September, 2019 - Softonic English

Hold tight, there’s a brand-new Instagram app incoming

Threads will work alongside the main Instagram app and will give users the chance to automatically share basic information with close friends and send more typical messages too

We have lots of different social networks and lots of different social apps these days. Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter. The list could go on with each app having its own specialist feature or use. If you were to take Instagram out of that list and think about what it is good at above all else, you wouldn’t say its best use is staying in contact with your friends. Sure, you can send people messages on Instagram, but you know you’d be more likely to send a message on WhatsApp or messenger than you would be on Instagram.

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This could be about to change, however, as reports are coming in of internal testing at Instagram HQ of a brand-new companion app designed to keep you in constant contact with your closest friends.

Threads will work alongside the main Instagram app and will give users the chance to automatically share basic information with close friends and send more typical messages too

According to journalists at The Verge, who’ve obtained leaked screenshots of the new Instagram app, Threads will allow you to automatically share information like your remaining battery life, internet connection speed, and location with your closest friends. The new Instagram app will also offer a more regular messaging app experience with features like text, voice, and video messaging all of which will have Instagram’s regular toolkit ready to make them look as fabulous as possible.

This isn’t the first time Instagram has worked on a separate direct messaging app. The company also worked on an Instagram companion app called Direct, which, you guessed it, was supposed to make it easier for Instagram users to send direct messages to their friends. The thing is though, Direct never actually made it to general release with Instagram pulling the plug before the app made it to the app store. Direct messaging is still an internal part of the main Instagram app.

The key difference with Threads is the addition of the always sharing features that allow you to choose your closest friends who’ll then be ale to always see your live basic information. This automatic sharing will require you to opt-in to the service first, however, before Threads will start publishing your live information. You’ll also be able to view any of your closest friends’ recent Instagram Stories from inside Threads too.

According to The Verge, the main motivation behind developing Threads could be Instagram’s desire to match the impressive levels of engagement that Snapchat enjoys with its users. The average Snapchat user spends more time using the app than the average Instagram user does. Adding something like constant sharing on top of a regular messaging app experience could be a way for Instagram to try and drive up those engagement numbers.

What is missing in the report from The Verge though, is news of a release date for Threads. At the moment, there is no way of knowing when we might see the new Instagram receive a general release on iOS and Android. Indeed, with other Instagram companion messaging apps making it this far along the development path without being released, there is no way to guarantee it will ever be released at all. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Gmail’s new feature could help you relax more when on vacation

Gmail and Hangouts Chats will show you when somebody you’re trying to contact is out of the office BEFORE you send a message

Out of office. Those three words are supposed to protect us from all things work related whenever we’re on vacation. We set up our Gmail out of office dates, pen an automatic response that explains to people how long we’ll be away for and then, theoretically at least, we walk away from our inboxes. We might also use the out of office feature when we’re away from our desks for business related tasks but everything we’ve just said still stands. We don’t want to be distracted when we’re using out of office features.

The trouble with out of office though, is that it only kicks in once somebody has already sent us an email. They send us an email and they’re told we’re away, but we still receive the email. If our notifications are still switched on that email will ping away in our pocket.

If this sounds like an annoying an unsatisfactory solution for when you’re out of the office, you’ll be pleased to hear about a great new Gmail feature.

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Gmail and Hangout Chats will show you when somebody you’re trying to contact is out of the office BEFORE you send a message

This is a very simple change for Google to make to Gmail. We already give the app all the information it needs to do this, it is just that now it will be displayed a little earlier. This is the type of eureka moment new feature that you can imagine everybody in the Gmail office thinking ‘Why didn’t I think of that?!?’

When it hits your Gmail account a small change will make a big difference. Whenever you put the Gmail address of somebody who has logged themselves as out of the office, you’ll see a banner at the bottom of the main text box telling you that the contact is out of the office and also letting you know when they’ll be back. The same goes for Google Hangouts, which will show the same banner in the same position.

The Google blog post, which recently announced this most common sense of new features says that all Gmail users should expect to see it within 1-3 days of September 16 this year, with Hangouts users seeing the same release schedule.

Combine this feature with Gmail’s recently unveiled scheduled send feature and you have a potent tool for both business and personal emails. Now, whenever you’re about to send an email to somebody who is away from their desk, you’ll be told when they’ll be back. Rather than sending the email anyway, you can simply schedule the email to go when you know they’ll be checking in on their inbox again. This stops the recipient from being disturbed wherever they may be and stops your email from ending up as one of a whole bunch that’ll be waiting for them whenever they log back in at the office. This feature helps everyone.

Google launches a bug bounty program

Google’s new Developer Data Protection Reward Program (DDPRP) is now targeting cases of data abuse and offers rewards of up to $50,000

The Google Play Store has been plagued with bugs, fake apps, phishing scams, and general malware for years. We’ve reported on an endless stream of malware discoveries in recent times with the stories falling either to security researchers who’ve discovered something not right or Google efforts to clean up some sort of mess.

With Google’s Android mobile operating system sitting at the heart of most of the smartphones on the planet, this prevalence of bad code is to be expected. It is even less of a surprise due to the open nature of the Android source code. Google wants anybody who can code to be able to contribute to the OS but unfortunately, that also opens it up to hackers and cyber criminals too.

It is in this environment that Google has recently announced the formation of a new program that will incentivize the reporting of bad code. This means it won’t just be relying on the good faith of the ‘good guys’ to out the behavior of the ‘bad guys.’

Google’s new Developer Data Protection Reward Program (DDPRP) is now targeting cases of data abuse and offers rewards of up to $50,000

The new DDPRP that Google recently announced in a blog post is now offering massive rewards to security researchers who can identify certain issues. The program is targeting cases of potential data abuse in apps that fit three categories. These are third-party apps that have access to the Google API, Android apps listed on the Play Store, and Chrome apps and extensions listed on the Chrome Web Store.

The blog post says, “In particular, the program aims to identify situations where user data is being used or sold unexpectedly, or repurposed in an illegitimate way without user consent. If data abuse is identified related to an app or Chrome extension, that app or extension will accordingly be removed from Google Play or Google Chrome Web Store.” Although the Android Developer’s Google blog post goes on to say that there will be no fixed table of rewards for certain types of discoveries it does make it clear that bounties will go up to $50,000.

This new Google initiative mirrors a recent move made by Facebook in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Like Google, Facebook has an incredibly large user base and so when user data was leaked it was on an industrial scale and the consequences rocked Western democracy as we know it. Facebook recently extended its bug bounty program to include Instagram apps and now Google has also moved to offer rewards to developers and programmers out there with a nose for sniffing out foul play.

Google hasn’t fallen victim to a huge infraction on the scale of the Cambridge Analytica debacle, that many analysts say Facebook is still reeling from today. As we mentioned earlier, however, it has been hit with multiple smaller scandals involving apps on the Google Play Store. With such huge numbers of apps being added to the store every day, freelancing out the bug hunting program is likely the most effective method of policing the platform.

How to detect fake apps in the Google Play Store in just 3 steps

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As to whether the move will prove successful in the long run and result in fewer outbreaks of malware etc. remains to be seen. It is refreshing, however, to see a pro-active move from the mountain view company.