skype has currently not given a specific reason as to why each of the other major mobile and desktop operating systems have been included in this update while Windows was left out.

And this isn’t the only service that’s recently been boosted in its ability to leave messages when a person’s friends are away. Facebook’s mobile app was updated to include voice messaging just this past month, while BlackBerry 10 was introduced with ooVoo for 12-person video chat. The many different ways people are able to connect with one another aside from typing with their keyboard are quickly becoming a hot commodity – different, if not entirely better, that is.

And remember – if you want more than 20 video messages in the very near future (at least in this early Beta stage here at the start of this functionality) you’ll have to grab yourself a premium account – have at it! Have a peek at the timeline below for more Skype-related news to see where the service is going in the very near future. Also be sure to let us know if you see one of these updates and find it to be excellent!

[via AllThingsD]

Microsoft is planning begin the upgrade process from Messenger to Skype on April 8, and the process is expected to take a few weeks to complete. The company will start with English-speaking users, and will then move onto its Brazilian Portuguese users on April 30 or later. By then, Microsoft says all its users should be good to go.

Back in January, Microsoft sent a mass email to all of its Messenger users, noting that beginning on March 15, Microsoft will begin to discontinue Messenger for a “test group” comprising a small handful of the “tens of millions” of users. Then come April 8, a full transition will begin for all users.

The phase out for Messenger is only for the desktop version, as it represents the majority of Messenger users. However, Skype execs have not provided a timetable as to when Microsoft plans to retire the Messenger service on mobile platforms, but it’ll probably only be a matter of time before the company gets around to that.

California just passed a law that states that drivers are allowed to use mobile phones while driving, as long as its all done by voice. However, several groups, such as the National Safety Council for California, are begging the state to rethink the new law, saying that voice-texting while driving is still unsafe, and may be even just as dangerous as regular texting while in the car.

Researchers and psychologists have demonstrated in the past that people suffer significant impairment when they use a mobile phone while driving, and a study conducted by David Strayer of the University of Utah says that participants talking on a mobile phone had slower reaction times and were involved in more simulated accidents than when they weren’t on their phones — hands-free or not.

The participants’ cognitive impairment levels were around the same as those of participants who got in the simulator after drinking enough alcohol to register a 0.08% blood-alcohol content, which would be considered illegal in all 50 states. While hands-on texting certainly seems more dangerous than hands-free texting, studies have shown that sending a simple voice text led drivers to take their eyes off the road more often than usual, and they reported a higher mental demand during the experiment.

While you may be quick to retort that voice texting and chatting with people sitting in the passenger seat are the same thing, Strayer says that each of the two activities use different parts of the brain. Strayer’s research has shown that the mobile phone distractions in the car isn’t just physical, but also cognitive, meaning that drivers who use mobile phones “create weak memories of objects in the driving environment, suggesting a great deal of attention is drawn away from the road.”

[via The Atlantic Cities]

For those of you unaware, the messaging portion of Facebook in its app form on both Android and iOS is now more diverse in its newest iterations than ever before. In addition to being able to send voice messages, you’re able to type, add emoticons, add a photo from your own gallery, and take a new photo to insert. There’s also an Image Search function that uses – you guessed it – Bing!

When you do an Image Search and find a Bing Images result, you’re able to simply tap that image and have it planted in your message like a pro. Simple and clean indeed. This is one of several ways in which Facebook is working with Microsoft and their Bing search engine here in 2013, their connections rising up in Graph Search most prevalently this past week. Keep an eye on Bing and Facebook for news about one from the other and vice versa in the very near future.

Be sure to check out our SlashGear 101: What is Facebook Graph Search? to see the future of the social network!

Sharing has been updated in this Facebook 2.1 upgrade for Android allowing you to share your friend’s posts (or Stories, as Facebook calls them), to your Timeline, Pages, and Groups galore. Now we’ve only to wait for the rest of the features that the iOS version of the app has – soon, soon! Anyone hear of Facebook staff members being relegated to Android devices until this version of the app is up to snuff? Keep it classy!

Some Facebook users have been reporting an interesting popup when they attempt to send messages to people outside of their friend network. The popup notes that the message will be filtered to the “Other” inbox of the recipient, but offers to deliver it to the top of the recipient’s inbox for a staggering $100.

Facebook first began experimenting with this kind of option last month when it first introduced filters, including the “Other” folder. In initial tests, the fee was just $1. However, according to Mashable, Facebook confirms the $100 option is part of that test, and they say they’re testing “some extreme price points to see what works to filter spam.”

Mashable reported seeing $100 as the fee to send a message to Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, but sending messages to other strangers result in the same price, which means that the fee isn’t based on the popularity of the user. However, unless you’re part of the test group, you still can’t send a message to strangers, and there’s no word on when or if the feature will be rolling out. It’s also entirely possible that if the service eventually launched, the fee might change.

[via Mashable]

Just like Snapchat, Poke is designed to send quick messages, photos, or videos, and self-destruct them after a certain amount of time — 10 seconds at the most. Of course, the idea is based off Facebook’s long-standing and popular “Poke” function, but it mostly copies features from the popular Snapchat app, which deletes messages at a time you set after you send them.

The running joke about Snapchat has been that it’s primarily a chatting app for sexting and sending saucy photos and videos to people, but Facebook notes that there’s more to instant messaging than just trading naughty pics. The company also reminds us that “if you ever see something you’re uncomfortable with, you can click the gear menu and report it.”

The concept of having messages self-destruct themselves after a few seconds seems rather pointless, and there’s nothing ever wrong with having an archive of your chat history, but we suppose if you’d rather have a clean inbox at all times, and have it clean it automatically, then that’s your prerogative.

It’s possible that Facebook may be considering this new option as both a monetization tool and as a way to reduce spam, by implementing a fee barrier for those who send out messages about random products and promos. On the other hand, this still leaves the door wide open for spam, as long as corporations are willing to pay up for it.

There are also two new options for messages. First is basic filtering, which lets you get messages written by your friends as well as people you might know who aren’t yet friends with, and then there’s strict filtering, which only lets messages from your friends get through the gate, blocking all other messages.

Before you get too bent out of shape, Facebook is merely just testing these new features, and it’s very possible that they could disappear into a deep abyss. However, we also know that Facebook loves looking for new revenue streams, and this could be just one stream that they’re really excited about.

Here we’re to understand that the next-generation service will be attached to Skype Premium uses who already pay $8.99 a month to get bonus privileges for communicating with their best friends and colleagues. In this update it may very well be that they’ll be able to “send and receive an unlimited number of Video Messages”, so says IT World. This update also mentions that “any Video Messages you send and/or receive shall have no expiry date.” Sounds pretty solid for a video message service, wouldn’t you say?

This service will be extended to non-premium users as well in a bit of a lesser-awesome way: “If you are not a Skype Premium subscriber, the number of Video Messages you can send are limited, however you can receive an unlimited number of Video Messages.” So receive away, folks, it’s time to get video like mad!

“As a non-Skype Premium subscriber any Video Message you send or receive will expire within 90 days, except for Video Messages received from a Skype Premium subscriber or where you upgrade to a Skype Premium subscription before the 90 day expiry period ends, and in either case the Video Message shall cease to have an expiry date.” – Skype

This could very well have a giant effect on the way we communicate with one another if such a service takes hold. Much in the same way we understand that a relationship is not official until Facebook makes it so, it may be the case very soon that we get offended when someone sends us a mere text message when they should be recording a video – your privacy, coming up!

[via The Verge]

According to Apple’s iCloud Support page, “some” users experienced issues with iMessage and FaceTime this afternoon. Users reported that while attempting to send a message with iMessage, the progress bar would hang, causing the message to fail. Apple responded with the brief statement, “We are investigating and will update the status as more information becomes available.”

iMessage is Apple’s messaging system that allows iOS users (iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad) to swap messages without the associated text messaging fees. iMessage is available with iOS 5 and later, and with OS X Mountain Lion 10.8+. Back in September, the problem followed an outage at Apple’s iCloud service.

Currently, the Apple iCloud Support page says that the service is back up, but some users around the Internet are still reporting problems. It is possible this issue is due to superstorm Sandy, which has been wrecking havoc on the east coast. Gawker, The Huffington Post, and other websites and services have all experienced outages as a result of the storm.

[via CNET]

First and foremost, Skype will be getting its own Live tile on the Start page, allowing you to launch the program with a single click (or touch, if you’re using a touch screen). The Skype Live tile will display missed messages or calls right there on the Start page, so you can easily see if someone is trying to get in touch with you. Once you launch Skype, you’ll see your recent calls and messages displayed next to your favorite contacts.

With Windows 8, Skype will always be running in the background, so you’ll be able to get message and call alerts on the desktop even if you’re using a different app or program. Skype has also launched a special full-screen mode with this version of the app, and checking out the video below, we have to say that it looks perfect for touch screens. The new Skype also comes with support for the Windows 8 People app, allowing you to integrate all of your Skype contacts and get in touch through the app, which acts as something of a digital address book.

As if that weren’t enough, Windows 8 users also have the ability to snap Skype to the left or right of their screen, so they can continue the conversation as they look at another app. All in all, it looks pretty cool, and it will be available on the Windows 8 Store on October 26 – the same day the new OS launches. Still on the fence when it comes to Windows 8? Have a look at our review to see what we think about it!

Google Talk has been down for most of the morning, and it looks to be an extended outage given Google’s service updates. The company is actively looking into the issue, with its most recent update reading, “We are continuing to investigate this issue. We will provide an update … detailing when we expect to resolve the problem.” The next service update is scheduled to come in the next half hour.

In the meantime, keep checking Google’s status page, and rest easy in the knowledge that there’s a whole wealth of other messaging options available to help you keep in touch. Heck, you could even break the habit and spring for one of those old fashioned phone calls. We’ll update this article as more information becomes available about the outage.

UPDATE: Google is still trying to get to the bottom of things: “Our team is continuing to investigate this issue.” Another update will come in an hour.

UPDATE II: Google says that Talk has been “restored for some users,” and that everyone else should be good to go “in the near future.”

UPDATE III: Everything should be back to normal: “The problem with Google Talk should be resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support.”

It’s a pretty scary privacy issue, even if it’s only affecting a small number of people right now. Thankfully, Skype is aware of the bug, saying in a statement: “We are aware that in rare circumstances IM’s between two contacts could be sent to an unintended third contact. We are rolling out a fix for this issue in the next few days and will notify our users to download an updated version of Skype.”

Until then, you’ll just have to pay extra attention to what you’re sending out over Skype. We’ll keep an eye out and let you know when Skype issues the fix, but in the meantime it might be a good idea to think twice before hitting “send” on that private message.

The original chat program that took hold of what seemed like the entire western world throughout the 1990s and early 2000s will be sorely missed by those inventors of such epic phrases as LOL and LMFAO. Many replacements have popped up since the birth of the AIM platform including Skype and Facebook’s own chat service, these rendering AOL’s version of person to person “instant” chat all but extinct.

These layoffs come amid a few other waves of similar person-cutting from the ranks of AOL in recent months, this leading the public and analysts to predict service cuts (such as these) to occur sooner than later. With the death of AIM comes the movement of the social networking world past the most basic form it took (in a popular sense), and here we move on to the much more dominant social network world of Facebook, Google+, and straight up text messaging with smartphones. Will you miss AOL’s instant messenger platform when it gives its final kiss goodbye?

[via Complex]

What do you think, ladies and gentlemen? Since Facebook is without a doubt a site that is at once completely free and compulsory to use yet for many is impossible to set aside, does Facebook have the same duty as Spiderman? That duty is of course “with great power comes great responsibility,” for those of you without a memory for the movie or the most popular comic book series of all time. In that “Other” box may well be your ticket to a new relationship, a contact offering you a billion dollar payout, or a grandmother you never knew you had!

On the other hand, just as many people have responded saying they’ve got nothing but spam in that Other folder, so it’s just as well its separated now. Before this change, all messages were added to the same folder, and people like yours truly had messages galore from people feeling like contacting me was much better than leaving a comment on SlashGear, for example. I for one am glad of this new folder situation. Let us know what you’ve found once you get into it!

Beluga will stop working starting November 11, but users will still be able to access chat archives. Users have until December 15 to download their archives and pods before the service is completely shutdown. The news comes at the same time that the Facebook Messenger app gets updated with support for 22 languages on iOS, Android, and BlackBerry.

The announcement comes from a post by Beluga’s founders, three ex-Googlers Lucy Zhang, Ben Davenport, and Jon Perlow. The service launched back in December 2010 and was purchased only a few months later by Facebook to be integrated with the social network’s own messaging system. The standalone Facebook Messenger app has the same core features as Beluga plus integration with Facebook messages and chat.

According to MacRumors, a developer revealed to them that there is evidence that iMessage support will be coming to the iChat instant messaging software on OS X Lion. Within the code for OS X Lion’s iChat, there are two new properties called “timeDelivered” and “timeRead,” which indicate the tracking of delivery and read receipts.

These features are offered in Apple’s iMessage protocol but are not currently supported in iChat’s native messaging protocols, suggesting that the addition of these two properties is for future compatibility between the two messaging services. iMessage is expected to arrive with iOS 5, which is rumored to launch in early October alongside the iPhone 5.

The service will be supported on all major platforms according to Samsung. That includes tablets, feature phones, the PC, and Bada. The service will support group chat, direct linking between specific buddies, and it will have an interaction rank. That last one ranks the users based on how often they interact with you as far as I can make out.

ChatON also has a trunk service, which is a place where you can store files and content to share with others. You can communicate with friends using animated messages, which appear to be short video clips. This is obviously aimed at being a direct competitor to other services already out there like iMessage and BBM. What do you think, will this be a good thing or an also ran?

Existing AT&T customers with $10 messaging plans will get grandfathered, meaning they get to keep their current plans without any change. However, new customers starting on Sunday, will no longer have a $10 for 1000 messages option, although they can still choose to pay by individual messages at a rate of $0.20 per SMS and $0.30 per MMS.

Here is the official statement from AT&T:

Starting August 21, we’re streamlining our text messaging plans for new customers and will offer an unlimited plan for individuals for $20 per month and an unlimited plan for families of up to five lines for $30 per month. The vast majority of our messaging customers prefer unlimited plans and with text messaging growth stronger than ever, that number continues to climb among new customers. Existing customers don’t have to change any messaging plan they have today, even when changing handsets.

Earlier this year, AT&T had already eliminated two tiers of its messaging plans including a $5 for 200 messages and a $15 for 1,500 messages, leaving only the $10 for 1000 tier, which will now be axed this Sunday. The carrier also recently confirmed data throttling for its unlimited data plans.

[via Engadget]