messaging

For years, Apple's iMessage has been regarded as the gold standard for instant messaging experiences, or at least after BlackBerry Messenger or BBM lost its grandeur. For years, Android users have been longing to have that same native messaging experience or even have iMessage itself on Android, and the new Rich Communication Services or RCS is believed to be a step in that direction. It still has a long way to go, though, especially when it comes to adoption, but it is slowly growing its features to match modern chat services, like this new "iMessage-style" emoji reactions.

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Today Google announced a bit of a leadership change in messaging, texting, and communication apps. Google's latest change puts the Message, Duo, and Android phone app teams together with the combined team of Google Meet and Google Chat, under a single all-encompassing bit of leadership. This should, ideally, make for a system with which Android users can finally trust that Google will stick with, and develop, and not abandon in any way, shape, or form. UPDATE: Not so fast, it might not be that simple or easy.

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The importance of a good brand name is important to the highest degree, especially when it comes to marketing at times of extreme stress. Over the past few weeks, during an unprecedented global event (COVID-19 pandemic, that is to say), the name "ZOOM" became synonymous with simple, one-tap video conferencing. Google's got the capacity, technology, and knowledge to make a video conferencing system rivaling that of Zoom, but until now, they didn't have the right brand.

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Popular messaging app WhatsApp has introduced a new batch of stickers that are mostly related to social distancing. The stickers obviously reference the ongoing quarantines around the world, which has driven many people to messaging apps and other social platforms as substitutes for real-life interactions. In addition to encouraging social distancing, the stickers include things related to hygiene and more.

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The release of direct messages (DMs) to Instagram's desktop environment (in a web browser) is upon us. This feature update will begin to appear for users around the world today - you might already have the feature available to you right this minute. No more tricking your desktop web browser into thinking it's a smartphone for you!

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Many things about the COVID-19 coronavirus still remain a mystery even for doctors and scientists, let alone ordinary people. During such times of fear and uncertainty, there is no shortage of incomplete or downright misleading information being passed around disguised as truth. Today's messaging technologies have made it all too easy to spread such misinformation. WhatsApp, which was already in hot water for such cases, is now putting some hard limits when forwarding messages due to the COVID-19 situation.

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Email app-maker Edison has announced a new email service, Edison OnMail, aiming to take on Gmail with a privacy-focused, permission-based mail system. Set to launch over the Summer, OnMail promises to do a 180 from the current trend of adding in productivity features and extras in email platforms. Instead, it just wants to make it easier for you to get to Inbox Zero.

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Popular messaging service Telegram has been updated with new features that'll be particularly useful for users and groups that have experienced an uptick in messaging frequency. As of Monday, March 30, Telegram now supports Chat Folders, which is exactly what it sounds like -- a new feature that enables users to better separate the different types of chats that take place in the app.

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Text messaging apps aren't exactly sophisticated and feature-rich. There's very little you can really do with the SMS protocol unless the app also supports the more or less defunct MMS system or, in Google's case, the new RCS that some are trying to push. That's not to say those apps can't go wrong, just like Google's Messages app that has apparently been making messages disappear for almost a year now.

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If you're using WhatsApp for iOS or Android today, you can get an update that allows Dark Mode. This update changes the way that WhatsApp looks on all devices, switching dark tones for light tones, and light tones for dark. It makes better use of your display's power drain - to a tiny, yet significant degree. Dark Mode is a lot kinder to your eyes, too.

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This week, leadership at the European Commission (executive branch of the European Union) sent a staff-wide message pushing the secure messaging app Signal. This end-to-end encrypted messaging app was recommended on an EU internal discussion board for all staff. The message included, in part: "Signal has been selected as the recommended application for public instant messaging." Why would the EU do this?

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I started to write an article about the latest update for Telegram, when I realized I might only be speaking to a select few in-the-know users. Far fewer than I think should be interested, anyway. Telegram is a private chat system with end-to-end encryption support and cross-platform functionality. It's privately funded by a guy named Pavel Durov, whose only goal seems to be "fast and secure messaging that is also 100% free."

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