Author: Alvin Wanjala

Snapchat reported an impressive fourth quarter in 2019, in terms of daily active users. In its Q4 2019 financial report, Snapchat revealed that it had reached 218 million DAUs. This represents a 4 percent rise from the previous quarter. In Q3 2019 the platform reported hitting the 210 million DAU mark.  Snapchat’s Q4 steady growth in DAUs is the most significant growth rate year-over-year standing at 17 percent (31 million users). It is the first time the company has recorded such high numbers ever since the 18 percent YoY growth posted in the final quarter of the fiscal year 2017. …

If you have been active on Instagram for a long time, you may have followed some people at some point but you do not interact with their content anymore. You may have been at that point interested in their content but after a few months, that content is not appealing to you. To reduce the clutter on your timeline and get rid of such content, Instagram is making it easier to unfollow people you rarely interact with. The new feature added on the platform categorizes people you follow into two categories under a parent arm named “following categories.” Under the…

In what comes as a relief to those locked in the Apple ecosystem, the company is now making changes to that, allowing users to purchase apps on a single platform and use them universally. Before the new change, if you had to purchase an app on iOS, you would still have to buy the same app on Mac to use it from there. Universal purchases bring flexibility and also cuts on costs. Who wouldn’t want to spend less anyways? The new functionality has been introduced in XCode 11.4 beta dev tool as an iOS developer pointed out on Twitter. In…

Huawei, OPPO, vivo and Xiaomi are some of the biggest smartphone manufacturers in China but they still heavily rely on Google and the Play Store as it is the popular app market out there. For anyone buying any of the smartphones by the named manufacturers or any Android smartphone for that matter, they do need access to the Play Store to download their favourite app. This is the case for users globally except for China where the manufacturers have their own app markets. Building an ecosystem like Google’s is not a walk in the park. Huawei knows that. Amidst the…

Google Maps officially turns 15 today, and in that line, Google has overhauled the app right from outside on the icon. The company has introduced a new app icon today, which now reflects more of its branding. The app icon is now a standalone pin colored in a way that reflects Google’s branding. Additionally, Google Maps has also received new changes internally with two new tabs – “contribute” and “updates” – added on the bottom on top of the usual three – Explore,” “Commute,” and “For You.” However, the tab named “For You” has now been renamed to “saved” which…

Watching content on Android shouldn’t be consuming much data as you would while streaming content from your PC or TV. That’s what the new Netflix feature for Android is all about. Netflix has started rolling out a new video codec – AV1 – which consumes less amount of data than the current VP9 codec. The AVI codec is a big step in the streaming industry, notably on the consumer side. The new codec – released two years ago – saves up to 30 percent of the data used to stream 4K HDR video, and also compresses videos 20 percent more…

YouTube’s new UI is here to stay whether you like it or not. According to 9To5Google, the company will make it hard for users to revert to the old user interface starting March this year. The redesign was first seen back in 2017 when the company introduced its current material design that has been implemented in its portfolio of apps. YouTube was the only app remaining with rigid users given a chance to revert back to the Old UI whenever they like. Google says the modern design has allowed them to bring several features on board (well, including dark mode)…

The next Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event is just around the corner, initially scheduled to take place on February 11th. It is not surprising that we have seen massive leaks and rumors almost detailing everything about Samsung’s upcoming phones in the Galaxy S Series. Now, Samsung itself ‘accidentally’ leaked the Galaxy S20, one of their upcoming devices confirming the rather unusual naming scheme. Galaxy S20 confirms other leaked information about the series as well, from the hole-punch selfie camera and the conspicuous tall rectangular camera bump. According to a German tech publication, the marketing images were posted in one of the…

Popular caller identification service Truecaller has hit 200 million month to month active users, revealed the company earlier today. Most of the company’s user base resides in India, with the country now accounting for over three-quarters of the total monthly active users. Truecaller’s co-founder and CEO also said they were profitable in the last quarter of 2019 ending December. The major contributor to Truecaller’s profitability is still in serving ads but the premium subscription service that offers an ad-free experience is gaining traction as well, according to the company’s CEO. To date, the subscription service accounts for 30 percent of…

POCO, now a standalone brand, has officially announced its first device. The company announced the POCO X2 in India, one of Xiaomi’s primary markets. Despite the brand being a spin-off from Xiaomi, there are little to no differences between the new Poco device and Xiaomi’s Redmi K30 announced in China towards the end of 2019. The Poco X2 sports a 6.67-inch FHD+ LCD display. To AMOLED fans, sorry, but the high refresh rates of 120Hz should compensate for that. The front of the device has a dual selfie camera with a 20MP lens and a 2MP portrait lens.  For photography…