Apps

Meta-owned Instagram case back to life after being down for over an hour early on Monday as users witnessed errors saying the app couldnt refresh, and the website went blank for some users.

Apple removed 1,474 apps from its App Store as per requests from various governments to take down such apps in 2022, including a massive 1,435 from mainland China and just 14 from India.

WhatsApp is one of the most used smartphone applications and is among the first apps we transfer when we shift to a new phone. Sometimes, transferring WhatsApp chats from one phone to another becomes quite difficult. There are two ways you can transfer your WhatsApp chats from one phone to another – using Google Drive or offline transfer. While it’s easier to use the Google Drive method, not everyone may be comfortable linking Google Drive to their WhatsApp account.

WhatsApp is one of India's most popular messaging apps and has over 500 million users. In addition to chats, the app offers access to voice and video calls. Voice calling is an excellent feature that allows users to connect to people across the world, without having to pay anything. However, the feature is now being misused by people to scam Indians.

Popular messaging app WhatsApp is cracking the whip on international scam calls after Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that the ministry will send a notice to WhatsApp over the issue. Over the past few weeks, there has been a significant increase in Indian WhatsApp users receiving spam calls from international numbers. WhatsApp has over 500 million users in India.

India's IT Ministry will issue a notice to WhatsApp regarding the recent surge in spam calls from unknown international numbers. The Minister of State for IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, stated that digital platforms are accountable for ensuring the safety of "digital nagriks," and the government will respond to every instance of alleged misuse or breach of user privacy. The government is considering guidelines for permissions for preloaded apps. Chandrasekhar also announced that the government will investigate a claim that WhatsApp accessed smartphone users' microphones while the phone was not in use.

There have been recent concerns about WhatsApp potentially eavesdropping on private conversations. These concerns were echoed by Fod Dabiri, Twitter's director of engineering, who disclosed that WhatsApp had been using his phone’s microphone in the background while he was asleep, and he only discovered this when he woke up at 6 AM. Amplifying it, Elon Musk echoed his opinion by tweeting, “WhatsApp cannot be trusted.”

These spam calls with international numbers, mostly from African and Southeast Asian countries, along with fake messages from unknown users, have flooded WhatsApp and Indians have nowhere to go but Twitter to share their ordeal.

In a move to strengthen the Photo Verification process, dating app Tinder on Wednesday said it will now ask members to take a selfie video to confirm that the person in the photo is really them. In addition, the company said that photo-verified members can also ask their matches to do so before chatting.Photo Verified members can also choose to only receive messages from Photo Verified members by going into their Message Settings.

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook and Instagram, announced that WhatsApp is finally introducing multi-device login support, allowing users to access the same WhatsApp account on up to four phones. According to WhatsApp, this feature will be rolled out to all users in the coming weeks. Previously, users were limited to one WhatsApp account on a single phone and multiple companion desktop devices.

At its annual Partner Summit 2023, Snap Inc, the parent company of Snapchat, made waves with exciting news about its generative AI chatbot, My AI. Previously available exclusively to its premium Snapchat+ subscribers at $3.99 per month, My AI has now been rolled out to all Snapchat users at no cost.

IRCTC has warned users about a fake Android app and website that tries to steal sensitive information from users looking to book tickets for their next journey. The fake app and website look eerily like the original, which makes it difficult for end users to distinguish between the two. The fake IRCTC app for Android smartphones goes by the name ‘irctcconnect.apk’.

Meta-owned instant messaging app WhatsApp updates with new features and tools to enhance the user experience. By the end of 2022, or the beginning of 2023, WhatsApp users can expect many new features from WhatsApp for both business and personal accounts.Recently, WhatsApp has increased the file sharing limit to 2GB and launched a new feature, Communities. Besides this, new message reactions are also available to general users.

Perplexity AI is an iPhone app that allows users to ask AI questions and receive instant answers. The app is available for free download on the App Store. Perplexity AI uses a conversational search engine to provide information through a chatbot-style interface and a large language model similar to how OpenAI's ChatGPT works. When a user inputs a question, Perplexity AI's model utilizes its AI language model and relevant information from the internet to provide a corresponding answer.

Apple has launched a new app called ‘Apple Music Classical’ on the App Store. The app is designed for classical music lovers with an Apple Music subscription. It was developed from Primephonic, which Apple acquired in 2021, and it aims to offer better handling of the complex metadata associated with classical recordings. Additionally, the app provides curated playlists and composer biographies to help users get more familiar with the genre.

The Income Tax (IT) department recently launched a new application for mobile users that allows taxpayers to access their important data from their smartphones easily. The IT app, dubbed as AIS for Taxpayers, allows users to find out important information such as the tax deducted at source (TDS), tax collected at source (TCS), dividend income, income tax refunds, and more.

As a customer, when you receive a substandard product or service, you may think about filing a consumer complaint but give up on the idea thinking about the cumbersome process. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs has made filing consumer complaints easier. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs has partnered with Gupshup, a conversational engagement platform, to introduce a WhatsApp chatbot that allows consumers to easily file complaints with the National Consumer Helpline (NCH), check complaint status, and read the frequently asked questions (FAQs).

With the introduction of his new platform Bluesky, Jack Dorsey, the co-founder, and former CEO of Twitter, has returned with a new social media platform. The invite-only social network Bluesky, which emerged from Twitter as a decentralized project, has recently become available on the App Store. You’ll need to search for Bluesky social to find the app.

It may resemble a plot from Netflix's science fiction series Black Mirror, but the ability to relive past moments of our lives will soon become possible using VR and new age smartphones. Wist labs is currently developing a smartphone application that will enable users to record unforgettable experiences and upload them to a virtual reality headset, and watch it at any point in time.

Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, has announced that it is rolling out new "Sounds creative" tools - Sounds Recommendations for Lenses and Sounds Sync for Camera Roll - on Snapchat, globally.

On Thursday, Google announced that it is making Magic Eraser, its photo editing tool that utilizes machine learning and AI to remove unwanted elements from photos, available to all Google One subscribers on Google Photos. Previously, this feature was only accessible to Pixel 7 and Pixel 6 smartphone users. Additionally, Google Photos on both iOS and Android smartphones will receive new collage styles and an HDR video effect feature.

Google has introduced a new feature called ‘Radio Builder’ for YouTube Music users, which allows them to create personalized stations based on their preferred artists. This feature was launched on Tuesday and can be accessed by navigating to the ‘Your music tuner’ section on the YouTube Music homepage within the iOS or Android app.