Category: App Update

The Starbucks app for Android has an update rolling out that brings a long desired feature:  The ability to create and save your favorite drinks.  The feature is aimed at those who use the ordering feature in the app as it allows you to, with one tap, order your favorite drink then go to your local Starbucks and pick it up.  The ability to order within the Starbucks app has been there a while but every time you used it, you had to create your drink, even if you are a creature of habit and order the same thing every time.

To use the new feature, go to the Order section of the app.  It will find the Starbucks location closest to you and present you a menu of the food and drinks that are available at that location.  Build your favorite drink using the drink menu and once you have created your masterpiece, tap the heart icon to save it.  The next time you order, you can go to the Favorites tab and your drink will be there and ready to order with a tap of the Floating Action Button.

The Google Opinion Rewards app for Android has had a small but nice update to it this weekend.  The update expands the free Play Store cash app to Austria and Switzerland firstly, allowing Android users in those countries to fill out surveys and get Play Store credit in return to spend on whatever they want in the Store.  This brings the app to 17 different countries globally.

If you aren’t familiar with the app, it is pretty simple.  You are sent survey’s periodically to fill out and get anywhere from a few cents (or your local currency) up to $1.00 for completing them.  They are sent to you at random and as you fill them out, you get these credits to spend in the Play Store.  You can always check out which countries are eligible and added at this link.

Google Docs for Android had a nice update last week that brings more document editing power to the mobile app.  The update is still rolling out so it may be another day or two before you see it.  Once you do have it, you will find that you can now edit the headers and footers of your documents from within the app.  You can also now drag-and-drop text in a Docs file.

In addition to manipulating text, you can also manipulate images that you have inserted into your Docs file.  You can resize, rotate and move images within the file as well as adjust the text wrap around that image.

Google Hangouts has an update rolling out for Android that is probably best described as a house cleaning release.  The update takes the messaging app to version 16 and cleans up contact lists and improves search within the app.  Contact lists in this update are more streamlined with the Contacts option in the menu now gone.  It has been removed from this part of the app as it was redundant to the Floating Action Button in your chat lists.  You can use that FAB to add a chat with any contact(s) so they are effectively listed there for you.

Search within Hangouts has also been improved around contacts.  Now when you tap the FAB to start a new conversation, when you start to type in the name of a contact, you will see four different lists:  Frequent, On Hangouts, Your Groups and Not on Hangouts.  The idea here is to quickly identify what communication paths are open for a contact so you can chose the best one for them.  For those who are not on Hangouts, you will see an “Invite” link by their name.

After rolling out to a limited number of users in a limited number of regions, Instagram has thrown the switch to give everyone Live Stories in the social sharing app.  If you are running the latest version of the app on your Android phone, you now have the option to create a live story by tapping on your profile icon at the top of the main display in the app.  There you will see the new Live feature where you can immediately start live streaming yourself or an event.

Functionally, this new feature in Instagram works like the Live feature in Facebook.  One interesting thing however is that once you are done with the live story in Instagram, it is gone.  They disappear after it is over and do not appear in your timeline.

Netflix has made a few big changes to their Android app these last few months.  First came the ability to download movies and TV shows to your phone or tablet for viewing offline.  Now, and equally as important for some, today’s update brings the ability to store that offline content on an SD card.  The update is version 4.13.0 Build 14540 for those keeping score at home and it is rolling out now in the Play Store.  Once you have the update, when you want to download a movie or show, you will be asked where you want to store that content.  Select your SD card if your phone has one and off you go.  The content is downloaded to your card instead of your device’s main storage.