As promised at WWDC earlier this year, Apple today will start letting developers highlight their in-app events on the App Store. You'll need iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 to see the event listings, and they work as you'd expect, allowing you to see seasonal competitions, livestreams and more. It's a pretty straightforward feature, but it's the sort of thing that could encourage more people to install and use their apps. 

Hopefully, developers won't rely on it as a spammy way to rack up engagement. Many mobile gamers would love to know when they can log on for special item drops, for example. And if you encounter a particularly intriguing upcoming event, you can also create a notification or calendar reminder of when it begins. You'll also be able to share events to get your friends on board too.

iOS 15.1 was released yesterday, which means you can finally start checking out Apple's long-awaited SharePlay feature. After seeing how buggy it was on the iOS 15 beta, I was able to check out SharePlay this week during a briefing with Apple, and the experience was surprisingly smooth. Though SharePlay works with just a small collection of apps at the moment, it's also coming soon to Disney+, while the NBA and TikTok apps will be updated today to support it. I watched a few videos and a Milwaukee Bucks game via these apps on my demo, and beyond being impressed by how much more stable everything is since the beta, I also found some tips particularly useful.

Setup and starting a SharePlay session

First, make sure you and your friends all update your devices to iOS 15.1 or iPadOS 15.1. Just like we observed in the beta, you need to start a FaceTime call before you can SharePlay anything. Once you're on a call, open a supported app and you'll see an alert at the top of the screen asking if you want to stream your content. When you start a session, your callers will see a box pop up at the top of the screen to join you. 

For the most part, everyone you're SharePlaying with will need to have the relevant apps installed (i.e. TikTok, HBO Max, Showtime, Paramount, Apple TV etc). In some cases, they'll also need to have a subscription or at least an account. 

While you watch a show together, anyone on the call can pause, skip forward or rewind, and that will bring everyone to the same point on the stream. As you watch something, FaceTime will run in picture-in-picture mode on top of your display, and whoever on your call is talking will appear in that box. 

Share your screen

If you want to share your screen instead of watching a show, though, you'll need to tap on the screen while on your FaceTime call to pull up the commands panel and press the button on the right that resembles a person in front of a rectangle. 

While you're sharing your screen, your friend can pinch to zoom on what you're showing them. But during a screen share session, your alerts (or other notices that pop up) won't appear on their screen, in case there's sensitive info you don't want others seeing. The pill on the top left of your screen will also turn purple to let remind you you're screen-sharing. 

When I was watching someone share their screen, by the way, I could still go back to my own phone and open another app. FaceTime's picture-in-picture tile showed my caller's screen with their face in an embedded picture-in-picture. Inception!

Other features

The controls box also lets you access the iMessage window for everyone on the call. You can continue to watch a game on the NBA app with your family without your camera or mic on, and send texts instead. That's particularly helpful when you need a toilet break when a game runs long.

Apple also built a feature called smart volume to automatically lower the streaming audio when you're speaking so everyone can hear you. This works best with AirPods, but it'll also work with your device's speaker.

Depending on each app's developers, other tools can be embedded to make them more useful. In Apple Music, for example, you can look at the song's lyrics as they play in real time, and tapping on a specific lyric will bring you and your callers to that point in the track. When you're all on TikTok together, each person can like the videos they want, too. The popular game Heads Up will also be coming to SharePlay so you can guess the word on your face while your friends act it out for you. 

SharePlay works with iPhones, iPads and Apple TVs, and most playback features are the same across Apple's ecosystem. Those with Apple Watches will also be able to use this feature for group workouts or meditations on Fitness+ with up to 32 callers. So far, SharePlay works with just a few apps, but as more developers integrate it, iOS users could find more ways to socialize and digitally gather with loved ones soon.

In case there wasn't enough news this week, Google is revealing a new version of Android that's designed for larger screens like tablets and foldables. It's called Android 12L, and is really just a set of new features for the existing OS that are optimized for big screens. The developer preview is available today as an SDK on Google's site so app makers can begin taking in some of the new features that should make for a more cohesive experience on devices with bigger displays. The public version of 12L will arrive early next year, "in time for the next wave of Android 12 tablets and foldables," the company said. The preview will also be "coming soon to the Lenovo P12 Pro."

While Android already supports a sort of multi-window experience, there are still areas of the interface that feel more like a blown up version of a phone OS, rather than something that makes better use of the increased space. One of the things coming to Android 12L is a two-column layout for the notification shade and lockscreen when the system detects that the screen is above 600dps wide. Google said other system surfaces and apps will adopt this look too, though it didn't specify which yet. 

Android 12L will also feature a taskbar at the bottom of larger screens that will let you more easily open apps. This will also simplify the process of launching things in split-screen mode: just drag and drop an icon from the taskbar. Google is also enabling all apps to run in split screen, regardless of whether they are resizable. 

Google

Cosmetically, Google is also adding tools that let developers make their apps look better in various windows or views. They'll be able to use custom letterbox colors or treatments, apply custom rounded corners and adjust the position of inset windows. 

The above features are already available for preview in the developer software, but there are also changes coming that app creators have to apply for users to experience them. Google recommends that developers create versions of their UI tailored to the window size class of each device, and it's added reference devices for programmers to see their layouts across phones, tablets, foldable's larger internal displays and desktops. 

For devices that can fold, Android 12L will offer an API that will allow developers to make their apps aware of hinges or other boundaries, and use them "as natural separators." This means that when supported, you might be able to use an app like Kindle and have it show a two-column layout when your device is folded and expand to fullscreen when you open your phone completely flat.

Google is also adding ways to make adopting this easier for developers with a new Activity embedding tool and other updates in the Jetpack Window Manager library. The interface will be backward-compatible, so those using older versions of Android can still use apps that are optimized for 12L. 

Google

The company is also releasing its Material You design system to Jetpack Compose, so that developers can add the adaptive theming capabilities to their apps. This means that, when supported, third-party apps can also take on the color scheme that Google derived from your wallpaper, and buttons or menu highlight hues can reflect the palette for a more cohesive look throughout Android 12. 

Finally, to give developers a reason (or disincentive) to get their apps optimized for Android 12L, Google is updating the Play Store. It will check each app against its large screen app quality guidelines and take the results into ranking and search listing considerations. It'll go even further by warning people on bigger devices with notices on an app's Play Store page if it's not been optimized for 12L. 

Android has long faced criticism over being a poor OS for tablets and bigger displays, and 12L does appear promising. Google also announced some updates to make it easier for developers to code for WearOS, including offering Jetpack Compose support for the platform. It looks like the company is working hard to improve areas that it's been behind Apple on, and we'll have to see how developers take to these changes to know if Google's tablet, foldable and smartwatch dreams might succeed.

Hinge is the latest dating app that's making a push into audio. Starting today, users can attach voice clips to profiles, in what's said to be a first for a major dating app. You can also send audio notes to your matches.

You can add an audio clip to your profile by going to the Edit Profile section of the settings and selecting Voice Prompt. You can choose a prompt (a question or comment suggested by the app to highlight something about you) and respond with a 30-second recording. “This is just the beginning of a lot of things that we’ll see come out over the next six to 12 months that really help people tell a richer story in their profiles,” Hinge CEO Justin McLeod told CNBC.

Hinge

Some users might find it easier to get to know matches through voice messages rather than text. Many dating apps have added video and audio features, particularly after the onset of COVID-19 made in-person dating more difficult. 

Rival dating app Bumble has allowed would-be lovebirds to send audio messages to each other since April 2020, while Tinder started allowing users to add videos to their profiles this summer. Hinge, however, has had the latter feature since 2017.

Hinge is introducing more features for LGBTQ+ users too. As of Thursday, the app will introduce a non-binary gender category to its algorithm. McLeod noted that although other apps let users identify as non-binary, they typically require those users to say whether they want their profile to be seen by people looking for men or women. Prompts designed for LGBTQ+ users will also be added in November.

Adobe has announced that it's taken "a major step forward for collaboration" by bringing its Photoshop and Illustrator apps to the web. The idea is not to do let you do complex work from a web page, but allow collaborators to open and view your work from a browser to provide comments and feedback — much as you can with a Google Doc. 

It's currently possible to store your work in Adobe's Creative Cloud and let anyone open it from anywhere, but they need to have the desktop or iPad app. Now with Photoshop or Illustrator, your colleagues "can review and add comments right in the browser without having to download apps or have a Creative Cloud subscription," Adobe notes. That means you could show your work directly to ad agency or other clients who don't need or want Adobe's products. 

Adobe

On top of the basic collaboration tools, Adobe is preview some basic browser editing tools that would allow you to make "minor tweaks and quick edits" without having to launch the full Illustrator or Photoshop apps. Those include things like selection, minor color correction and more. 

Taking a page from Microsoft Teams, Klaxoon and similar apps, Adobe is also launching "Creative Cloud Spaces" that allows creative teams to bring "content, context and people together to one place," according to Adobe. That's essentially a whiteboard available to project members, showing documents, images and whatever else is required. 

You can start sharing Photoshop and Illustrator work via the web, for the purpose of commenting and feedback, simply by updating the latest versions of the apps dropping today. If you want to try the basic editing capabilities, they're available via beta for Photoshop (within the Creative Cloud app) or as a private beta for Illustrator. You can request access for the latter here. 

At its annual Max conference, Adobe detailed some enhancements that are coming to its Lightroom and Lightroom Classic software suites. To start, the company is introducing a “re-envisioned” set of selective adjustment tools. Set to make their way to all devices where you can access Lightroom and Lightroom Classic, the tools are accessible via a newly added masking button. Much like you can do in Photoshop, they allow you to create multiple masks, including color and luminance ones. In turn, those will allow you to make precise adjustments to specific parts of a photo.

Adobe

Of course, individually masking elements of an image can be time-consuming, and so Adobe is also introducing an AI-powered tool that can automatically detect the select the subject and sky in your photos. In addition to rolling out to Lightroom Classic and Lightroom on Mac and PC, this is coming to select Android and iOS devices. And that’s where Adobe envisions it being the most useful since it should help with editing on a smaller screen.

If you like to start your edits with a preset, a new recommendation engine in Lightroom for Mac, Windows and mobile will suggest ones based on the subject of your photos. The presets will come from the Lightroom community, so you can expect to find “hundreds of thousands,” according to the company. Additionally, Adobe is introducing eight new premium presets, adding to the seven it released previously. Those are available to use in all versions of Lightroom.

Adobe

To make cropping easier on Lightroom for Mac and Windows, Adobe has added the option to select a variety of overlays for different aspect ratios. Some of the options on this front include thirds, golden ratio and diagonal.

Lastly, the company is introducing a new feature in Lightroom for Mac and Windows called Community Remix. It allows you to upload a photo edit and invite other photographers to take it in a different direction. Adobe says it plans to bring Community Remix to other versions of Lightroom in the future.

Adobe says it will begin rolling out all of the above updates starting today. They should become available to everyone by the end of the week. At its Adobe Max conference, the company also detailed updates for Fresco, Photoshop and other apps.

Adobe Fresco has given artists and designers the ability to draw and paint with lifelike digital materials for two years now. Last fall, the company expanded the app to iPhone, but this year the updates are much more robust. With the additions announced today at its annual Adobe Max design conference, the company gives its free-to-use drawing and painting app handy tools that expand how and what artists are able to create. 

First, Adobe is adding motion to Fresco. This gives artists and designers the option to add timelines and motion frames to individual layers. The company explains that this allows you to assign specific movement to each element. Adobe says you can also draw paths for objects to follow and the goal is to keep things simple so the concept of motion is approachable for all skill levels. 

Next, the company is adding reference layers to Fresco. This should help speed up the process when you need to add color to line art. Once you set the reference layer, you can begin working on a separate layer for fills. Fresco will still recognize the lines on the original layer without applying edits to it. This will work if your reference layer is vector or pixels and keeps your original drawing intact.  

Adobe/Kyle Webster

Vector brushes are already available in Fresco, but Adobe is expanding that library to include a new set with "jitter." Basically, these brushes will help you quickly give drawings texture. Lines are still sharp, but there's variation in the stroke for a more naturally drawn look. As always, vector brushes are infinitely scalable and can be combined with pixel brushes in the same Fresco file. 

Lastly, Adobe is helping you keep your perspective correct with new guides. Perspective grids will help you keep illustrations looking realistic when it's time to add depth. You can set vanishing points anywhere, even off the the artboard, and lines will snap to the grids as you work. Adobe says this should allow artists and designers to focus more on art and less on the heavy lifting.  

Adobe Fresco is free for anyone to use on iPhone, iPad and Windows without a Creative Cloud subscription. There are more tools available if you do pay for Adobe's apps, like access to an expanded library of brushes. 

Apple has at long last released the latest major version of its Mac operating system, macOS Monterey. While it's perhaps a more modest update than in previous years, there are some significant changes in some areas of the OS.

The redesigned Safari might be the most obvious transformation for many users. Apple initially planned to remove the tabs bar before it thankfully saw sense and decided to leave it as is in a later developer preview. The bar will match the color of the web page you're viewing, and there are some new features, such as Tab Groups.

Apple has overhauled FaceTime in macOS Monterey too. It works a little more like other conference calling software, in that you can start a call and then invite other people. This includes folks using Android or Windows devices through the new FaceTime web app. In addition, M1 Macs will support spatial audio for FaceTime and other features through AirPods and AirPods Max.

Elsewhere, macOS Monterey adds the Focus Modes seen in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, Quick Notes, Shortcuts and a new-look Maps app. Live Text, Apple's answer to Google Lens, is another new tool at macOS users' disposal.

SharePlay, the feature that lets people sync streaming videos and music with friends, isn't available just yet on macOS, but Apple rolled it out on iPhone today as part of iOS 15.1. You'll also need to wait a little longer for Universal Control, which brings Mac and iPad together. You can move your cursor from one to the other and drag files between devices. SharePlay and Universal Control will arrive on macOS later this fall.

For a while now, Discord has offered a feature called Rich Presence. It’s an API developers can use to connect their games to Discord and make it easier to jump into them from the chat app. We’ve mostly seen studios add the integration to individual titles, but now EA is doing it at the launcher level.

Starting today, its EA app will allow you to connect your Discord account. Once you link the two together, your Discord contacts will not only see that game you’re playing through the EA app but they’ll also know how long you’ve been at it and the specific game mode you’re in at the moment. They’ll also see if you’re ready to group up to play something different. That last point is important since it might help push your friends to play a game they hadn’t planned to when they first launched Discord.

You can connect your accounts by navigating to the settings menu in the EA app, and then clicking on “My account” followed by “Connected accounts.”

Back at the start of the year, Google gave Meet hosts the ability to mute everyone in a call all at once. Now, the company has a solution for situations that require more nuance and control. It’s introducing an audio and video lock feature that allows hosts to turn off the microphones and cameras of select participants, in which case they can’t turn them back on until they’re allowed to do so again. 

Anyone using a version of Meet on Android or iOS that does not support audio and video locks will be removed from the call if the host enables the feature. If they try to join one such call, they’ll also be prompted to update their app. Google has begun rolling out the tool to rapid release domains today. Scheduled release domains will start getting access to it beginning on November 1st. The locks should be particularly useful for corraling rowdy participants, but some hosts may also find it helpful for encouraging specific individuals to participate more often.