Periscope introduces 'Do Not Disturb' and tap-to-focus in camera.

Periscope for Android has been updated to give users the ability to control when to get notified of any activity going on in Periscope. Dubbed “Do Not Disturb”, it’s a very welcome feature that, in my opinion, should be made mandatory in every app using notifications.

‘Do Not Disturb’ is simple to set up. It can be found in Notification Settings. Navigate to your profile within the app and tap Notification Settings and you’ll find it right there, at the very top. Obviously, it’s disable by default. Use the toggle to enable it and set the Start and End time you do not want to be disturbed. Easy.

There is also a little something for Broadcasters in this update. They will be able to tap to focus “on a specific part in the camera”. I think that is quite self-explanatory.

This update brings the version number to 1.18 and can be downloaded in Google Play for free.

YouTube for Android gets a new Activity tab with two sub tabs: Shared and Notifications.

I just noticed a new Activity tab has appeared out of nowhere in the YouTube app for Android. The new tab has two 'sub tabs' under it: Shared and Notifications. The former got replaced by the new tab and got relegated to a sub tab. Notifications got promoted from users profile. In the end, it's two features of the YouTube app that are made easily accessible. No more fiddling around to find the channels you follow closely. I'm not sure though if this update is available worldwide. The YouTube app on my other Android device still does not show the Activity tab. Just check it out and with some luck, you may find it there.

Technically, this appears to be change on the server side, so I don't expect an update to appear in Google Play Store. Or maybe it will eventually and I'll keep you posted if it does.

Google Docs, Sheets & Slides gets improved comment notifications on Android and web.

Google Docs, Sheets and Slides received an update today that makes it easier to interact with comment notifications made by colleagues or friends on your documents. Prior to this update, notifications were sent as emails. This update, which works on Android devices and web browsers, will let you respond quickly. These notifications will appear based on your settings on the device and Drive settings for the browser.

Check out the updates in Google Play store:

• Google Docs
• Google Sheets
• Google Slides

Google lets you enable/disable notifications settings in Docs, Sheets & Slides; view named ranges in Sheets.

Back in November, Google introduced a new mobile notification feature for when files on Google Drive were shared with you or someone requested access to a file you own. The notifications can be enabled/disabled with the settings of Drive. With today's update, Google now lets you change the notifications  in the settings of Google Docs, Sheets and Slides for Android. The notifications settings still applies to all of the Google productivity tools and cannot be toggled individually.

In addition to notifications, Google is bringing Named Ranges to Sheets for Android. Don't get too excited as you will only be able to view those named ranges that you created in Google Sheets on the web. Just in case you don't know, named ranges let you give a name to a range of cells for easier tracking or when creating formulas.

Check out the updates in Google Play Store. They may not available in every region yet.

Source: Google 

CNN for Android lets you save and share stories directly from the breaking news alert.

Today, the CNN app for Android picked up an update that improves on the notifications experience making it possible to save and share your stories directly from the breaking news alerts. This new feature is also supported on smart watches too, should you be in a situation where you can't pull out your phone to read the breaking news, save it for later from your wrist. 

This update also brings support for full hyperlink in articles, though I'm not sure what that is. CNN also included some maintenance update and bug fixes, "just in time for the holidays".

Download the CNN app from the Play store.

Google+ update handles notifications and links better.

Google social network just got better at handling notifications and embedded links in its app for Android devices. The update also plays nice with links inside post making them look better and proper. I'll leave it to you to find out more about the update.

Here's the change log:
- Support for adding a link when creating a post
- New notifications tray
- Additional Community moderation features

The update should already be available on your device. If not download on the Play store.