XDA: juillet 2017

lundi 31 juillet 2017

LG V20 Receives a Port of WakeBlock to Help Control Wakelocks

WakeBlock is an application that lets you control wakelocks so that your smartphone or tablet stays in a deep sleep mode. There is now an unofficial port of this system modification for the LG V20 thanks to XDA Senior Member Zacharee1. As with the original application, it is considered to be in an early alpha stage with more features coming soon. For this port though, you need to take additional steps outlined in the original post including replacing the /system/framework/services.jar file, adjusting some file permissions and more. Check it out by following the link below!

Check out this port of WakeBlock in our LG V20 forum

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LG V20 Receives a Port of WakeBlock to Help Control Wakelocks

Check out this port of WakeBlock in our LG V20 forum

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Google Chrome Canary and Dev Builds Now Come with Built-In Ad Blocker

Google depends on advertising for its revenue. It is to serve this purpose that the company collects all relevant data across all of its users. Our browsing habits, our shopping-related searches, our weekly schedule — all of these are of interest to Google because they grant an insight into our lives, allowing Google to serve personalized ads that have a higher chance to resonate with viewers.

So earlier this year, when reports emerged that Google was looking to incorporate an ad blocker in Google Chrome – its main browser that serves millions of Android users – many people were initially surprised. After all, ads are Google's forte, so blocking them natively seems like a strange idea. However, the reports clarified that even though the ad blocker would be turned on by default, it will only block out those specific types of ads that are deemed too intrusive and that negatively affect a user's browsing experience.

Google's ad block plans were scheduled for public appearance in 2018, but it appears that the feature is already under testing. Some users on Google Chrome's Canary and Dev branches are now seeing a new option within the app's settings called "Ads", which is where the user-facing toggle for the ad blocker will reside. The ad blocker is toggled on by default, but you do have the option to turn it off.

This setting focuses squarely on intrusive ads and not all ads (as other ad blockers usually do). The definition of intrusive ads, and the boundaries of said classification, are being decided by the Coalition for Better Ads, which Google participates in. The new standards define what offending ads are by how they hamper the user experience, and Google utilizes these standards to block out intrusive advertisements. Ads that are targeted through the ad blocker include pop-up ads, countdown timers, auto-playing audio and video ads and a few others; and unsurprisingly, Google's own advertisements will remain largely unaffected.

Implementing a native ad blocker that targets negative ads will actually increase ad revenue for Google. Many ad block users look for ways to filter out terrible and intrusive ads, and using an ad blocker means that other acceptable and non-intrusive advertisements also get caught in the same net. By specifically targeting intrusive ads, Google hopes to decrease the reliance on nondiscriminatory ad blockers, and thus, increase revenue by preventing less intrusive ads to remain unblocked.

What are your thoughts on Google Chrome's native ad blocker? Will such an implementation replace the use of other ad blockers for you? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: Caschys Blog

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Google Chrome Canary and Dev Builds Now Come with Built-In Ad Blocker

So earlier this year, when reports emerged that Google was looking to incorporate an ad blocker in Google Chrome – its main browser that serves millions of Android users – many people were initially surprised. After all, ads are Google’s forte, so blocking them natively seems like a strange idea. However, the reports clarified that even though the ad blocker would be turned on by default, it will only block out those specific types of ads that are deemed too intrusive and that negatively affect a user’s browsing experience.

Google’s ad block plans were scheduled for public appearance in 2018, but it appears that the feature is already under testing. Some users on Google Chrome’s Canary and Dev branches are now seeing a new option within the app’s settings called “Ads”, which is where the user-facing toggle for the ad blocker will reside. The ad blocker is toggled on by default, but you do have the option to turn it off.

This setting focuses squarely on intrusive ads and not all ads (as other ad blockers usually do). The definition of intrusive ads, and the boundaries of said classification, are being decided by the Coalition for Better Ads, which Google participates in. The new standards define what offending ads are by how they hamper the user experience, and Google utilizes these standards to block out intrusive advertisements. Ads that are targeted through the ad blocker include pop-up ads, countdown timers, auto-playing audio and video ads and a few others; and unsurprisingly, Google’s own advertisements will remain largely unaffected.

What are your thoughts on Google Chrome’s native ad blocker? Will such an implementation replace the use of other ad blockers for you? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: Caschys Blog

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Vic Gundotra (Ex-Google VP): If You Care About Great Photography, You Own an iPhone

The name Vic Gundotra if pretty well known within the Android community as he used to lead Google's mobile division when he worked for them. He's likely more known for his contributions to services like Google+ though, but his work also touched other areas within the company. He is credited for a lot of the work done to early versions of Google Maps and worked to grow Google I/O, but then decided to resign after 7 years of being with the company.

Mr. Gundotra recently made some comments in a Facebook post on how he feels about the state of photography when it comes to Android and iOS. The post started off innocently with him simply sharing two photos of his children that he took on an iPhone 7+ using Portrait Mode. He was so impressed with the quality of the photos that he specifically praised Apple on the work they've done with their computational photography feature (aka Portrait Mode).

Someone replied to this post and agreed that the era of lugging around a huge DSLR camera was indeed over, and said their Galaxy S8 does an even better job. This is where things take a turn as Mr. Gundotra replied less than 10 minutes later to say he would never use an Android phone for photos. Surprising a lot of people, they asked why this was and this gave him time to explain what he meant by the whole comment.

Android is an open source (mostly) operating system that has to be neutral to all parties. This sounds good until you get into the details. Ever wonder why a Samsung phone has a confused and bewildering array of photo-options? Should I use the Samsung Camera? Or the Android Camera? Samsung gallery or Google Photos?

It's because when Samsung innovates with the underlying hardware (like a better camera) they have to convince Google to allow that innovation to be surfaced to other applications via the appropriate API. That can take YEARS.

Also the greatest innovation isn't even happening at the hardware level – it's happening at the computational photography level. (Google was crushing this 5 years ago – they had had "auto awesome" that used AI techniques to automatically remove wrinkles, whiten teeth, add vignetting, etc… but recently Google has fallen back).

Apple doesn't have all these constraints. They innovate in the underlying hardware, and just simply update the software with their latest innovations (like portrait mode) and ship it.

Bottom line: If you truly care about great photography, you own an iPhone. If you don't mind being a few years behind, buy an Android.

He claims Android being open source and needing to be neutral to all OEMs is why it is slower to innovate than Apple is with the iPhone. He then claims a Samsung phone has a "confused and bewildering array of photo-options" but doesn't really go into detail about what he means here other than mentioning a Samsung Camera, Android Camera, Samsung Gallery and Google Photos application. So maybe having too many options available to him is what makes things confusing, though in terms of camera apps Samsung only offers its stock Camera pre-installed.

He does then go on to say that when Samsung innovates with hardware (like putting in a new camera module feature), they are forced to "convince Google" to implement the appropriate API into Android and that can take years. Although, Samsung does create their own APIs for the hardware they use in their devices, so it's unclear exactly how using an Android device makes you "a few years behind" as Vic Gundotra puts it.

What do you think of Mr. Gundotra's statements? Do you agree with his assessment? Sound off below!

Via: The Next Web Source: Facebook

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Vic Gundotra (Ex-Google VP): If You Care About Great Photography, You Own an iPhone

The name Vic Gundotra if pretty well known within the Android community as he used to lead Google’s mobile division when he worked for them. He’s likely more known for his contributions to services like Google+ though, but his work also touched other areas within the company. He is credited for a lot of the work done to early versions of Google Maps and worked to grow Google I/O, but then decided to resign after 7 years of being with the company.

Mr. Gundotra recently made some comments in a Facebook post on how he feels about the state of photography when it comes to Android and iOS. The post started off innocently with him simply sharing two photos of his children that he took on an iPhone 7+ using Portrait Mode. He was so impressed with the quality of the photos that he specifically praised Apple on the work they’ve done with their computational photography feature (aka Portrait Mode).

It’s because when Samsung innovates with the underlying hardware (like a better camera) they have to convince Google to allow that innovation to be surfaced to other applications via the appropriate API. That can take YEARS.

Also the greatest innovation isn’t even happening at the hardware level – it’s happening at the computational photography level. (Google was crushing this 5 years ago – they had had “auto awesome” that used AI techniques to automatically remove wrinkles, whiten teeth, add vignetting, etc… but recently Google has fallen back).

Apple doesn’t have all these constraints. They innovate in the underlying hardware, and just simply update the software with their latest innovations (like portrait mode) and ship it.

Bottom line: If you truly care about great photography, you own an iPhone. If you don’t mind being a few years behind, buy an Android.

He claims Android being open source and needing to be neutral to all OEMs is why it is slower to innovate than Apple is with the iPhone. He then claims a Samsung phone has a “confused and bewildering array of photo-options” but doesn’t really go into detail about what he means here other than mentioning a Samsung Camera, Android Camera, Samsung Gallery and Google Photos application. So maybe having too many options available to him is what makes things confusing, though in terms of camera apps Samsung only offers its stock Camera pre-installed.

He does then go on to say that when Samsung innovates with hardware (like putting in a new camera module feature), they are forced to “convince Google” to implement the appropriate API into Android and that can take years. Although, Samsung does create their own APIs for the hardware they use in their devices, so it’s unclear exactly how using an Android device makes you “a few years behind” as Vic Gundotra puts it.

What do you think of Mr. Gundotra’s statements? Do you agree with his assessment? Sound off below!

Via: The Next Web Source: Facebook

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Guide Shows You How to Build a Custom ROM with Microsoft Azure

Building a custom ROM can take a long time if you don't have high-end hardware and it can take even longer if your bandwidth is limited and/or very low speed. Thankfully though, there are a number of cloud computing platforms available and Microsoft Azure is one of the most popular options. So XDA Senior Member Albe96 has put together a detailed step by step guide on how to use a Microsoft Azure server to build your own custom ROM in the cloud. It'll also give you a general idea of the service in case you have other uses for it too!

Check out this guide in our Chef Central forum

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Guide Shows You How to Build a Custom ROM with Microsoft Azure

Building a custom ROM can take a long time if you don’t have high-end hardware and it can take even longer if your bandwidth is limited and/or very low speed. Thankfully though, there are a number of cloud computing platforms available and Microsoft Azure is one of the most popular options. So XDA Senior Member Albe96 has put together a detailed step by step guide on how to use a Microsoft Azure server to build your own custom ROM in the cloud. It’ll also give you a general idea of the service in case you have other uses for it too!

Check out this guide in our Chef Central forum

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Samsung’s Industry-First Cat.18 6CA LTE Modem Hits 1.2Gb/s Downlink Speed

When Samsung announced the Exynos 9 Series SoC (with the 8895) earlier this year, the company was proud to talk about its new LTE modem. Like with the announcement we're seeing today with the Cat.18 modem, their Cat.16 LTE modem used in the Exynos 8895 came with support for 5CA (carrier aggregation). This enabled the chip to theoretically hit a maximum download speeds of 1.0Gbps — if the stars aligned and you were connected to the proper LTE towers.

Today, the company has taken this a step further and announced their new Cat.18 LTE modem and it includes improved carrier aggregation as well. Instead of 5CA like we saw earlier this year, this new chip will support 6CA and come with a 20% increase in download speeds. So again, if everything falls into place properly then this new LTE modem from Samsung should be capable of 1.2Gbps which could let you download an entire HD movie in 10 seconds.

For those unaware, Carrier Aggregation in these LTE modems combines a number of component carriers with different bandwidths. This is what results in the increased upload and download speeds as well as an overall improved network performance. So 5CA allowed for 5 different carrier bandwidths while the new 6CA support increases this to 6. This technology also includes support for 4×4 MIMO (Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output) and higher-order 256 QAM (Quadrature amplitude modulation) in an attempt to maximize the data transfer rate too.

This won't mean much for those in the United States as wireless carriers here are only aggregating three LTE channels at most (although Sprint did promise four carrier aggregation next year). We're told that this new Cat.18 LTE modem will go into mass production "by the end of this year." We aren't given a date, but it's safe to assume it will not make its way into a new smartphone until next year.

Source: Samsung Newsroom

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Samsung’s Industry-First Cat.18 6CA LTE Modem Hits 1.2Gb/s Downlink Speed

When Samsung announced the Exynos 9 Series SoC (with the 8895) earlier this year, the company was proud to talk about its new LTE modem. Like with the announcement we’re seeing today with the Cat.18 modem, their Cat.16 LTE modem used in the Exynos 8895 came with support for 5CA (carrier aggregation). This enabled the chip to theoretically hit a maximum download speeds of 1.0Gbps — if the stars aligned and you were connected to the proper LTE towers.

This won’t mean much for those in the United States as wireless carriers here are only aggregating three LTE channels at most (although Sprint did promise four carrier aggregation next year). We’re told that this new Cat.18 LTE modem will go into mass production “by the end of this year.” We aren’t given a date, but it’s safe to assume it will not make its way into a new smartphone until next year.

Source: Samsung Newsroom

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Three New MIUI 9 Themes Available for Download on the Redmi Note 4

Xiaomi just announced and subsequently launched MIUI 9 this month. It’s been made available as an alpha/beta China ROM for a couple of devices already, and comes with new features as well as some new themes. For those who have the Redmi Note 4 and don’t want to wait for the official update, XDA Member PawanRockz has provided us with the new themes from MIUI 9. This single download includes Color Fantasy, Limitless, and Cool Black. If you are on MIUI 8 and want to check them out, follow the forum link below to preview and download the themes!

Check out these themes in our Redmi Note 4 forum

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Three New MIUI 9 Themes Available for Download on the Redmi Note 4

Xiaomi just announced and subsequently launched MIUI 9 this month. It's been made available as an alpha/beta China ROM for a couple of devices already, and comes with new features as well as some new themes. For those who have the Redmi Note 4 and don't want to wait for the official update, XDA Member PawanRockz has provided us with the new themes from MIUI 9. This single download includes Color Fantasy, Limitless, and Cool Black. If you are on MIUI 8 and want to check them out, follow the forum link below to preview and download the themes!

Check out these themes in our Redmi Note 4 forum

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Apktool Receives an Update to 2.2.4, Includes Security Fixes and More

Apktool is s very popular piece of software among some of the more dedicated Android enthusiasts. The software has made headlines time and time again with the most recent being in June when Connor Tumbleson was able to receive sponsorship for the project thanks to Sourcetoad. Today, he has announced a new update which brings its version up to 2.2.4 and comes with some important security patches along with a few slowdown fixes when decoding applications.

In case you're unaware, Apktool is a piece of software that has been written in Java which mainly allows you to disassemble/reverse engineer 3rd party Android applications. Granted, it also does a lot of other things as well, but most people know it for its reverse engineering capabilities. Mr. Tumbleson has just pushed out a big update over the weekend that is likely to make a lot of people happy with the specific fixes that it comes with.

As mentioned, version 2.2.4 comes with some important security fixes. These issues were disclosed by Chris Shepherd (IBM Security) & Eran Vaknin, Gal Elbaz, Alon Boxiner (Checkpoint), and did so responsibly so that Apktool could be patched before things got out of hand. If you'd like to read into these vulnerabilities in more detail, then you can read more about them here. To summarize, this update patched a XXE Attack (which is more formally known as a XML eXternal Entity Attack) and a XXE OOB Attack (known as the XML eXternal Out-Of-Band Attack) and an Apktool Path Traversal exploit.

There were also some reports of Apktool slowing down when it was used to decode an Android application. There were a number of instances in which this happened and a few of them have been fixed in this update. For those who use Apktool in any public facing environment, then it is highly advised that you update the software immediately. If you're using it in your own personal environment though then the security patches are less important and you can update it as your own leisure.

Apktool v2.4.4 Changelog

[#1520] – Android O Final Dev Preview Support
[#591] – SnakeYAML 1.1.8 (Android Support)
[#1489] – Fix issue with APKs taking longer than usual to parse resources. (Thanks MarcMil)
[#1543] – Fix issue with internal binaries not accessible in a Spring boot environment. (Thanks bingqiao)
[#1520] – Fix issues with rebuilding applications originally built with aapt2.
[#1532] – Patch aapt to support the $ character in resource filenames.
[#1561] – Fix issue where apktool was holding locks onto files during execution. (Thanks MarcMil)
[#1534] – Fix issue with APKs that last resource in pool is INVALID_TYPE_CONFIG.
[#1564] – Fix issue with APKs that are including malformed characters to break parser.
Only exit with 0 error code during version commands.
Enforce license header on all source files.
[Security] Prevent malicous directory traversal with unknown files.
[Security] Prevent XXE vulnerability when given a malicious AndroidManifest.xml
Upgrade to gradle 4.0.

Source: Connor Tumbleson

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Apktool Receives an Update to 2.2.4, Includes Security Fixes and More

In case you’re unaware, Apktool is a piece of software that has been written in Java which mainly allows you to disassemble/reverse engineer 3rd party Android applications. Granted, it also does a lot of other things as well, but most people know it for its reverse engineering capabilities. Mr. Tumbleson has just pushed out a big update over the weekend that is likely to make a lot of people happy with the specific fixes that it comes with.

As mentioned, version 2.2.4 comes with some important security fixes. These issues were disclosed by Chris Shepherd (IBM Security) & Eran Vaknin, Gal Elbaz, Alon Boxiner (Checkpoint), and did so responsibly so that Apktool could be patched before things got out of hand. If you’d like to read into these vulnerabilities in more detail, then you can read more about them here. To summarize, this update patched a XXE Attack (which is more formally known as a XML eXternal Entity Attack) and a XXE OOB Attack (known as the XML eXternal Out-Of-Band Attack) and an Apktool Path Traversal exploit.

There were also some reports of Apktool slowing down when it was used to decode an Android application. There were a number of instances in which this happened and a few of them have been fixed in this update. For those who use Apktool in any public facing environment, then it is highly advised that you update the software immediately. If you’re using it in your own personal environment though then the security patches are less important and you can update it as your own leisure.

Apktool v2.4.4 Changelog

[#1520] – Android O Final Dev Preview Support
[#591] – SnakeYAML 1.1.8 (Android Support)
[#1489] – Fix issue with APKs taking longer than usual to parse resources. (Thanks MarcMil)
[#1543] – Fix issue with internal binaries not accessible in a Spring boot environment. (Thanks bingqiao)
[#1520] – Fix issues with rebuilding applications originally built with aapt2.
[#1532] – Patch aapt to support the $ character in resource filenames.
[#1561] – Fix issue where apktool was holding locks onto files during execution. (Thanks MarcMil)
[#1534] – Fix issue with APKs that last resource in pool is INVALID_TYPE_CONFIG.
[#1564] – Fix issue with APKs that are including malformed characters to break parser.
Only exit with 0 error code during version commands.
Enforce license header on all source files.
[Security] Prevent malicous directory traversal with unknown files.
[Security] Prevent XXE vulnerability when given a malicious AndroidManifest.xml
Upgrade to gradle 4.0.

Source: Connor Tumbleson

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WakeBlock Lets You Prevent Wakelocks on the Nexus 6P

Battery life issues that Android owners complain about are almost always caused by an application waking up the phone when it is idle and/or not in use. Google has been working to fix this (with Doze), and will continue doing work in this area with Android O. For now though, XDA Member GioBozza has released a system modification called WakeBlock for the Nexus 6P that lets you control which wakelocks are allowed. We’re told the application is in an alpha state though (so have a recent backup made) and is missing a lot of the options which are currently planned.

Check out WakeBlock in our Nexus 6P forum

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WakeBlock Lets You Prevent Wakelocks on the Nexus 6P

Battery life issues that Android owners complain about are almost always caused by an application waking up the phone when it is idle and/or not in use. Google has been working to fix this (with Doze), and will continue doing work in this area with Android O. For now though, XDA Member GioBozza has released a system modification called WakeBlock for the Nexus 6P that lets you control which wakelocks are allowed. We're told the application is in an alpha state though (so have a recent backup made) and is missing a lot of the options which are currently planned.

Check out WakeBlock in our Nexus 6P forum

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Tweaks to Increase Performance of a Nexus 6P After Bootloop Fix

We recently featured a couple of guides on how to fix both the Nexus 6P and the Nexus 5X from bootlooping. This was thanks to a boot image XDA Senior Member XCnathan32 put together that disabled some cores to make it work. While it stopped the bootloop issue, it decreased performance, but if you decrease the screen resolution (to 1080p) and disable animations then those slowdowns aren't as apparent as they were before. Follow the link below in order to learn how you can maximize performance on your fixed device!

Check out this performance update in our Nexus 6P forum

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Tweaks to Increase Performance of a Nexus 6P After Bootloop Fix

We recently featured a couple of guides on how to fix both the Nexus 6P and the Nexus 5X from bootlooping. This was thanks to a boot image XDA Senior Member XCnathan32 put together that disabled some cores to make it work. While it stopped the bootloop issue, it decreased performance, but if you decrease the screen resolution (to 1080p) and disable animations then those slowdowns aren’t as apparent as they were before. Follow the link below in order to learn how you can maximize performance on your fixed device!

Check out this performance update in our Nexus 6P forum

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Huawei Abandons the Low-End Segment, Aims to Compete Directly Against Apple

Huawei has continuously grown as a smartphone company to become the number 3 OEM in the world. They recently overtook OPPO in China during the first quarter of this year when they shipped one fifth of the country’s overall sales (by shipping 20.8 million smartphones). Their revenue growth did slow during the first half of the year, thanks to advertising costs and research into 5G technology, but now Huawei has decided to change up its business strategy.

First, the company plans to compete directly with the likes of Apple’s upcoming 10th anniversary iPhone. The company’s chief of Huawei’s consumer division, Richard Yu, came out and said the Huawei Mate 10 will be more powerful than what Apple plans to release with their upcoming iPhone. We’ve come to learn that Apple’s own custom chipset typically outpaces anything that Android devices use when it comes to synthetic benchmarks, but Mr. Yu focuses on specific areas here.

He says the Mate 10 will have a battery that will be able to last longer than Apple’s upcoming iPhone, and it will also charge much faster than it can as well. He mentions a “full-screen display,” which seems to coincide with some of the leaked renders we’ve seen published these last two weeks. Mr. Yu also boasts the photography capabilities of the Mate 10 and says their camera will perform better than Apple’s will too. He ends his statement by saying they also have “many other features” that will help them compete.

Huawei is said to ship up to 150 million smartphones by the end of 2017 as the company is making Europe, Japan and China their #1 priority. Mr. Yu even announced that Huawei’s business strategy is changing as they’ve decided to get out of the “very low-end” smartphone market entirely. He says that the profits from these devices are just too low that they can no longer spend any resources to continue manufacturing them.

Source: Bloomberg

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Huawei Abandons the Low-End Segment, Aims to Compete Directly Against Apple

Huawei has continuously grown as a smartphone company to become the number 3 OEM in the world. They recently overtook OPPO in China during the first quarter of this year when they shipped one fifth of the country's overall sales (by shipping 20.8 million smartphones). Their revenue growth did slow during the first half of the year, thanks to advertising costs and research into 5G technology, but now Huawei has decided to change up its business strategy.

First, the company plans to compete directly with the likes of Apple's upcoming 10th anniversary iPhone. The company's chief of Huawei's consumer division, Richard Yu, came out and said the Huawei Mate 10 will be more powerful than what Apple plans to release with their upcoming iPhone. We've come to learn that Apple's own custom chipset typically outpaces anything that Android devices use when it comes to synthetic benchmarks, but Mr. Yu focuses on specific areas here.

He says the Mate 10 will have a battery that will be able to last longer than Apple's upcoming iPhone, and it will also charge much faster than it can as well. He mentions a "full-screen display," which seems to coincide with some of the leaked renders we've seen published these last two weeks. Mr. Yu also boasts the photography capabilities of the Mate 10 and says their camera will perform better than Apple's will too. He ends his statement by saying they also have "many other features" that will help them compete.

Huawei is said to ship up to 150 million smartphones by the end of 2017 as the company is making Europe, Japan and China their #1 priority. Mr. Yu even announced that Huawei's business strategy is changing as they've decided to get out of the "very low-end" smartphone market entirely. He says that the profits from these devices are just too low that they can no longer spend any resources to continue manufacturing them.

Source: Bloomberg

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Hands on with the Maze Alpha: Big Bezel-less on a Budget

The Maze Alpha offers a solution to those who want a high-end looking bezel-less phone, without spending the high-end price. With other features like 4 or 6GB of RAM, a 4,000mAh battery, a dual-lens camera and a Helio P25 chipset, the Maze Alpha is a serious bargain for a phone with a 6″ screen.

With a sub-$200 price tag, the Maze Alpha packs a 6″ screen with a 1920×1080 resolution. This makes for an 83% screen-to-body ratio. The large bezel-less display is undeniably an awesome viewing experience.

A 4000mAh battery powers this device to give you a battery that will last all day long. With a USB Type C connector, the Maze Alpha has fast -charging capabilities.

The selfie camera on the Maze Alpha has been moved to the bottom of the phone to make room for the bezel-less display at the top.

The Maze Alpha does not skip out on camera quality. The dual-lens camera houses 13MP and 5MP sensors that do a great job on taking crystal clear photos. For selfies, you have a 5MP camera that sits at the bottom of the phone near the home button. The phone can be rotated so that the selfie cam is on the top, or you can keep it on the bottom.

The Helio P25 chipset makes running Android 7.0 smooth and lag-free. Combine this with 4GB of RAM and you've got yourself some pretty serious specs for what you're paying for this device.

The Maze Alpha comes with a dual-lens setup with 13MP and 5MP sensors.

With a thickness of 8.1mm and weighing 225 grams, the Maze Alpha feels as premium as it looks.

Overall, the Maze Alpha is a great phone at a killer price. The screen is the best feature and is sure to be a hit with anyone who loves big displays. Use code MAZE4G to get a discount at checkout with the below link.

Get the Maze Alpha

We thank Maze Mobile for sponsoring this post. Our sponsors help us pay for the many costs associated with running XDA, including server costs, full time developers, news writers, and much more. While you might see sponsored content (which will always be labeled as such) alongside Portal content, the Portal team is in no way responsible for these posts. Sponsored content, advertising and XDA Depot are managed by a separate team entirely. XDA will never compromise its journalistic integrity by accepting money to write favorably about a company, or alter our opinions or views in any way. Our opinion cannot be bought.

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Hands on with the Maze Alpha: Big Bezel-less on a Budget

A 4000mAh battery powers this device to give you a battery that will last all day long. With a USB Type C connector, the Maze Alpha has fast -charging capabilities.

The selfie camera on the Maze Alpha has been moved to the bottom of the phone to make room for the bezel-less display at the top.

The Helio P25 chipset makes running Android 7.0 smooth and lag-free. Combine this with 4GB of RAM and you’ve got yourself some pretty serious specs for what you’re paying for this device.

The Maze Alpha comes with a dual-lens setup with 13MP and 5MP sensors.

With a thickness of 8.1mm and weighing 225 grams, the Maze Alpha feels as premium as it looks.

Get the Maze Alpha

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FCC Filing Indicates HTC Could Enable Bluetooth 5.0 on the U11 Via a Software Update

A new FCC filing from HTC shows that the company is planning to roll out a firmware update that will enable support for Bluetooth 5.0 on the HTC U11.

The U11, which was launched back in May this year, comes with Bluetooth 4.2. However, if this new FCC filing is anything to go by, owners of the HTC U11 can look forward to seeing the latest Bluetooth standard trickling down to their devices.

The FCC filing states that the new update will "enable Bluetooth 5.0 by software without any hardware change." This shouldn't come as a surprise at all given the chipset powering the HTC U11, Snapdragon 835, already has hardware level support for the Bluetooth 5.0 standard, so it was all but expected that the device would probably receive this feature at some point.

The recently launched Moto Z2 Force also ships with Bluetooth 4.2 out of the box, though Motorola has promised to roll-out Bluetooth 5.0 in a future update.

In case you're wondering, the Samsung Galaxy S8 was the first device to ship with the Bluetooth 5.0 standard. Apart from the Galaxy S8/S8+, the Xiaomi Mi 6 and OnePlus 5 are also on the list of the devices to ship with Bluetooth 5.0 out of the box.

Officially announced last year, Bluetooth 5.0 is in many ways a major upgrade over Bluetooth 4.0. The new standard offers up to two times the data throughput, up to four times the range, and up to eight times the broadcast message capacity compared to the Bluetooth 4.0 standard. Of course, all of those metrics won't fully manifest themselves in your real-world usage, but it's a thorough upgraded nonetheless.

Unfortunately, the FCC filing doesn't state exactly when this new update will make its way to the U11.

Source: FCC Via: Ausdroid

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FCC Filing Indicates HTC Could Enable Bluetooth 5.0 on the U11 Via a Software Update

A new FCC filing from HTC shows that the company is planning to roll out a firmware update that will enable support for Bluetooth 5.0 on the HTC U11.

The FCC filing states that the new update will “enable Bluetooth 5.0 by software without any hardware change.” This shouldn’t come as a surprise at all given the chipset powering the HTC U11, Snapdragon 835, already has hardware level support for the Bluetooth 5.0 standard, so it was all but expected that the device would probably receive this feature at some point.

The recently launched Moto Z2 Force also ships with Bluetooth 4.2 out of the box, though Motorola has promised to roll-out Bluetooth 5.0 in a future update.

In case you’re wondering, the Samsung Galaxy S8 was the first device to ship with the Bluetooth 5.0 standard. Apart from the Galaxy S8/S8+, the Xiaomi Mi 6 and OnePlus 5 are also on the list of the devices to ship with Bluetooth 5.0 out of the box.

Officially announced last year, Bluetooth 5.0 is in many ways a major upgrade over Bluetooth 4.0. The new standard offers up to two times the data throughput, up to four times the range, and up to eight times the broadcast message capacity compared to the Bluetooth 4.0 standard. Of course, all of those metrics won’t fully manifest themselves in your real-world usage, but it’s a thorough upgraded nonetheless.

Unfortunately, the FCC filing doesn’t state exactly when this new update will make its way to the U11.

Source: FCC Via: Ausdroid

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Bluetooth Battery Level Indicators are Finally Coming to Android

A really useful feature for those of us with Bluetooth headsets and other devices is finally making its way to AOSP: Bluetooth battery level indicators. This means that users of Google, Motorola, Sony, and other devices with near-stock Android software should be able to tell the battery level of their Bluetooth connected devices without the need of a third-party application. There's no telling exactly how this Bluetooth battery level indicator will appear in its final state, but the existence of this new API in AOSP means that developers can implement Bluetooth battery indicators however they like.

Now, for those of you on certain custom ROMs (such as LineageOS) or with devices from certain manufacturers (such as those from Samsung, LG, Huawei, OnePlus, or Xiaomi) this is not a new feature. Battery level indicators for connected Bluetooth devices has been supported on many custom ROMs and third-party OEM devices for years, but such a feature has notably been missing from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), which means that any Google phone on the stock firmware will not support it.

Samsung Bluetooth Battery Level Indicator

OnePlus Bluetooth Battery Level Indicator

LG Bluetooth Battery Level Indicator

Users with Bluetooth devices that are lucky enough to have a companion application available on the Google Play Store can retrieve battery level information that way, but otherwise there are few options. A popular application on the Play Store called BatON attempted to add this feature, but it is quite limited in what range of devices it can support (by no fault of its own) and is also known to be quite buggy (with many users reporting frequent Bluetooth disconnecting).

BatON (Free, Google Play) →

Rather than rely on third party applications that either work only with a single Bluetooth device that you own or that only support a handful of devices out there, it would be great if Google stepped in to offer a feature that has been available on other devices for years. And finally, it looks like they're doing just that.

Bluetooth Battery Level APIs in AOSP

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (Bluetooth SIG), the body that oversees the standards for each Bluetooth iteration, has already defined a Battery service (BAS) in GATT (Generic Attributes services), but it's up for Bluetooth to support BAS. According to some new commits we found while digging through AOSP, Google is preparing to add new APIs to "get remote device's battery level." In particular, they mention the following additions to AOSP:

Add APIs to get remote device's battery level

Add BluetoothDevice.getBatteryLevel() API to retreive battery level information of remote device
Add BluetoothDevice.ACTION_BATTERY_LEVEL_CHANGED intent to notify user that remote device's battery level has changed
Add backend service methods for BluetoothDevice.getBatteryLevel()
Add battery level field in DeviceProperties with getters and setters
Add updateBatteryLevel() method in RemoteDevices
Add resetBatteryLevel() method in RemoteDevices
Reset battery level for device when device is disconnected in aclStateChangeCallback() to ensure a BATTERY_LEVEL_CHANGED intent when device first report battery level information after connection
Add tests for updateBatteryLevel() and resetBatteryLevel()

From this, we can see that Google will add a new method in the BluetoothDevice class called getBatteryLevel() which will retrieve the current battery level of a connected device when called. According to the source code, this returns a value between 0 and 100 (or -1 if Bluetooth is disabled, the device is disconnected, or does not support reporting its battery level). Hence this means that it's possible for the battery level to be shown in a way that is more informative than a simple bar. A developer could show a notification or widget with the exact percent, for instance.

Bluetooth Battery Level Indicator

But that's not all, an application that subscribes to the ACTION_BATTERY_LEVEL_CHANGED broadcast intent will be notified when the connected device's battery level has changed. With a broadcast receiver, an application that is listening for changes in the connected Bluetooth device's battery state will be notified when the battery level has changed, so there will be no need to implement a persistent background polling service of any kind. This value is sent as an integer between 0 and 100% through the intent extra EXTRA_BATTERY_LEVEL, and the application can differentiate between connected devices by filtering through the intent extra EXTRA_DEVICE.

Bluetooth Battery Level Indicator

Even certain devices which send battery information in their own way, such as Plantronics' XEvent or Apple's VSC, will also be supported. There is also work being done on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) battery level reporting being supported, though this is listed as "cannot merge" at the moment.

Possible Feature for Android 8.1?

Android O is almost upon us. The fourth Developer Preview was recently released and was mostly aimed at bug fixes, though there were a few minor UI tweaks here and there. However, Google announced that the third Developer Preview featured all of the finalized Android O APIs that developers can use to get ready for the next version of Android. As such, this means the new connected Bluetooth battery level reporting API won't make its way to the first release of Android O – Android 8.0.

However, that doesn't mean it won't be coming. It's possible that Google will introduce this API officially (when it's actually finished) with the eventual release of Android 8.1. At the same time, they may even decide to have this feature be supported through the Android Support Library, bringing it to earlier Android versions. If that ends up happening, then users won't have to wait months to enjoy such a feature (though we always encourage users to try out one of the many custom ROMs available on our awesome forums).

Nonetheless, this should be exciting news for fans of the stock software on their phone. Hopefully you won't have to be jealous of users with Apple, Samsung, Huawei, LG, and other devices with this nifty feature that should have been available in Android a long, long time ago. Given the recent outpouring of support for the idea over on Reddit, we're sure that this will be a welcome feature – when it eventually comes to stock Android.

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Bluetooth Battery Level Indicators are Finally Coming to Android

A really useful feature for those of us with Bluetooth headsets and other devices is finally making its way to AOSP: Bluetooth battery level indicators. This means that users of Google, Motorola, Sony, and other devices with near-stock Android software should be able to tell the battery level of their Bluetooth connected devices without the need of a third-party application. There’s no telling exactly how this Bluetooth battery level indicator will appear in its final state, but the existence of this new API in AOSP means that developers can implement Bluetooth battery indicators however they like.

Samsung Bluetooth Battery Level Indicator

OnePlus Bluetooth Battery Level Indicator

LG Bluetooth Battery Level Indicator

BatON (Free, Google Play) →

Bluetooth Battery Level APIs in AOSP

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (Bluetooth SIG), the body that oversees the standards for each Bluetooth iteration, has already defined a Battery service (BAS) in GATT (Generic Attributes services), but it’s up for Bluetooth to support BAS. According to some new commits we found while digging through AOSP, Google is preparing to add new APIs to “get remote device’s battery level.” In particular, they mention the following additions to AOSP:

Add APIs to get remote device’s battery level

Add BluetoothDevice.getBatteryLevel() API to retreive battery level information of remote device
Add BluetoothDevice.ACTION_BATTERY_LEVEL_CHANGED intent to notify user that remote device’s battery level has changed
Add backend service methods for BluetoothDevice.getBatteryLevel()
Add battery level field in DeviceProperties with getters and setters
Add updateBatteryLevel() method in RemoteDevices
Add resetBatteryLevel() method in RemoteDevices
Reset battery level for device when device is disconnected in aclStateChangeCallback() to ensure a BATTERY_LEVEL_CHANGED intent when device first report battery level information after connection
Add tests for updateBatteryLevel() and resetBatteryLevel()

From this, we can see that Google will add a new method in the BluetoothDevice class called getBatteryLevel() which will retrieve the current battery level of a connected device when called. According to the source code, this returns a value between 0 and 100 (or -1 if Bluetooth is disabled, the device is disconnected, or does not support reporting its battery level). Hence this means that it’s possible for the battery level to be shown in a way that is more informative than a simple bar. A developer could show a notification or widget with the exact percent, for instance.

Bluetooth Battery Level Indicator

But that’s not all, an application that subscribes to the ACTION_BATTERY_LEVEL_CHANGED broadcast intent will be notified when the connected device’s battery level has changed. With a broadcast receiver, an application that is listening for changes in the connected Bluetooth device’s battery state will be notified when the battery level has changed, so there will be no need to implement a persistent background polling service of any kind. This value is sent as an integer between 0 and 100% through the intent extra EXTRA_BATTERY_LEVEL, and the application can differentiate between connected devices by filtering through the intent extra EXTRA_DEVICE.

Bluetooth Battery Level Indicator

Even certain devices which send battery information in their own way, such as Plantronics’ XEvent or Apple’s VSC, will also be supported. There is also work being done on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) battery level reporting being supported, though this is listed as “cannot merge” at the moment.

Possible Feature for Android 8.1?

Android O is almost upon us. The fourth Developer Preview was recently released and was mostly aimed at bug fixes, though there were a few minor UI tweaks here and there. However, Google announced that the third Developer Preview featured all of the finalized Android O APIs that developers can use to get ready for the next version of Android. As such, this means the new connected Bluetooth battery level reporting API won’t make its way to the first release of Android O – Android 8.0.

However, that doesn’t mean it won’t be coming. It’s possible that Google will introduce this API officially (when it’s actually finished) with the eventual release of Android 8.1. At the same time, they may even decide to have this feature be supported through the Android Support Library, bringing it to earlier Android versions. If that ends up happening, then users won’t have to wait months to enjoy such a feature (though we always encourage users to try out one of the many custom ROMs available on our awesome forums).

Nonetheless, this should be exciting news for fans of the stock software on their phone. Hopefully you won’t have to be jealous of users with Apple, Samsung, Huawei, LG, and other devices with this nifty feature that should have been available in Android a long, long time ago. Given the recent outpouring of support for the idea over on Reddit, we’re sure that this will be a welcome feature – when it eventually comes to stock Android.

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dimanche 30 juillet 2017

How to Block Heads Up Notifications while Gaming or Watching a Video

A few years ago Android switched from a ticker style notification system to heads up notifications. Instead of just having the information scrolling across the status bar when a notification came in (ticker), heads up notifications in Android 5.0 Lollipop would popup on top of the status bar over any screen. Some people like this style as it allows you to quickly see and respond to important messages, but others hate when it interrupts what you're doing such as gaming or watching a video. Here's a tutorial on how to automatically block heads up notifications in whatever app you choose.

Currently, some users on custom ROMs are able to customize notification preferences for individual applications. Such a feature is coming to all users (…eventually) with the release of Android O and its notification channels, but while said feature allows you to disable heads up notifications for certain applications, there's no way to specify that you don't want to be interrupted when playing a game or watching a video. You can either permanently disable the app from displaying interrupting heads up notifications, or deal with them existing.

But thanks to the power of Tasker and a plugin called SecureTask, we can globally disable or block heads up notifications at any time we want such as when gaming or video watching. Now you can game or watch videos on Android without being interrupted by annoying drop down notifications ever again!

Tasker ($2.99, Google Play) →

SecureTask (Free, Google Play) →

Block Heads Up Notifications – Tutorial

Install USB drivers for your particular device OEM (Google provides a list of some universal USB drivers here). Likely only necessary for users on Windows.
Download the ADB binary for your particular operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux).
Extract the contents of the ZIP file above into an easily accessible folder on your PC (like Downloads).
Go to the Settings app on your phone and tap on the About Phone option. Depending on the OEM, this may be in a separate tab. When in doubt, just use the search feature in Settings to find it.
Find the "Build Number" value in About Phone and tap on it 7 times to enable Developer Mode.
Go back to the Settings main menu and enter Developer Options so you can enable USB Debugging Mode. Find it and enable it.
Plug your phone into the computer and change it from "charge only" mode to "file transfer (MTP)" mode. This is not always necessary but it may be required on your device, but there's no harm in doing this step.
Go back to the PC and navigate to the directory where you extracted the ADB binary from before.
Launch a Command Prompt/Terminal in this ADB directory. For Windows users, you can easily do this by holding Shift and then Right-clicking then choosing the "open command prompt here" option.
Once in the Command Prompt/Terminal environment, enter the following command: adb devices
This will start the ADB daemon. If this is your first time running ADB, you will also see a prompt you to authorize a connection with the computer. Allow it.
Now re-run the adb devices command from step 10, and you'll see the serial number of your device in the output. If so, then you're ready to move on. If not, then the USB drivers need to be re-installed.
Launch the Settings application and go to the Accessibility Services page, then grant Tasker Accessibility permissions. You need to do this so Tasker can monitor when the game or media app you're using is active.
Launch SecureTask, accept the license agreement, and grant the requested permissions.
Execute the following command in the command prompt or terminal: adb shell
Then execute the following command to allow SecureTask to work properly here:pm grant com.balda.securetask android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS
Launch the Tasker application.
In the Profile tab, tap the plus (+) icon
Tap on the Application option
Select the media/video applications or games you want to hide annoying notifications for. Tap the back button once you're done.
Tap New Task and give it a name (such as 'block heads up notifications')
Tap the check mark to confirm the name choice
Tap the plus icon (+) at the bottom of the screen when in the Task editing screen.
Tap the Plugin –> Secure Task –> Secure Settings.
Tap the pencil icon next to the word Configuration.
Change the Action option from Read to Write. Put the following in as the Setting text: global heads_up_notifications_enabled. And put the following in as the Value: 0. Tap done in the top right, then go back to Tasker's main screen.
Long press the new Task we just created, then tap on the Add Exit Task option.
Repeat steps 23-26 but change the Value for global heads_up_notifications_enabled in SecureTask from 0 to 1.

Explanation

Okay, so what we have done here is created a Tasker profile where the application is looking to see if you ever launch an application or game (any applications or games that you selected in step 20). In my screenshots, I just selected Chrome and the Clock applications as an example. If you choose a game though, then Tasker will keep an eye out for anytime you have launched that particular game (or games). When Tasker sees you have launched any applications selected, it will kick in the task that we just setup and block heads up notifications globally.

So this task is simply executing a couple of commands on our devices. Since we have tied it to the application/game, the first command we typed in will only be executed when that game or application gets launched. It's this command "global heads_up_notifications_enabled" with the value of 0 that actually disables heads up notifications entirely. So you could actually execute this in an ADB shell and completely turn off heads up notifications all the time, if that's what you want.

This isn't something that most people want though, as they actually just want to prevent those invasive notifications when they're in the middle of a gaming or video watching session. So we're executing this command with the value of 0 when we enter an application or game that we don't want to be disturbed during, and the exit task will execute the same command but with a value of 1 to re-enable heads up notifications when we exit the game or video app.

Thus, this setup allows us to block heads up notifications when we launch any application of our choosing such as a game or video, and then enables it again when we exit that game or video app. Very simple to setup, but useful to have if you are in the zone when playing a game or just don't want to be bothered when watching that movie or TV show.

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How to Block Heads Up Notifications while Gaming or Watching a Video

A few years ago Android switched from a ticker style notification system to heads up notifications. Instead of just having the information scrolling across the status bar when a notification came in (ticker), heads up notifications in Android 5.0 Lollipop would popup on top of the status bar over any screen. Some people like this style as it allows you to quickly see and respond to important messages, but others hate when it interrupts what you’re doing such as gaming or watching a video. Here’s a tutorial on how to automatically block heads up notifications in whatever app you choose.

Currently, some users on custom ROMs are able to customize notification preferences for individual applications. Such a feature is coming to all users (…eventually) with the release of Android O and its notification channels, but while said feature allows you to disable heads up notifications for certain applications, there’s no way to specify that you don’t want to be interrupted when playing a game or watching a video. You can either permanently disable the app from displaying interrupting heads up notifications, or deal with them existing.

Tasker ($2.99, Google Play) →

SecureTask (Free, Google Play) →

Block Heads Up Notifications – Tutorial

Install USB drivers for your particular device OEM (Google provides a list of some universal USB drivers here). Likely only necessary for users on Windows.
Download the ADB binary for your particular operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux).
Extract the contents of the ZIP file above into an easily accessible folder on your PC (like Downloads).
Go to the Settings app on your phone and tap on the About Phone option. Depending on the OEM, this may be in a separate tab. When in doubt, just use the search feature in Settings to find it.
Find the “Build Number” value in About Phone and tap on it 7 times to enable Developer Mode.
Go back to the Settings main menu and enter Developer Options so you can enable USB Debugging Mode. Find it and enable it.
Plug your phone into the computer and change it from “charge only” mode to “file transfer (MTP)” mode. This is not always necessary but it may be required on your device, but there’s no harm in doing this step.
Go back to the PC and navigate to the directory where you extracted the ADB binary from before.
Launch a Command Prompt/Terminal in this ADB directory. For Windows users, you can easily do this by holding Shift and then Right-clicking then choosing the “open command prompt here” option.
Once in the Command Prompt/Terminal environment, enter the following command: adb devices
This will start the ADB daemon. If this is your first time running ADB, you will also see a prompt you to authorize a connection with the computer. Allow it.
Now re-run the adb devices command from step 10, and you’ll see the serial number of your device in the output. If so, then you’re ready to move on. If not, then the USB drivers need to be re-installed.
Launch the Settings application and go to the Accessibility Services page, then grant Tasker Accessibility permissions. You need to do this so Tasker can monitor when the game or media app you’re using is active.
Launch SecureTask, accept the license agreement, and grant the requested permissions.
Execute the following command in the command prompt or terminal: adb shell
Then execute the following command to allow SecureTask to work properly here:pm grant com.balda.securetask android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS
Launch the Tasker application.
In the Profile tab, tap the plus (+) icon
Tap on the Application option
Select the media/video applications or games you want to hide annoying notifications for. Tap the back button once you’re done.
Tap New Task and give it a name (such as ‘block heads up notifications’)
Tap the check mark to confirm the name choice
Tap the plus icon (+) at the bottom of the screen when in the Task editing screen.
Tap the Plugin –> Secure Task –> Secure Settings.
Tap the pencil icon next to the word Configuration.
Change the Action option from Read to Write. Put the following in as the Setting text: global heads_up_notifications_enabled. And put the following in as the Value: 0. Tap done in the top right, then go back to Tasker’s main screen.
Long press the new Task we just created, then tap on the Add Exit Task option.
Repeat steps 23-26 but change the Value for global heads_up_notifications_enabled in SecureTask from 0 to 1.

Explanation

So this task is simply executing a couple of commands on our devices. Since we have tied it to the application/game, the first command we typed in will only be executed when that game or application gets launched. It’s this command “global heads_up_notifications_enabled” with the value of 0 that actually disables heads up notifications entirely. So you could actually execute this in an ADB shell and completely turn off heads up notifications all the time, if that’s what you want.

This isn’t something that most people want though, as they actually just want to prevent those invasive notifications when they’re in the middle of a gaming or video watching session. So we’re executing this command with the value of 0 when we enter an application or game that we don’t want to be disturbed during, and the exit task will execute the same command but with a value of 1 to re-enable heads up notifications when we exit the game or video app.

Thus, this setup allows us to block heads up notifications when we launch any application of our choosing such as a game or video, and then enables it again when we exit that game or video app. Very simple to setup, but useful to have if you are in the zone when playing a game or just don’t want to be bothered when watching that movie or TV show.

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Facebook Launches Messenger Platform 2.1 With Built-In Natural Language Processing

When we talk about social networks, it is difficult to not include Facebook in that conversation. After all, for most people on the Internet, Facebook is the very definition of a social network, one that they use to communicate and keep in touch with long lost friends on the other side of the world as well as their colleague who lives down the street.

TheFacebook, as the site initially started off with the purpose of being an accessible database of student photos and names, evolved and snowballed into the Facebook that we know today. It plays host to a lot of details of our lives — from our life events to our work history to our cringeworthy posts from 10 years ago. Many use it as a means of obtaining news and information, many for memes and yet others who use the platform as a means of instant communication. Facebook's initial purpose blurred as it grew and the Facebook of today embraces this change, offering a means for people to connect with each other and a means for brands to reach out to all such people.

Close to the heart of its current business strategy is Facebook Messenger, and by extension, the Messenger Platform. Messenger, also known as Facebook Chat to those that joined Facebook in its early days, is the instant messaging service that leverages and complements Facebook as a social networking site. For reasons best known to the company, Facebook took the decision to make Messenger a bit more standalone, eventually separating the messaging functionality from its core apps on various platforms into a standalone app.

The Facebook Messenger Platform works to build up this standalone app, intending to create its own ecosystem of functionality. It provides a means for developers to create independent third party apps that can plug into the Messenger app, because why not. Popularly referred to as chatbots, these applications allow businesses to deliver services such as customer support, e-commerce guidance and even interactive experiences through Messenger.

Facebook recently announced Messenger Platform 2.0, an upgrade to the platform that brought a new suite of tools to allows businesses and developers to build richer experiences conversationally and otherwise, and made it easier for users to discover such experiences. And now, Facebook has announced an incremental update to this platform.

Messenger Platform 2.1 includes new features for businesses to connect with their customers. One of the highlights of this update is the built-in Natural Language Processing, allowing developers to incorporate NLP into their bots in a simple manner. When Built-in NLP is enabled, it will automatically detect meaning and information in the text of messages that a user sends before it gets passed onto the bot. The first version of Built-in NLP can detect the following: hello, bye, thanks, date and time, location, amount of money, phone number, email and a URL. Facebook says that this is the first step in bringing NLP capabilities to all developers, and thus enabling brands to scale their experiences on Messenger.

The platform update also brings a handover protocol to allow businesses to create multiple experiences within a single bot. This will allow a seamless transition from an automated bot conversation to a one-to-one human conversation. This will allow scaling of experiences while still retaining the personal touch when needed, as live agents will now be able to handle customer support without any extra effort from the user's end.

Messenger Platform 2.1 also brings in new features to improve the customer experience:

Payments on Messenger now makes payments easier to setup and seamless for people to checkout, through a new SDK.

Five new Call to Action (CTA) buttons have been added for businesses to add onto their Pages. In addition to the "Send Message" CTA, developers can now select: Shop Now, Get Support, Get Updates, Play Now, and Get Started. This variety will allow users some foresight on what to expect when they choose to start a conversation with the Page.

This update also brings in desktop support for Extensions SDK, allowing a consistent experience across mobile and web. Previously released features that were mobile-only will now be available on desktop as well. This will also provide developers with an easier way to test and debug as similar functionality can now be achieved on desktop.
Select business partners in the USA can now see if there is a customer match prior to sending a message to a phone number through an API. This feature is currently available in limited release capacity.
Chat Extensions have been enabled for Global Pages, fixing an issue where users in different regions were not able to take advantage of Chat Extension functionality.
Developers are now notified if their bot has been blocked or if policy issues arise.

To get started with Facebook Messenger Platform 2.1, head on over to Facebook's Developer Documentation.

From the direction that Messenger is taking, it is clear that Facebook realizes the true power of mobile users. Allowing Messenger to diverge from the Facebook app may have its own pros and cons in the eyes of the end user, but to Facebook it all forms part of their master plan. At the end of the day, AI is the future and smartphones its carrier. And Facebook, along with other entities like Google, Microsoft, and Samsung, is inching closer towards that future. But will this future come at the cost of the social network? Or will Facebook be able to maintain a healthy balance between the interests and needs of its users and that of its business partners? That is something that only the coming years can tell.

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