Periscope lets you select the exact part of a video you want to share.

If like me you're particularly annoyed with having to share an entire video with your friends while all you want to show just is the most interesting part, you will welcome this update from Periscope. As from now on, you won't have to tell the time mark your friends should start watching when sharing.

Periscope gives you control to select the exact part of the broadcast that matters most and share it. Those at the end of the sharing line will see the broadcast start exactly at that point you selected. Unfortunately, there is no way to set an endpoint, a feature which would have been nice too, letting you select from one precise point to another. Maybe we'll see that in a future update.

The update is already live in Google Play Store. Now YouTube, if only you could implement the same feature.

Twitter introduces "bookmarks", a "read It Later" of sorts.

Twitter announced in a blog post yesterday the introduction of a new feature dubbed "Bookmarks", which will let users save Tweets for later. Say, you came across a Tweet about an interesting article and can't read it right away, simply bookmark it to get back to it later. "Bookmarks" is a sort of 'Read it later' feature, similar to how Pocket app works.

The steps to bookmark a Tweet is made easy with the new share icon under the Tweet. Select "Add Tweet to Bookmarks" and it will appear under the profile icon menu. Twitter says the "bookmarks" are private and can be removed at any time.  The new share icon also lets users share via direct message or to other social platforms, email and messages.

'Bookmarks" are now rolling out globally to any Android, iOS devices as well as Twitter Lite and Twitter mobile website. I have not received the update yet. If you're like me, check Twitter in the Play Store as the update may show up anytime from now.

Video sharing is now faster in Google Photos for Android.

Google just made it easier and faster for us to share our videos through its excellent Google Photos app for Android. The frustration of not being able to share your videos right away due to a slow connection is now an experience that the new update to Google Photos promises to get rid of. As of now, uploading videos is not the best of experience.

The updated Google Photos will make that faster by uploading a low-res version of videos, small enough for quick sharing. The app will later replace the low-res video with the high-res video you recorded once your Android device connects to a good enough internet connection.

No more waiting to share videos with your family and friends. Wait no more and go grab the update in Google Play Store.

Google Maps let users create Lists of favorite places to share with families and friends in new update.

Google Maps is getting more social thanks to an update that is yet to be published to Google Play Store. Google announced in a blog post that their maps app will soon let users save and share places they have been to with families and friends. All that is needed is for users to tap on the place name and "Save" to add the place to built-in lists like "Want to Go" or "Favorites. Users can also create their own. Once done, Google says that "to recall the lists you've created, go to Your Places (in the side menu) and then open the saved tabs."  Google made it easy to share these locations via text, email, social networks and messaging apps. On clicking the link, your families and friends can tap "follow" to see your list. 



Additionally, they made the lists viewable on desktop, mobile - Android and iOS - and offline. The latter feature will work after users download offline maps and the saved places will show on top of the maps.

This sounds like a nice update. Unfortunately, at the time I'm posting this, it is not available yet. Here's the link to Google Maps in the store so you can check.

Source: Google

Flipboard to lure new users via sharing to Facebook Messenger.

Flipboard just made it easier to share articles to Facebook Messenger on Android and iOS. According to them, "readers love sharing articles to Facebook Messenger" and it was possible to do that before this update, but Flipboard decided to enhance the experience between Flipboard itself and Facebook Messenger.

The current version of the popular flipping news reader does let you share articles to Facebook Messenger, but your friend only receives a link. This update improves on that by bringing some visuals to it and lure non Flipboard users to download and use the app. 

Once you share an article and your friend opens it in Messenger, they will be taken straight to the article in Flipboard. If Flipboard is not installed, they will be prompted to download it and then share the article. A great way to attract new customers. Flipboard also says that "opening an article from Messenger also unlocks a small new share icon in Flipboard to make it easier to continue the conversation with your friend and quickly share stories back."

Now you can proceed to Google Play Store to update Flipboard on your device and help them get more users by sharing your articles.

Skype for Android gets new toolbar to delete, mute, mark conversations as read and more.

There's one thing that Skype was not particularly good at and that was saving videos shared with us by family members or friends. Those videos would remain in the conversation thread until deleted. The good news is that Skype has solved this problem with an update that was released earlier today. A simple tap is all that is needed to save the video to the phone's photo gallery and this works for videos that you've received and videos that you recorded. Microsoft did not stop there and now lets users share photos from the gallery to a Skype group conversation, finally.

Another interesting feature in this update is the ability to mute, delete and mark conversations as read. Nothing really new here except that this can now be done by doing a long tap on contacts or chat under the Recent tab that will pull a new toolbar with these tools for quick access.

Search is also made better allowing users to search conversations by content in addition to contacts and group names.

This update is available now in Google Play store.

Pushbullet optimized for Android 6.0 with Runtime permission and Direct Share.

Pushbullet is my favorite app when it comes to sharing files between my devices. Sure I could use popular cloud storage to move my files around, but Pushbullet adds a different flavor to file sharing that makes it more efficient. You share a file by picking Pushbullet in the contextual sharing menu and the file pops up on the device you selected. You use as little as two clicks to do this, no matter which mobile platform or desktop you use. This ease of use has contributed into making Pushbullet a very popular app and it just got better today.

Regularly updating an app also helps engage with the users and retaining their loyalty and today, the folks behind Pushbullet optimized the app for Android 6.0 Marshmallow. What that means for users? Two new great features.

Runtime permissions is the first new feature, which, in fact was introduced in Android 6. So you won't see that one on your device if it's running an older version of Android. In Marshmallow, Google introduced a layer of security that requires apps to ask for your permission before accessing your device functions such as SMS, Phone, Contacts, etc. Hence the name 'Runtime permission'. Pushbullet is playing by the rules by implementing this for Android 6.0 powered devices, even if the latter is not mainstream yet. My Nexus 7 is still craving for Marshmallow.

Second in the list is support for Direct Share. This is one is not that big of a deal, since it's the core of Pushbullet. But the team added a nice little feature by putting the most recent devices right in the share menu, reducing or eliminating the scrolling and clicking. Again, this is another feature that requires a device running Android 6.0.

Check out the full change and download Pushbullet in Google Play. And yes, the update is available for Android 6- too.

Pushbullet syncs SMS over WiFi only, consumes less juice.

Pushbullet was updated more than ten days ago with the ability to sync full SMS conversation on the computer. Since the team behind this must-have app has been hard at work improving this feature. The latest update contains the following new features:

• Better settings for mirroring and SMS sync!
• Sync SMS on Wifi only.
• SMS bug-fixes (less data, less battery :)

If you haven't downloaded Pushbullet yet, head over to Google Play store to get version 16.4.1 of the app and enjoy easy sharing of photos, songs, links etc between your devices, plus the ability to send and receive SMSs on your computer.