Android Messages app gets dark theme; Messages Web gets GIF search and more stickers.

SMS is here to stay and no WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger will ever change that. That's the reason Google keeps updating Android's official app for texting and chat. Android Messages was recently updated with web support, allowing users to send and reply to messages on their computers without having to pick up their phones. A very handy feature that Google is improving furthermore with the last update. 

Android Messages is getting a new look. Not that Google entirely redesigned the app; it pretty much looks the same. But they added a dark theme and if you've been following Android news lately, dark theme is making the headlines as Google kind-of working, not to say struggling, at bringing a dark theme to Android. 

In addition to dark theme, Google is also giving some love to Messages web with the ability to search GIF and stickers. A great addition if you're fans of those.

Of course, this update includes the usual anonymous bug fixes and performance improvements. Android Messages is available for download in Google Play Store.

Tumblr for Android introduces Safe Mode and will stop providing updates for Android Jelly Bean.

Tumblr describes itself as “a place to express yourself, discover yourself, and bond over the stuff you love.” The platform lets you express yourself with photos, GIFs, text, videos, live videos and audio. Basically, share about anything you like.

In today’s update, Tumblr is adding safe mode, a tool that lets users control what they see and what they don’t want to see. A Safe Mode switch has been added in the General Settings of the app, more precisely under Filtering.

Tumblr also announced that owners of Android Jelly Bean devices, that’s Android version 4.1 to 4.3 will stop getting updates from now on. The app will still work on these devices, but no new features will be added. If you still use Jelly Bean on your device, you should seriously consider upgrading. Running such an old version of Android is a security risk, as Google is not providing security patches for it anymore.

Tumblr is available free in Google Play Store.

Viber added support for Western Union to send money from the U.S. to anyone in 200 countries.

Viber is rolling out a pretty big update today for Android and some of those new features are more like playing catch-up with competing messaging platform. The new version introduces a backup and restore mechanism should users have to either factory reset their devices or simply, for some reason, uninstall and reinstall Viber on their phones. However, Viber will only backup your text messages to Google Drive. Should your messages contain, pictures, GIFs etc, you're out of luck as they will be ignored. One more thing, data saved to Google Drive is no longer protected by Viber encryption; Your messages will be plain visible to anyone with access to your Google Drive. Another thing, there is no way to automate or schedule regular backups of your data in Viber. It has to be done manually, but hopefully, Viber will improve on that in a future update.

What's a messaging app without support for animated GIFs? Again, with all popular competing platforms already offering this feature, it's great for Viber users to finally be able to add animated GIFs to their messages.

Viber also added support for Western Union to allow users to send money from the U.S. to anyone "in more than 200 countries and territories." Cash can even be sent to bank accounts directly, but this service is available "in nearly 50 countries" only.

These are some great features with some that Viber needs to do some work to improve. In the mean time, download the update in Google Play Store.

Make searches, translations and more right in your Google's keyboard without switching apps.

Ever since my first smartphone back in the days when smartphones were not yet a thing, I have always used the default keyboards, never venturing out to try third party keyboards available on the market. It's not out of laziness or lack of curiosity, I'm simply happy with the default keyboards and never needed all the bells and whistles that come with third party keyboards. Enter Gboard, Google keyboard offering for Android and iOS. Google has updated its keyboard with a lot of features that brings the typing experience up to a new level, the kind of level where the keyboard is not restricted to being just a typing tool.

With today's numerous messaging apps available, Google is making the keyboard experience an exciting one. While some of the added features are not really new, Google did use its fire power to make its offering quite enticing. Typing a message in supported messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, Hangouts, Google Allo etc, Gboard will now suggest emojis and GIFS.

Google also built translation right into its Gboard. Tap the new Translate icon, select the languages and it will immediately translate text in the language you chose. No more launching the standalone Translate app and copy paste the translated text between apps anymore.

Gboard also supports themes. Before that update, it was possible to change the keyboard color from a color palette or add a picture to the keyboard's background. Google has added some scenic views and said they will keep adding more from now on. Support for right-to-left languages is also included in this update. Users can now make searches in Arabic, Farsi and Hebrew.

Gboard is definitely a keyboard you should look into if you haven't done so yet, specially with the integration of Google tools like Search and Translate. Gboard is available free in Google Play Store for download or update.

Group post by topic with Google+ Collections.

Google+ is the place I go to for my daily tech news consumption and this is the place people who share my passion hangout too, away from the noisy facebookers crowd. Google+ may not enjoy the popularity Facebook enjoys, but it remains the favorite network for techies. Despite what's been said about it, Google is not pulling the plug on its social network and keeps updating the app for Android devices.

An update appeared on my Nexus 7 yesterday with a much of new features and enhancements. The most notable new feature is Collections which allows "pluses" - had to find a name for Google+ members - to group posts by topic.

The other new features are:

• GIF images now load much faster.
• Updtaed post designs.
• Performance improvements and bug fixes.

Visit Google Play store to download the update or join Google+.