Google, the tech giant known for making our digital lives easier, offers a vast array of Google products and services for the common users. From search engines to cloud computing, Google has become an integral part of our daily lives. Google products and services portfolio is expansive, helping to the diverse needs of users worldwide. Whether you’re searching for information, staying organized, or connecting with others, Google’s innovative products continue to shape the digital landscape.

As Google expands its offerings, users can anticipate even more Google products and services designed to simplify and enhance their digital experiences. From consumer-focused services to developer tools, Google remains committed to innovation, ensuring that users have access to a wide range of tools and solutions.

In this article, I’ve collected some of the notable Google products and services that have revolutionized the way we live, work, and connect. Let’s have a look-

1. Google Search

Google Search is the cornerstone of the company, helping users find information on the internet. Known for its simplicity and efficiency, it has become synonymous with online searching.

2. Google Maps

Navigating the world has never been easier with Google Maps. This powerful mapping service provides directions, real-time traffic updates, and even local business information.

3. Google Chrome

Google Chrome is a popular web browser known for its speed, simplicity, and user-friendly interface. It supports a vast array of extensions, enhancing the browsing experience.

4. Gmail

Gmail is Google’s email service, offering a generous amount of storage, efficient spam filtering, and an intuitive interface. It has become a go-to email platform for millions of users.

5. Google Drive

Google Drive is a cloud storage service that allows users to store and share files securely. It integrates seamlessly with other Google products, making collaboration easy.

6. Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides

These are part of Google’s suite of productivity tools, offering online document editing, spreadsheet creation, and presentation building, respectively.

7. Google Calendar

Google Calendar helps users organize their schedules, set reminders, and share events with others. It syncs across devices, ensuring you stay on top of your plans.

8. Google Photos

Google Photos is a cloud-based photo storage service that automatically backs up and organizes your photos. It also offers powerful search capabilities using image recognition.

9. Google Translate

Breaking down language barriers, Google Translate provides instant translations between different languages. It supports text, speech, and even images for translation.

10. Google Assistant

Google Assistant is a virtual assistant that responds to voice commands, helping users perform tasks, answer questions, and control smart home devices.

11. Google Meet

With the rise of remote work, Google Meet has become a popular video conferencing tool, enabling virtual meetings and collaboration.

12. Android OS

Powering a majority of smartphones, Android is Google’s mobile operating system known for its flexibility, customization options, and a vast app ecosystem.

13. YouTube

Acquired by Google in 2006, YouTube is the go-to platform for sharing and watching videos. It covers a wide range of content, from educational videos to entertainment.

14. Google Ads

Formerly known as Google AdWords (Now Google Ads), this advertising platform allows businesses to promote their products or services through online advertisements.

15. Google Classroom

Especially relevant in the education sector, Google Classroom provides a digital platform for teachers and students to collaborate on assignments, share resources, and engage in virtual learning.

16. Google Earth

Google Earth offers a captivating way to explore the world through satellite imagery and 3D terrain. Users can virtually visit any location, view historical imagery, and even take guided tours.

17. Google Fit

For health enthusiasts, Google Fit helps track physical activity, set fitness goals, and monitor progress. It integrates with various fitness apps and wearable devices for a comprehensive overview of health data.

18. Google Keep

Google Keep is a note-taking and organization app that allows users to jot down thoughts, create to-do lists, and set reminders. It’s a handy tool for keeping important information at your fingertips.

19. Google News

Stay informed with Google News, a platform that aggregates news articles from various sources. It offers personalized news feeds based on user preferences and interests.

20. Google Trends

Providing insights into the popularity of search queries over time, Google Trends is a valuable tool for marketers, journalists, and anyone curious about the latest trends and topics.

21. Google Scholar

Aimed at academics and researchers, Google Scholar is a specialized search engine for scholarly articles, theses, and conference papers, making it a valuable resource for academic research.

22. Google Arts & Culture

Explore the world of art, history, and culture with Google Arts & Culture. Users can virtually tour museums, view high-resolution artworks, and learn about historical events.

23. Google Authenticator

Strengthening online security, Google Authenticator provides two-factor authentication for various accounts, adding an extra layer of protection against unauthorized access.

24. Google Firebase

Developers benefit from Google Firebase, a comprehensive platform offering various tools and services for building and scaling mobile and web applications.

25. Google Pay

Simplifying online and in-store transactions, Google Pay allows users to make payments securely using their smartphones. It supports contactless payments and peer-to-peer money transfers.

26. Google Podcasts

Dive into the world of podcasts with Google Podcasts, a user-friendly app that allows users to discover, subscribe to, and listen to podcasts on various topics.

27. Google Station

Addressing the need for accessible internet connectivity, Google Station aims to provide free Wi-Fi in public spaces, making the internet more readily available to communities around the world.

28. Google Jamboard

Enhancing collaborative brainstorming and ideation, Google Jamboard is a digital whiteboard that enables teams to work together in real-time, regardless of their physical locations. It will winddown in 2024.

29. Google Nest

Google’s foray into smart home technology, Nest offers a range of products such as smart thermostats, cameras, and doorbells, allowing users to create a connected and efficient home environment.

30. Google One

Google One is a subscription service that provides expanded cloud storage, allowing users to store more photos, videos, and files securely. It also comes with additional benefits like Google Play credits and family sharing options.

31. Google Fi

Google Fi is a mobile virtual network operator that provides phone plans with features like seamless switching between cellular networks and international data coverage, offering flexibility and cost-effectiveness for users.

32. Google Workspace

Formerly known as G Suite, Google Workspace is a suite of productivity tools for businesses and organizations. It includes Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, and other collaborative applications to enhance team communication and workflow.

33. Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Targeted at developers and businesses, GCP offers a wide range of cloud computing services, including computing power, storage, machine learning, and data analytics, enabling the building and scaling of applications.

34. Google Nest Hub

Combining the functionality of a smart speaker with a display, Google Nest Hub provides visual responses to voice commands, making it a versatile addition to smart home setups.

35. Google Pixel

Google Pixel is a line of smartphones known for their high-quality cameras and integration with Google’s latest software updates. It showcases Google’s vision for an Android-powered device.

36. Google Pixelbook

Google Pixelbook is a premium Chromebook that combines the simplicity of Chrome OS with high-end hardware, offering a versatile computing experience for users who live in the cloud.

37. Google Pixel Buds

Google Pixel Buds are wireless earbuds that provide a hands-free and intelligent audio experience, including real-time language translation and adaptive sound technology.

38. Google Fi for Families

Extending the features of Google Fi, Google Fi for Families allows multiple family members to share a plan, providing a cost-effective and convenient mobile solution for households.

39. Google API Explorer

Google API Explorer for developers tool that lets you try Google API methods without writing codes. It acts on real data.

40. Google Lens

Google lens is an image recognition technology developed by Google. It recognizes the images using visual analysis based on neural networks.

41. Google Gemini

Google Gemini is an AI model built from the ground up for multimodality – reasoning seamlessly across text, images, video, audio, and code.

42. Blogger

Blogger owned by Google is a blogging, a content management system, platform. Earlier it was a commercial blogging platform, later it was opened for all the users to share their thoughts and ideas. It is free, easy to use platform with free templates to create a blog.

43. Google Cloud IoT Core

Google Cloud IoT Core is a fully managed service that enables businesses to securely connect, manage, and ingest data from IoT devices at scale. It provides a robust infrastructure for building and deploying Internet of Things (IoT) solutions.

44. Google Cloud Bigtable

Google Cloud Bigtable is a highly scalable and fully managed NoSQL database service designed to handle large amounts of data with low-latency access. It is suitable for applications that require real-time analytics and high-throughput workloads.

45. Google Cloud Spanner

Google Cloud Spanner is a globally distributed and strongly consistent database service. It combines the benefits of traditional relational databases with the scalability and flexibility of NoSQL databases, making it suitable for mission-critical applications.

46. Google Cloud Pub/Sub

Google Cloud Pub/Sub is a messaging service that enables real-time communication between independent applications. It supports the creation of event-driven systems by allowing the exchange of messages between publishers and subscribers.

47. Google Cloud Dataflow

Google Cloud Dataflow is a fully managed stream and batch processing service for big data. It allows organizations to process and analyze data in real-time, making it valuable for applications that require up-to-date insights.

48. Google Cloud Dataprep

Google Cloud Dataprep is a cloud-based service that provides visual data preparation tools. It helps users clean, enrich, and transform raw data into a format suitable for analysis and machine learning.

49. Google Cloud Composer

Google Cloud Composer is a fully managed workflow orchestration service that allows users to automate, schedule, and monitor complex workflows. It is built on Apache Airflow and integrates with various Google Cloud services.

50. Google Cloud Apigee

Google Cloud Apigee is a full lifecycle API management platform that enables organizations to design, secure, deploy, and scale APIs. It facilitates the creation of modern, connected applications.

51. Google Cloud Endpoints

Google Cloud Endpoints is a distributed API management service that helps developers create, deploy, and manage APIs on Google Cloud. It provides tools for monitoring, securing, and scaling APIs.

52. Google Cloud Document AI

Google Cloud Document AI is designed to process and analyze structured and unstructured documents. It can extract information, classify documents, and facilitate automated document workflows.

53. Google Cloud VPN

VPN (Virtual Private Network) on Google Cloud allows organizations to securely connect their on-premises networks to the Google Cloud network, ensuring a private and encrypted connection.

54. Google Cloud AI Platform

The AI Platform on Google Cloud provides a collaborative environment for building, deploying, and managing machine learning models at scale. It supports the entire machine learning lifecycle, from data preparation to model deployment.

55. Google Cloud Dataproc

Dataproc is a fully managed cloud service for running Apache Spark and Apache Hadoop clusters. It enables organizations to process large datasets quickly and efficiently.

56. Google Cloud AutoML

Targeting businesses and developers, Google Cloud AutoML simplifies the process of building custom machine learning models for various applications, even without extensive machine learning expertise.

Conclusion

As technology evolves, we can expect Google to introduce even more tools that are reliable and simplify our online experiences. You can search various Android mobile apps in Google Play Store, connect your phone with your car display using Android auto, for entertainments use Android TV, for conversational AI tool use Bard, Cars with Google built in, use Chromecast Built in to connect your phone with TV, use Google Chat for messaging and teams collaboration, app for Google playbooks and audio book as well as Google play games for games, Google shopping and Google store, Google Waze for driving directions road conditions and live traffic, and many more from the exhaustive Google products and services list.

Samsung Electronics Co. and Internet giant Google Inc. are working together to offer improved messaging experiences to allow users to engage in group chats and video calls and transfer large files without the need for additional apps. The move comes at a time when many people are opting to use popular messaging apps, such as WhatsApp and WeChat instead of traditional SMS messaging.

As per the reports and Samsung mobile press release, in this collaboration, Android Messages and Samsung Messages will work together seamlessly, and it will boost coverage of Rich Communication Services (RCS), an upgrade to the SMS messaging system.

The South Korean tech giant said it would work to bring RCS features to existing mobile phones beginning with the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus. It also said its new Galaxy smartphones will natively support RCS messaging, starting with those on a set of carriers that have or will soon launch RCS.

“By furthering our robust partnership with Google, we will bring a richer messaging experience to our customers, letting them seamlessly chat with their friends and family across messaging platforms,” Patrick Chomet, Executive Vice President at Samsung’s Mobile Communications Business, said in comments posted on the website of Samsung Mobile Press on Wednesday.

“This collaboration will help further the industry’s momentum toward advanced messaging and global RCS coverage.”

Anil Sabharwal, Vice President for Communications Products and Photos at Google, said, “Our partnership will further advance our shared vision of a substantially improved messaging experience on Android for users, brands and the broader Android ecosystem.”

What is Rich Communication Services (RCS)

Rich Communication Services (RCS) messaging is the next evolution of SMS Text Messaging (sendmode[dot]com/what-is-rcs-messaging). With Google announcing the expansion of its RCS and the rolling out an Early Access Program for the service and Android Messages application will replace the current native messaging app for android – which will be powered by the Jibe RCS Cloud. Rich Communication Services is the communication between mobile carriers and between phone and carrier. It is aiming to replacing SMS messaging with a text-message system that is richer and more interactive to the user. Similar to Apples iMessage system, RCS will offer group chat, high-resolution photo sharing, read receipts etc.

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Samsung inspires the world and shapes the future with transformative ideas and technologies. The company is redefining the worlds of TVs, smartphones, wearable devices, tablets, digital appliances, network systems, and memory, system LSI, foundry and LED solutions.

About Google LLC.

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Through products and platforms like Search, Maps, Gmail, Android, Google Play, Chrome and YouTube, Google plays a meaningful role in the daily lives of billions of people and has become one of the most widely-known companies in the world. Google is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.

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As we have already covered the features of new Android P, the next version of Google’s OS in our previous article and the released features are more or less the same.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are the most important announcements made at Google I/O 2018 keynote presentation, and Google Assistant is ready to play an even more central role in Google’s ecosystem than it already has over the past few years. Apart from this, Google also unveiled newly updated version of Android P, which is available to developers (and anyone else who wants to install it on his or her Pixel phone).

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At the event, the search giant launched many features across products including Google Compose, which helps in writing emails faster, new Google News app with AI, Android P and more.

With the Android P Beta, Google aims to make Android smarter and easier to use than ever. Android P has machine learning at its core and will help the smartphone learn and adapt as per the usage.

Android P Updates

1. Google has partnered with Deep Mind, the world leader in artificial intelligence, to build Adaptive Battery for Android P.
2. The new App Actions feature – to help the user to get to the next tasks by quickly predicting what they might want to do next. Actions will show up in different places such as the Launcher, Smart Text Selection, the Play Store, the Google Search app and the Assistant. For instance, just as the user connects the headphone jack, the phone will perform an action to resume playing the favorite playlist
3. Slices – available only through Google Search. This feature will show results in slightly larger interactive snippets
4. Look and feel by introducing a new navigation system
5. New and improved Dashboard – shows how the user is spending time on the device including time spent in apps, number of times the phone has been unlocked and more
6. App Timer allows user to set time limits on apps
7. New Do Not Disturb mode that not only silences the phone calls and notifications, but also all the visual interruptions that pop up on your screen
8. ML Kit – a new set of cross-platform APIs available through Firebase which offers developers on-device APIs for text recognition, face detection, image labeling and more
9. A nutrition tracker –  can easily deploy our text recognition model to scan nutritional information and ML Kit’s custom model APIs to automatically classify over 200 different foods with your phone’s camera

The Android P Beta is available in Google Pixel devices, and will be available on a select few partner devices including

• Pixel 2 / Pixel 2 XL
• Pixel / Pixel XL
• Essential Phone PH1
• Sony Xperia XZ2
• OnePlus 6 (coming soon)
• Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S
• Nokia 7 Plus
• Oppo R15 Pro
• Vivo X21

How to install Android P Beta on your smartphones?

1. Go to android.com/beta
2. Sign up for Android P (users need to sign up with the same Google account  that they have signed in on their smartphone)
3. Accept Android Beta Program Terms of Service and share the feedback about Android P with the company from your device and by joining the Android Beta Program Google+ community
4. After you register, you’ll get a notification on your device about a system update being available. That’s Android P

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Google has today launched its smart speakers range. Google Home, Home Mini smart speakers were launched in India on an event in New Delhi. The Google Home and Google Home Mini will be available to buy online in the country exclusively via Flipkart, and will also be made available via offline stores such as Reliance Digital, Croma, Bajaj Electronics, Vijay Sales, Sangeetha, and Poorvika.

These speakers will support Google Play Music, YouTube, Netflix, Saavn, and Gaana. Hindi support will be added to Google Home speakers later this year.

The Google Home price in India is Rs. 9,999, a price that sees it compete directly with the Amazon Echo smart speaker – powered by the Alexa voice-based virtual assistant – in the country. Google Home will come in a Chalk fabric base, and Coral will come soon. The Amazon Echo is also priced at Rs. 9,999.

Likewise, the Google Home Mini competes with Amazon Echo Dot, and set at a price of Rs. 4,499 – same as the Echo Dot. Google Home Mini is available in Chalk and Charcoal fabric colors.

Google Home specifications

• Pre-installed with 6 Months Free Gaana, Saavn & Google Play Music Subscription
• Far-field Voice Recognition Supports Hands-free Use
• High Excursion Speaker with 2 inch Driver + Dual 2 inch Passive Radiators Delivers Clear Highs and Rich Bass
• For Android 4.4 or Higher, iOS 9.1 or Higher
• Power Requirement: 16.5 V
• W x H: 9.63 cm x 14.28 cm
• Weight: 477 g
• Power Requirement – 16.5 V
• Functions – Search Google, Get a Personalized Daily Briefing, Check Traffic, Add Items to Calendar, Make a Shopping List, Make a to Do List, Check Flight Status, Track a Package, Alarm
• Network connectivity – Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz / 5 Ghz))
• Supported Audio Formats – HE-AAC, LC-AAC+, MP3, Vorbis, WAV (LPCM), FLAC

Google Home Mini specifications

• Pre-installed with 6 Months Free Gaana, Saavn & Google Play Music Subscription
• Far-field Voice Recognition Supports Hands-free Use
• 360 Sound with 4 cm Driver
• For Android 4.4 or Higher, iOS 9.1 or Higher
• Power Requirement: 5 V
• W x H: 9.78 cm x 4.2 cm
• Weight: 173 g
• Power Requirement – 5 V
• OS Compatibility – Android 4.4 or Higher, iOS 9.1 or Higher
• Touch Pad – No
• Music Streaming – Google Play Music
• Output to Stereo System – Yes
• Compatible Brands – Nest, SmartThings, Philips Hue, IFTTT
• Functions – Search Google, Get a Personalized Daily Briefing, Check Traffic, Add Items to Calendar, Make a Shopping List, Make a to Do List, Check Flight Status, Track a Package, Alarm
• Network connectivity – Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
• Supported Audio Formats – HE-AAC, LC-AAC+, MP3, Vorbis, WAV (LPCM), FLAC

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WhatsApp rolled out a new feature in a Beta update where users can migrate their data to a new number without any issue. Users of iOS, Android and Windows Phone will soon be enabled with this update.

The new “Change Number” feature update is currently available in the 2.18.97 Android beta update on Google Play Store. It will come in iOS and Windows devices later.

“It adds many improvements to the old change number feature. You will be able to choose specific contacts to notify, and the chat history will be moved in the new chat on the recipients’ phone. This deletes the problem of duplicated chats,” tweeted WABetaInfo, a fan website that tracks upcoming WhatsApp features.

The user can now choose if he wants to also notify some or all contacts. “You can also choose to notify contacts who you have a chat with,” the report said.

Steps to change number in WhatsApp

To change the phone number in WhatsApp, you need to migrate your account and profile information, groups and settings from your old phone number to new phone number and need to delete the account associated with old phone number so that your contacts may not see your old number in their WhatsApp contact list.

If you use Change number feature in the WhatsApp, then your chat history will remain on your existing phone with the new phone number. But if you’re using new SIM/new contact number on new smartphone, then you need to change your number in old phone first and then follow data migration steps given in the next heading.

To change your phone number, you can follow below steps-

1. Insert new SIM card into your phone
2. Open WhatsApp and verify that your old phone number is currently verified by tapping on three vertical dots (more option) >> Settings >> tap on your profile photo.
3. Now again tap on more option >> Settings > Account > Change number.
4. Click on Next button which will ensure changing your phone number will migrate your account information, groups and settings.
5. Enter your old phone number in the first box with country code.
6. Enter your new phone number in the second box.
7. Tap Next (here you can notify your all contacts by selecting Notify Contacts or can select Custom to notify your changes to selected contacts)
8. Tap Done and then you’ll be prompted to verify your phone number, so do it to verify your new contact number by entering verification code sent to you by WhatsApp.

Steps to migrate data from old number to new number in WhatsApp

After the migration, in the recipient’s phone, all shared messages in the old chat will be transferred in the new one and in the chat will appear a new bubble, indicating that the user has a new number, WABetaInfo said.

WhatsApp now has 1.5 billion monthly active users (MAUs) who are exchanging nearly 60 billion messages on a single day. It has over 200 million users in India.

If you are using WhatsApp on the existing phone then you don’t need to migrate data from your old phone number to new phone number or contact number but if you’re using new device as well then you need to migrate data as well.

Follow below steps to migrate your WhatsApp data associated with your old contact number to new contact number which will be used in new device or smartphone.

1. First follow above steps to change number in Whatsapp
2. Since WhatsApp chats are automatically backed up and saved daily to your phone’s memory depending on your settings, also you can periodically back up your WhatsApp chats to Google Drive.
3. If you uninstall WhatsApp from your old phone, then on changing your phone number you can manually back up your chats on new phone before uninstalling it from the old phone.

1. How to take backup of WhatsApp Chat to Google Drive?

To take backup of WhatsApp chat to the Google Drive, you should have an active Gmail/Google account on your phone. Google Play services, an app that’s used to update Google apps and apps from the Google Play Store, should be installed on your phone.

1. To take backup of your chat, tap on more options > Settings > Chats > Chat backup > tap on BACK UP (if you’re using Google Drive for the WahtsApp chat backup).
2. Select a backup frequency to Daily, weekly or monthly.
3. Select the Google account you’d like to back up your chat history to.
4. Tap Back up over Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi or Cellular to choose the network you want to use for backups.
5. Toggle Yes to include video if you want to take backup of.

If you’re using iPhone then you can take backup to and from iCloud drive.

2. How to export WhatsApp Chat History?

1. Open the individual or group chat.
2. Tap on More options >> More >> Export chat.
3. Choose whether to export Without Media (40000 messages) or Include Media (10000 messages) and tap on respective options.

An email will be composed with your chat history attached as a .txt document.

3. How to restore your WhatsApp chat history from Google Drive?

You can transfer your WhatsApp data to a new phone by restoring from Google Drive and to do so follow below steps-

1. Uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp.
2. Open WhatsApp and verify your number by entering verification code.
3. RESTORE propmt comes to restore your chats and media from Google Drive.
4. Once the restoration is done, tap NEXT to complete the initialization. Now your chat messages will start appearing and subsequently your media files will be restored.

4. How to restore your WhatsApp chat from a local backup?

If you want to use backup from your local storage, then it can be done transferring files from your local computer or phone storage as below-

1. Your phone will store up to the last seven days worth of local backup files which are automatically created every day at 2:00 AM and saved as a file in your phone. You can check your data in /sdcard/WhatsApp/ folder or you can find it at “internal storage” or “main storage” folders of your phone and tap to Restore when prompted after reinstall WhatsApp.
2. or you can download a File Manager app in your smartphone, navigate to sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases in File Manager app. Rename the backup file you want to restore from msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt12 to msgstore.db.crypt12 and tap to Restore when prompted after reinstall WhatsApp.

WhatsApp is continuously upgrading the features of the app, in recent past WhatsApp reported about the peer to peer payment system and then introduced QR code for the same payment system.

Already, WhatsApp users can use single app for multiple accounts and also this can be used in Desktop/Laptop as well.

Other instant messaging Apps are also on the floor but they are far behind Whatsapp messaging app.

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With the increase in number of smartphones and increased telecom bandwidth in India, people are exploring video calling apart from the normal day to day calls with their dear ones. The voice calls are still a first choice for many and is hardly to be replaced by video calls, but that doesn’t mean video calls are a dud.

Most promising video calling apps are available for android and iOS users but the most popular apps in India that come with video calling feature are WhatsApp, Google Duo, and Facebook Messenger.

Let’s take a look of features these video calling apps are offering and comparing them as well that which one suits best in the field of speed and size.

1. WhatsApp Messenger

WhatsApp is undoubtedly the most popular messaging app. Currently it has over 200 million monthly active users in India only. The Facebook-owned app introduced the video calling feature in 2016.

During WhatsApp video calling, user can switch the cameras between the front and rear – the video being captured by your camera will be at the bottom right in a small rectangular widget that can be tapped to make full screen. You also see mute button, and a disable video call button, in addition to the end call button. In case you’re on a voice call on WhatsApp, you will now be able to switch to a video call by tapping a button in the call interface in the latest WhatsApp version for Android and iOS.

2. Google Duo

Google has several video calling apps such as Hangouts, however at the I/O conference in 2016, Google realized to focus more on messaging and calling apps. It launched the Google Allo and Google Duo apps at the conference.

Google Duo is comparatively simpler than WhatsApp since it doesn’t support textual messaging. It comes with voice and video calls only.

The Google Duo has an interesting feature called Knock Knock that lets the person who you are calling see your video before the call is answered. The app was recently updated with a fresh contact list and a recent list.

3. Facebook Messenger

Facebook Messenger was initially launched as one of the suite of apps from the social media giant. Facebook launched its Messenger independent of your Facebook profile however you can use Messenger with your Facebook account as well.

Alternatively you can sign up with your mobile number without having to create a Facebook profile if you don’t wish to.

If to think about which app is better, we can say Facebook Messenger has a lot more features than WhatsApp and Google Duo like lot of stickers, games, automated responses from brand pages, and chatbots, separate tab where your voice and video calls are saved, group calling, better interface, the video call screen has mute, video chat off and end call option.

Apart from above , there are two buttons Chat and Camera. Tapping on chat icon will bring you the chat screen while your video call is still running in a Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode.

WeChat, a Chinese multimedia messaging app recently crossed 1 Billion download which is also offering load of features.

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Android P Next Version Of Google OS – Find Out Top Biggest Features And Redesigns; Google has released the preview of the next version Android P. The new OS version is out in the form of Developer Preview 1 and is likely to get an official introduction in May during Google’s annual developer conference I/O 2018.

Although all the features of Android P are not revealed, yet some of the biggest changes are sought in the developer preview released-

Android P Features

1. Security enhancements

Android P introduces a number of new security features including a unified fingerprint authentication dialog and high-assurance user confirmation of sensitive transactions.

2. New image compression technology

Android P adds built-in support for High Dynamic Range (HDR) VP9 Profile 2, so you can now deliver HDR-enabled movies to your users from YouTube, Play Movies, and other sources on HDR-capable devices. Android P adds support for HEIF (heic) images encoding to the platform. HEIF improves compression to save on storage and network data thus it’s easy to send and utilize HEIF images from your backend server.

3. Multi-camera support and camera updates

Android P user can access streams simultaneously from two or more physical cameras on devices. With this feature, users can see seamless zoom, bokeh, and stereo vision. Other improvements in camera include new Session parameters that help to reduce delays during initial capture, and Surface sharing that lets camera clients handle various use-cases without the need to stop and start camera streaming.

4. Display cutout support

Android P offers support for the latest edge-to-edge screens with display cutout for camera and speaker. The new feature lets you find out the location and shape of the non-functional areas where content shouldn’t be displayed.

5. Notifications

Android P introduces several enhancements to notifications, all of which are available to developers targeting Android P.

6. Indoor Positioning with New wi-fi protocol

Android P adds platform support for the IEEE 802.11mc Wi-Fi protocol—also known as Wi-Fi Round-Trip-Time (RTT)—to let you take advantage of indoor positioning in your apps. On Android P devices with hardware support, your apps can use the new RTT APIs to measure the distance to nearby RTT-capable Wi-Fi Access Points (APs). The device must have location enabled and Wi-Fi scanning turned on.

7. Enhanced messaging experience

User of Android P can add an action to reply to messages or enter other text directly from a notification. Android P enhances this feature with which Android P now displays images in Messaging Notifications on phones, Save replies as drafts, Identify if a conversation is a group conversation and can send smart replies.

Android P simplifies notification channel settings, users can now block entire groups of channels within the notification settings.

8. Client-side encryption of Android backups

Android P enables encryption of Android backups with a client-side secret. Because of this privacy measure, the device’s PIN, pattern, or password is required to restore data from the backups made by the user’s device.

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As per the reports by Google (Alphabet Inc.) and Boston Consulting Group, India is headed for an exponential increase in digital payments methods and the digital payments industry in India becoming Asia’s third-largest economy. It is estimated that it will grow by 10 times to touch $500 billion by 2020 and contribute 15% of gross domestic product (GDP), the report predicted.

Introduction of smartphones, the entry of several non-banking institutions offering payment services, consumer readiness to adopt digital payments, progressive changes in the regulatory framework will power the trend, it said.

Also, the Digital India program is a flagship program of the Government of India with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. “Faceless, Paperless, Cashless” is one of professed role of Digital India.

As part of promoting cashless transactions and converting India into less-cash society, various modes of digital payments are available as below-

1. Banking Cards (Debit / Credit / Cash / Travel / Others)

Banking cards offer consumers more security, convenience, and control than any other payment method. The wide variety of cards available – including credit, debit and prepaid – offers enormous flexibility, as well. These cards provide 2 factor authentication for secure payments e.g secure PIN and OTP. RuPay, Visa, MasterCard are some of the example of card payment systems. Payment cards give people the power to purchase items in stores, on the Internet, through mail-order catalogues and over the telephone. They save both customers and merchants’ time and money, and thus enable them for ease of transaction.

2. Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD)

The innovative payment service *99# works on Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) channel. This service allows mobile banking transactions using basic feature mobile phone, there is no need to have mobile internet data facility for using USSD based mobile banking. It is envisioned to provide financial deepening and inclusion of under banked society in the mainstream banking services.

*99# service has been launched to take the banking services to every common man across the country. Banking customers can avail this service by dialing *99#, a “Common number across all Telecom Service Providers (TSPs)” on their mobile phone and transact through an interactive menu displayed on the mobile screen. Key services offered under *99# service include, inter-bank account to account fund transfer, balance inquiry, mini statement besides host of other services. *99# service is currently offered by 51 leading banks & all GSM service providers and can be accessed in 12 different languages including Hindi & English as on 30.11.2016 (Source: NPCI). *99# service is a unique inter-operable direct to consumer service that brings together the diverse ecosystem partners such as Banks & TSPs (Telecom Service Providers).

3. Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS)

AEPS is a bank led model which allows online interoperable financial transaction at PoS (Point of Sale / Micro ATM) through the Business Correspondent (BC)/Bank Mitra of any bank using the Aadhaar authentication.

4. Unified Payments Interface (UPI)

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application (of any participating bank), merging several banking features, seamless fund routing & merchant payments into one hood. It also caters to the “Peer to Peer” collect request which can be scheduled and paid as per requirement and convenience. Each Bank provides its own UPI App for Android, Windows and iOS mobile platform(s) such as Axis Pay, SBI Pay, PhonePe App, Google Tez App, BHIM UPI App, Bonus App – PNB UPI.

5. Mobile Wallets Or E-Wallets

A mobile wallet or E-Wallet is a way to carry cash in digital format. You can link your credit card or debit card information in mobile device to mobile wallet application or you can transfer money online to mobile wallet. Instead of using your physical plastic card to make purchases, you can pay with your smartphone, tablet, or smart watch. An individual’s account is required to be linked to the digital wallet to load money in it. Most banks have their e-wallets and some private companies and various startups have also launched E-Wallets in India. e.g. PayTM, Freecharge, Mobikwik, Oxigen, mRuppee, Airtel Money, Jio Money, SBI Buddy, itz Cash, Citrus Pay, Vodafone M-Pesa, Axis Bank Lime, ICICI Pockets, SpeedPay etc . are digital payment methods.

6. Banks Pre-Paid Cards

Prepaid debit cards, sometimes referred to as bank prepaid cards, are credit instruments that banks issue that give people an easy and adaptable way to manage their finances. Prepaid cards are independent of bank accounts, in contrast to conventional debit or credit cards that are connected to checking or credit accounts. Rather, they preload money onto the card, which they then use for a variety of payments up to the available balance.

7. Point Of Sale

A point of sale (PoS) is the place where sales are made. On a macro level, a PoS may be a mall, a market or a city. On a micro level, retailers consider a PoS to be the area where a customer completes a transaction, such as a checkout counter. It is also known as a point of purchase.

8. Internet Banking

Internet banking, also known as online banking, e-banking or virtual banking, is an electronic payment system/digital payment methods that enables customers of a bank or other financial institution to conduct a range of financial transactions through the financial institution’s website.

9. Mobile Banking

Mobile banking is a service provided by a bank or other financial institution that allows its customers to conduct different types of financial transactions remotely using a mobile device such as a mobile phone or tablet. It uses software, usually called an app, provided by the banks or financial institution for the purpose. Each Bank provides its own mobile banking App for Android, Windows and iOS mobile platform(s) which is one of the most popular digital payment methods now a days. 

10. Micro ATMs

Micro ATM meant to be a device that is used by a million Business Correspondents (BC) to deliver basic banking services. The platform will enable Business Correspondents (who could be a local kirana shop owner and will act as ‘micro ATM’) to conduct instant transactions.

The micro platform will enable function through low cost devices (micro ATMs) that will be connected to banks across the country. This would enable a person to instantly deposit or withdraw funds regardless of the bank associated with a particular BC. This device will be based on a mobile phone connection and would be made available at every BC. Customers would just have to get their identity authenticated and withdraw or put money into their bank accounts. This money will come from the cash drawer of the BC. Essentially, BCs will act as bank for the customers and all they need to do is verify the authenticity of customer using customers’ UID. The basic transaction types, to be supported by micro ATM, are Deposit, Withdrawal, Fund transfer and Balance inquiry.

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WhatsApp (A cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS and works under subscription business model) has launched a web client for the web browser that acts same as the phone application does.

The web browser “mirrors conversations and messages from your mobile device — this means all of your messages still live on your phone”, said a blog post on the WhatsApp blog (https://blog[dot]whatsapp[dot]com/whats-app-web).

Steps To Access WhatsApp On Desktops and Laptops

1. To connect your web browser to your WhatsApp client, simply open web[dot]whatsapp[dot]com in your Google Chrome browser.
2. Open WhatsApp in your mobile.
3. Tap on three vertical dots in upper right hand side in WhatsApp mobile.
4. Tap on WhatsApp Web
5. Scan QR code given at web[dot]whatsapp[dot]com in desktop/laptop browser from WhatsApp in your mobile
6. Once QR code is recognized then pairing of WhatsApp on your mobile and the WhatsApp web client has established.

Since it is mirroring your phone, the device will need to be connected to the net at all times. there is no web client for iOS users due to Apple platform limitations. With over 500 million users globally, WhatsApp till now was available only on smartphones across operating systems Android, iOS, Windows and BlackBerry.

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Frontback, among top 17 Photo sharing apps, A Photo Sharing App akin to Instagram (albeit with a much smaller user base), is expanding into the social media realm. Frontback lets you capture a photo of you and what you see. Take a photo with the front camera, another with the back camera, and share them both in a single image. It’s you and your perspective.

>>> Top 10 Most Popular Android Photography Apps You should Use

The app allows users to share two photos stitched together as one — one photo taken with the front-facing camera and the other with the rear-facing camera, hence the name — and added both public and private comments on Thursday. Now users can respond to images they see in their stream, sending back their own image or video complete with text if they want.

It’s one of the first major product changes for Frontback, which launched just over a year ago and gained early attention thanks to celebrity users like Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and actor Ashton Kutcher (an investor). The San Francisco-based startup, which took a $3 million seed round shortly after launch, has been relatively quiet since.

App Features

— Capture moments & events using the front and back camera
— Share photos instantly via all standard iPhone sharing features
— Explore many feeds including: recent posts, staff picks and posts your friends liked
— Follow friends, family or other community members
— Frontback Reactions: Interact with friends by commenting on their posts with text and/or photo

Frontback was recently acquired and is managed by a fresh new team with lots of new ideas to make ths fun photo social app more interesting!

One can download this app from Google Play store and App store for their respective devices.

Top 17 Photo Sharing Apps

1. Instagram
2. EyeEM
3. Flickr
4. PhotoBucket
5. Snappr
6. StreamZoo
7. Trover
8. TouchReTouch
9. Cluster
10. SnapSeed by Google (developed by Nik Software), SnapSeed Android, SnapSeed iOS
11. VSCO
12. Tumblr
13. AfterFocus
14. FacebookMoments
15. Google Photos
16. ImGur
17. Foap

Image credit- Canva