Messaging
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You can now PayPal friends in Messenger and get help via chat
PayPal users in the U.S. will now be able to send and receive person-to-person payments over Facebook Messenger, the company announced this morning. The deeper integration with Messenger’s platform, which will also include PayPal’s first customer service bot for handling customer questions and requests for help, follows a series of tie-ups between the two companies. Last year,… Read More
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Cortana will now interrupt your Skype chats
Microsoft’s virtual assistant Cortana has finally arrived in Skype. Announced at last year’s Microsoft Build 2016 event, the assistant’s integration was also previewed when the company released an overhauled, Snapchat-inspired version of its mobile messaging app this summer. But Cortana for Skype wasn’t ready at that time. Now, the feature is live, offering users… Read More
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Echo’s messaging service may add support for SMS texts from your own ‘Alexa number’
Amazon appears to be planning an expansion of Alexa’s existing messaging capabilities to support sending SMS text messages to friends using your Echo device or Alexa app. That means Echo users could then text anyone using voice commands, not only other Echo owners. According to code found in the Amazon Alexa app, there are references to a new type of phone number – referred to… Read More
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Viber acquires Chatter Commerce, the startup behind its shopping keyboard
Messaging app Viber earlier this year made its first foray into shopping services with Instant Shopping, a feature that lets you search for items for sale via a keyboard when you have the messaging app open. Today, the company is announcing some more e-commerce related news: it’s buying the startup that helped build that feature. Viber has acquired Chatter Commerce, maker of a… Read More
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Intercom lands former Intuit exec Karen Peacock as its new COO
Intercom, a business messaging tool that enables companies to communicate directly with customers in an online context, announced today that it has hired former Intuit SVP Karen Peacock as company COO.
She joined the company May 30th, but they are making the news public for the first time today.
Peacock comes with an impressive resume that starts with a BA from Harvard and an MBA from Stanford. Read More
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YouTube’s mobile app will soon better display all video formats, add messaging
On the heels of a major redesign of its desktop site which delivered an overall cleaner look-and-feel and a “dark mode” for nighttime watching, YouTube this week announced it will soon roll out an update to its mobile app, as well. The new app will better support video shot in other formats and orientations, by dynamically adapting its player to whatever video you’re… Read More
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Facebook Messenger debuts a new look focused on improving navigation
Facebook Messenger is getting a new look. No, it’s not getting rid of its Stories feature, Messenger Day, but is instead making a series a smaller changes to the way the content on its home screen is organized in an effort to speed navigation and help you pick up where you left off on your last visit. The update introduces new tabs to the top of Messenger’s main screen for… Read More
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Let’s Watch It! allows friends to watch & react to videos together on iMessage
A new application for iMessage called “Let’s Watch It!” introduces an easy way for you to share and watch YouTube or Twitch videos with friends to watch together, as well as react to them, and even voice or video chat while viewing. The iMessage App Store doesn’t yet have a lot of breakout hits at this point, but group video chatting seems to be an exception. Last month,… Read More
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Google goes after Slack and splits Hangouts into Chat and Meet
Google’s messaging strategy can be confusing, but if there’s one thing that’s clear after today’s Cloud Next keynote, it’s that the company is doubling down on the idea that Hangouts is its enterprise product and Allo/Duo are its consumer communications apps. Google Allo gets improved GIF and emoji support, easier access to Google Assistant
Allo, the messaging app Google launched into a crowded market last September, is getting an update today. The update focuses on improved support for emoji and GIFs (because that is, after all, what the world needs), and easier access to the Google Assistant.
As far as we can tell, Allo has been anything but a hit for Google. With Hangouts, the company had a perfectly solid and competitive… Read More
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