Smarter Albums arrive on Google Photos

Albums become even more intelligent on Google Photos, thanks to this latest update.

We all love taking photos when on holiday, especially in places we’ve never been to before. But sorting through all of those captures after coming home isn’t a lot of fun, to say the least, especially if you're the happy snapper-sort of photographer.

Fortunately, the team at Google Photos has come up with a solution to solve your woes by automatically creating an album of your trip with your best memories, saving you the time and hassle of going through the laborious process yourself. Plus, maps and location pins are included so that you’ll know exactly which places you visited.

Hangouts 8.0 Supports Bundled Notifications, Direct Reply for Android N Users

Made the switch to Android N and use Hangouts a lot? You'll be pleased with this update...

Hangouts, once touted as the messaging app to rule them all, hasn't been receiving much of the attention as it once had. Google themselves has even encouraged users to install Google Messenger for their SMS and MMS needs. Sure, it’s got the right Material Design UI (which for a long time it didn’t) and in the previous 7.0 release, it finally received Quick Reply.

Nevertheless, Hangouts has been receiving the occasional bump in its version number. Let’s dive in and see what version 8.0 contains!

Bundled Notifications Support and Direct Reply

As you know, Google decided to release a preview version of the upcoming Android version, codenamed N (for Nutella? Or Nougat? We’ll soon enough find out... ;)) a few months earlier than usual, so that by the time the final version is ready, app developers and OEM would’ve had enough time to implement the new features in their apps.

Community Post Search, Multiple Image Re-ordering Roll Out on Google+ Web Preview

Two small but noteworthy features are brought out in this installment of the Google+ Web Preview updates.

It’s hard to believe it’s already been four months - give or take - since the Google+ Web Preview first saw the light of day. Since that time, updates have been coming in at a relatively fast pace, to the delight of us Google+ users.

Let’s see what the Google+ team has released for the Web Preview this week...

Google+ for iOS v5.3.0 Brings 3D Touch Support

A number of new updates have made their way to the latest version of the Google+ iOS app, including the implementation of 3D Touch

While a lot of the focus has been on the Google+ Android app and its weekly version number bump, its iOS counterpart has also been receiving its share of the update goodies. Let's find out what's in store this time round.

3D Touch Quick Actions

One of the most interesting features of last year’s iPhone 6S and 6S Plus was 3D Touch. This detects the amount of pressure being applied to the screen, responding to it with haptic feedback. For example, long-pressing an icon on the home screen will bring up a number of shortcuts - called Quick Actions - which can be selected simply by holding and dragging your finger to the desired action.