Instagram for Android now lets users share Feed Posts to Stories.

Today Instagram is making sharing feed posts to story publicly available to Android users. This feature differs from Regram in that users can quickly share a post of interest to their story for their friends and followers to see.

Instagram says that "to share a feed to your story, just tap the paper airplane button below the post, just as you would to send it via Direct. At the top, you'll now see the option to create a story. Tap it to see the feed post as a sticker with a customized background ready to share to your story. You can rotate, scale and move the sticker - and tap it to explore other styles."

Shared posts will appear with the original poster's username, which is clickable so you can check the original post and even see more post. Obviously, it is only possible to share posts from public accounts and should you not want your posts to be shared, Instagram lets you opt out in the app settings.

Get Instagram for Android in Google Play Store.

Pocket for Android gets split-screen mode support.

Formerly known as 'Read it Later', Pocket is an essential app for me to save articles and videos for reading and viewing later. My daily intake of articles on the web is pretty big and commuting time is not enough to read them all, making Pocket a must-have app on my supported devices. 

Besides saving content for later, Pocket also strips the articles of ads and presents them in a read-friendly format similar to reading view in Edge, the Microsoft browser for Android. As such, the article looks nicer. Pocket is also very easy to use. You come across an article and want to save it for later, simply tap the share icon and tap the Pocket icon in the Share menu. 

The app was released in 2012 and has since been updated several times. Among one of its features, is the ability to highlight things you find interesting in the articles you read. Here again, this is a simple enough feature, but very useful. Pocket improved it by grouping the highlights in the order they appear in the articles; which makes sense.

In version 6.7.9.0, Pocket is getting support for multi-window on Android 7.0 or higher. Pocket developer says, "with split-screen mode, you can multi-task like a pro and use Pocket along with other apps on the same screen, at the same time."  I very rarely use split screen on my devices. At least, I know it's there in case I need it.

Download the update in Google Play Store.

Microsoft releases Family features to Microsoft Launcher for beta users.

Microsoft Launcher beta has been updated today with the addition of Microsoft Family. The latter is a free service that allows families to stay connected and parents to keep their kids safe online. As from today, parents will now be able to view the last known location and app activity of their children. Obviously, the children's device must also be running Microsoft Launcher. According to Microsoft, Family requires Android 4.4+ on parents devices and Android 5.0 or higher on the children device.

Microsoft says in the changelog that this is phase 1 for v4.10 and phase 2 will be released on May 22. Again, Microsoft Family support is available for now in the beta channel. Click here if you would like to join and try new features before public release. Else, get the official Microsoft Launcher app in Google Play Store.

Here's how to setup Family in Microsoft Launcher:

• Create a family including your kids at account.microsoft.com/family.
• Install the beta version of Launcher on your Android device and sign in with your adult account during setup. 
•  On your device, swipe right to see your Family card in the feed. Follow the steps to send an email or text to your child to have them install Launcher on their device.
• After your child installs Launcher, have them sign in with their Microsoft account. During setup, give Launcher permission to access location and app usage.
• Turn on location sharing and activity reporting for each child from your device.
•  On your Family card, for each child, select Turn on location sharing > More options > Find [your child] on a map. Then turn on See my child’s location on a map.
•  Select Activity and turn on Activity reporting. You’ll also have the option to turn on weekly email reports.
• Once both parent and child devices are set up, parents can start seeing their child's device location and app activity.

Google Gboard for Android gets 22 more languages including Seselwa Creole French.

If 500 million downloads are any indication, Google's Gboard is a popular keyboard for Android. The app is more than just a keyboard with features like glide typing and voice typing as well as Search capability built right in, giving users the ability to make a search without having to launch the Google Search app. And one of my favorite features is support for multilingual typing. As a bilingual myself, it is very convenient to just type any word in French or English without switching languages manually. Gboard handles that for me along with autocorrect and word suggestions.

Gboard also supports hundreds of languages as listed here, and with today's update, the keyboard is getting support for 22 more. Among them is support for Seychelles Creole, which is close to Mauritius Creole. But the latter is not supported yet. Hopefully in a future update.

In the meantime, here's the list of the newly supported languages:

• Acehnese
• Adyghe
• Banjar
• Chechen
• Seselwa Creole French
• Friulian
• Khasi
• Konkani (Kannada)
• Krio
• Kituba
• Lak
• Ligurian
• Latgalian
• Marwari
• Erzya
• Livvinkarjala
• Guinea-Bissau Creole
• Swati
• Udmurt
• Tshivenda
• Kalmyk
• Mingrelian

Download Gboard in Google Play Store.

WhatsApp is rolling out new Group features starting today to Android users.

Today WhatsApp announced in a blog post a bunch of new features for Groups. Some of the features were already there since last March and I blogged about them here, but for some reason, WhatsApp is referring to these features as new. Maybe they were not available to anyone, but this announcement makes all these Group features available to all Android and iPhone users today.

Here's what's new:

• Group description: A short blurb found under group info that allows you to set the purpose, guidelines, or topics for the group. When a new person joins a group, the description will show up at the top of the chat.
• Admin controls: In group settings, there's now a control that allows admins to restrict who can change the group's subject, icon, and description.
• Group catch up: When you've been away from a group chat, quickly catch up on messages that mention or reply to you by tapping on a new @ button that appears at the bottom right corner of the chat.
• Participant search: Find anyone in a group by searching for participants on the group info page.
• Admins can now remove admin permissions of other group participants, and group creators can no longer be removed from the group they started.

WhatsApp is also introducing a feature that prevents users from being repeatedly added back to groups they left. As I said above, these features are rolling out today, but may not be readily available in all regions. Check it out in Google Play Store.

Source: WhatsApp

OnePlus Beta 8 available for OnePlus 5/5T with May security update.

Before the OnePlus 5T, I've owned several Nexus devices, including the Nexus 6 tablet. I picked the OnePlus 5T because it offers an experience that is closed to the Nexus, and I've got to say, I love it. OnePlus has an excellent beta program and regularly offers security updates. All is not well though. They recently decided to propose Android P beta to the OnePlus 6 only and the latter is not even out yet. The launch is tomorrow. But anyway, I'm not going to complain that much as today, OnePlus is pushing Google's security patch for the month of May. And that is awesome.

Besides the security update, here's what is new in the open beta 8:

Launcher:
- Added Toolbox Card in Shelf
- Added hidden Space in app drawer
- Added support for editing dynamic icons (weather, clock, and calendar)

OnePlus Switch
- Optimized user interface for backup & restore
- Optimized logic for time remaining
- General bug fixes and stability improvements.

Messages
- Added Group MMS.

If you own a OnePlus 5/5T, just hit 'Systems updates' in Settings and enjoy. If you're the non-adventurous kind, the update usually reaches the masses after two weeks or so.

Opera browser for Android gets new theme, night mode and private tabs notification.

Opera for Android is a great browser if you value your privacy or need a browser with a good ad-blocker. The browser also gets new features regularly and this update includes a bunch of good ones.


Themes
Opera now has support for themes. In addition to the classic Opera red, users will be able to switch between a dark and light theme.

Night mode
Night mode is also included and is the most useful feature in this update. I spend a lot of time using the browser to read and the night mode will make reading at night more comfortable and put less stress on my eyes.

Private tabs notifications
If you use private tabs, Opera will display a reminder in the notifications tray with a ghost icon. A single tap on the notification will close all your private tabs.

Copy, paste, and QR-code scanning
Opera browser now supports copy/paste in the address bar with a single tap and a QR-code scanner has been added next to the bar to quickly scan and open web addresses.

What's New

- Chromium 63
- Night mode
- QR code reader
- Private mode indicator
- UI theme settings: Light, Dark, and Red

- Address bar URL autocompletion
- Copy/Paste URL suggestion
- Refreshed Bookmarks UI
- Refreshed offline pages UI
- Trending searches setting
- Tablet UI optimization
- Long tap menu: Search by Image

Download Opera free in Google Play Store.

WhatsApp gives group admins powers to remove admin rights from other participants.

WhatsApp has released another update that brings more tools for group admins. In addition to managing 'regular' group members, admins will also be able to remove admin rights from other participants. To revoke the powers, select the admin in 'Group info' and tap "Dismiss as admin."

Back in March, WhatsApp gave admins and group members the ability to add a description to groups and in this update, group admins "can now choose who can change a group's subject, icon, and description by going to "Group info" and tapping "Group settings."

Remember this from Spiderman: "With great power comes great responsibility." So, use those judiciously. Download the update in Google Play Store.

OneDrive for Android can now be moved to the Storage Card to save space.

Microsoft has updated OneDrive for Android with a new feature that lets users move the app from their devices internal storage to the storage card. This will be particularly useful on devices with limited onboard storage. 

To move OneDrive to the SD card, open the app and tap the 'Me' tab at the bottom right of the screen and tap Settings. You will see the option to do the move there. 

Microsoft also made "some under the hood improvements to our Photos view to make it faster than ever to get back to all your memories."

Start saving space on your device with the new OneDrive for Android and download it free in Google Play Store.