Meta has begun rolling out a major iOS update for WhatsApp. Spotted this week by 9to5Mac, WhatsApp version 23.3.77 finally adds picture-in-picture support for video calls. That’s a feature iOS users of Meta’s chat app have asked for a while and one that, as The Verge notes, the company began testing at the end of last year.

As with PiP modes on other platforms, WhatsApp will minimize your video call when you look at a different app, allowing you to multitask while still seeing the person you’re chatting with over the service. If you can’t access PiP immediately, Meta notes the feature, and other enhancements introduced with WhatsApp’s latest update, will roll out “over the coming weeks.”

Speaking of other features, WhatsApp 23.3.77 also allows you to add captions to documents you send over the app. Additionally, Meta has tweaked group chat settings, allowing you to add longer subjects and descriptions to better describe what your chat groups are all about. There’s also a new option to create an avatar you can use for your profile photo and stickers.

Fitbit says it's working on enhancing the app experience to focus on providing its users with the best fitness tools, and its efforts to do so apparently include sunsetting a handful of features. Starting on March 27th, open groups, as well as all Fitbit challenges and adventures, will no longer be available on the Google-owned fitness company's app. The company said these features "have limited use," which likely means people haven't been using them enough to warrant their continued development and update. 

Unlike closed groups that are invite-only, open groups allow anybody in the community to join by sending in a request. Users can find them by going to Groups in the Community tab within the app and then finding ones that seem like a good match. People were asking the company to make open groups easier to create when the pandemic lockdowns started — apparently, groups created through the app are automatically made private — and the Fitbit team said they'd consider adding the functionality. But it looks like they chose to remove open groups altogether instead. 

Meanwhile, Fitbit challenges are events users can participate in, such as races to determine who can get the most steps within a day. Adventures incentivize people to walk by unlocking virtual trails like the Valley Loop in Yosemite Park and 180-degree views of landmarks that can be found along them based on their step count. Users will lose any trophy or award they earned from these challenges when they leave the app, but they can download their data before March 27th. Finally, the company will also be killing Fitbit Studio, its tool for creating apps and watchfaces, and will only continue supporting its command-line interface tools for app creation in the near future. 

Microsoft has formally approved a way to run Windows 11 on ARM-based Macs, if not in the way you might hope. In a new support article, the company has "authorized" using Parallels Desktop 18 to run the ARM versions of Windows 11 Pro and Enterprise on M1- and M2-based Macs. If you need Windows for work, you can theoretically use the virtual machine without angering your IT manager.

As you might guess, there are limitations. You can't run 32-bit ARM apps, in part because Microsoft is deprecating 32-bit software for all ARM Windows builds. Devices won't work unless they have Windows 11 ARM drivers. You can't use anything that depends on another layer of virtualization, such as Android apps, the Linux sybsystem and Windows Sandbox. Don't expect to run some games, either, as anything that requires at least DirectX 12 or OpenGL 3.3 won't work.

It's been possible to run Windows 11 in Parallels on ARM Macs since 2021, and it even ran reasonably well. You needed to use an Insider preview of the OS at the time, though, and Microsoft said at the time that it didn't plan to support new Macs. The sanctioned approach clears up licensing headaches, and Parallels Desktop 18 now lets you download and install Windows 11 with little effort.

As The Vergeexplains, it's not certain how Microsoft has changed the licensing — until now, it only licensed ARM versions of Windows directly to PC vendors. We've asked the company for comment. Parallels says you can buy either an individual Windows 11 Pro license or go through your employer's usual purchasing process.

This won't satisfy users who want native Windows support like they had with Intel-based Macs running Apple's Boot Camp. You won't get the performance or compatibility you would on a PC built for Windows on ARM. It may be the closest you get short of a collaboration between Apple and Microsoft, though, and it might do the trick if there's a must-run Windows productivity app.

T-Mobile has quite the offer for subscribers who are also soccer fans. The carrier will offer its customers a year of Major League Soccer Season Pass to watch in the Apple TV app. Usually $99 annually, the service broadcasts “every live regular-season match, all MLS Cup playoff matches and the Leagues Cup.” Additionally, there are no blackouts — a concept that fans of the three most popular American sports leagues may have trouble processing.

The offer will be available in the T-Mobile Tuesdays app starting February 21. Once the deal is live, T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile subscribers can download the app and sign in with their phone numbers to claim the offer.

T-Mobile has offered some enticing deals through the years in its Tuesdays app, but this one stands out from much of the typical fare (like a free Frosty from Wendy’s). In addition, it’s an opportunity for MLS and Apple TV+ to expand their reach while giving T-Mobile a carrot to lure subscribers from competing cellular providers.

The Apple TV app isn’t limited to Apple devices; you can also install it on Roku, PlayStation and Xbox consoles, Chromecast, Amazon Fire devices, Android TV, cable streaming boxes (including Comcast, Cox and Verizon) and smart TVs from Samsung, Vizio, Sony, LG and Panasonic. You can also tune in using a browser at the Apple TV+ website.

Google is rolling out a beta of Privacy Sandbox for Android starting today. The program is the company’s attempt to blend user privacy with targeted advertising, something the search giant has worked on for years in its planned shift away from cookie-based web tracking.

One of Privacy Sandbox’s pillars is the Topics API, which pulls a list of your top interests based on usage. It then compares them to a database from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Google’s data. Partner publishers can ping the API, which responds with a list of interests to help serve relevant ads without sharing overly intrusive information. Google says stored interests are “kept for only three weeks, and old topics are deleted.” In addition, the data and processing are done on-device “without involving any external servers, including Google servers.”

The beta is the first time Privacy Sandbox has been available publicly on Android. Google is still working on Privacy Sandbox for Chrome (here’s the timeline), which it has been letting developers test for about a year. It says it received feedback from hundreds of companies, which has helped shape its approach.

Apple

Privacy Sandbox is Google’s answer to Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT), which the iPhone maker introduced in iOS 14.5. The feature requires user consent to track them across other apps and websites. Google dismisses ATT as a “blunt approach” since it doesn’t offer an alternate way for app developers and advertisers to replace the lost income from cookie-based targeting.

Privacy vs. advertising is an arms race. When platforms like iOS block the old ways of profiting from ads, advertisers can (and do) resort to fingerprinting: collecting seemingly innocent device information that, when pieced together, may identify you nearly as well as cookies. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to detect and prevent. Google hopes Privacy Sandbox will strike the right balance between privacy and advertiser / developer revenue.

Google says the Privacy Sandbox beta will roll out gradually, starting with “a small percentage of Android 13 devices” and expanding from there. You’ll see a notification on your device inviting you to join the beta if selected. After accepting, you can visit the new Privacy Sandbox section in your device’s Settings menu to view tracked topics and opt out individually. Additionally, the menu lets you leave the program.

If you primarily game on PC, there’s a good chance you own more than one component with RGB lighting. You may have even made the mistake of buying RGB parts from different manufacturers. If you just nodded your head, I know your pain. Getting all the lighting in your PC to sync is a nightmare. In a best-case scenario, you sourced all your RGB parts from one company and only need a single, likely buggy app to control them. At worst, you’re forced to use multiple third-party programs in a futile attempt to make everything play nice. And while apps like SignalRGB promise to wrangle all your RGB parts, in my experience, they don’t work as great as advertised. All of that makes the news that Microsoft could be working on a native Windows 11 solution for controlling RGB lighting exciting.

This week, software developer Albacore noticed that the latest Insider build of Windows 11 includes a hidden feature for controlling RGB components. As you can see from the screenshots Albacore shared (via Bleeping Computer), Microsoft has added lighting controls to the personalization menu inside the Windows 11 Settings app. The interface provides an overview of all your RGB components, including external peripherals. Clicking on a part allows you to adjust the brightness and color of its lighting. You can also choose between a handful of different effects and the speed at which they repeat. Microsoft has even included an option to match your computer’s lighting with your Windows accent color.

Microsoft hasn’t officially announced the menu Albacore found as a feature of Windows 11 build 25295. Additionally, Albacore notes, “the spec for this is from 2018 and references to the feature have been around for years.” They suggest that means Microsoft is working on the feature again. For now, don’t get your hopes too high. 

Microsoft reportedly plans to introduce upgraded Office apps with AI features in the coming weeks. According to The Verge, the tech giant is preparing to show what its Prometheus AI technology and OpenAI's language AI can do for Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and other Microsoft 365 apps as soon as this March. Microsoft recently launched a reimagined Bing that can generate conversational responses to search queries, thanks to the Prometheus model, which was built with the help of OpenAI. 

Additionally, the company introduced a new Edge with a built-in "AI copilot" that's also powered by Prometheus. A button on the top-right corner gives users quick access to Bing's new chat feature, and as we mentioned in our hands-on, it's like having ChatGPT right in your browser. The Verge says Microsoft wants its AI technology to be able to generate graphs and graphics for use in PowerPoint or Excel. According to a previous report published by The Information, the company also wants its AI model to be able to generate text using simple prompts within its Office apps. 

That Microsoft seems to be in a hurry to launch new AI-powered features for its products comes as no surprise. The company likely intends to move fast to get as many people as possible to start using its products before Google can launch its ChatGPT rival. Apparently, Microsoft was originally supposed to introduce the new Bing in late February, but it moved up the launch and scheduled it before Google's Bard announcement. The company is also bound to keep expanding its AI-powered feature list, seeing as it recently signed a "multi-billion dollar" investment in OpenAI last month.

Google Translate is getting an AI-powered upgrade in the coming weeks to help you find more accurate translations, particularly for words with multiple definitions. The app will offer additional contextual translation options with descriptions and examples.

Let's say you're looking for a translation of the word "row," which has multiple meanings in English. It could refer to an argument, a line of seats on a plane or using an oar to propel a boat. Google Translate should soon offer translations for all of those variants, along with examples of how they're used.

Google

Google says the app will provide "the context you need to accurately translate and use the right turns of phrase, local idioms or appropriate words depending on your intent." All going well, this should help you communicate more clearly in different languages. The upgraded contextual translations will be available for languages such as English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish starting this month, with more surely to follow.

Meanwhile, the company recently rolled out a Translate redesign on Android. It's coming to the iOS app soon. The revamped app introduces more gestures that should make it easier to use, including swifter access to language selection and the option to swipe to bring up recent translations. Google says translations are now more readable, while an extra 33 languages are available for on-device translation, including Basque, Hawaiian, Hmong, Kurdish, Sundanese, Yiddish and Zulu.

It wouldn't be February without a peek at Google's next mobile OS. Sure enough, the company has released the first Android 14 developer preview (DP1) to help app creators target the new platform. This time around, the initial priorities are accessibility, battery life and security. You can scale fonts to a much larger size (200 percent versus the earlier 130 percent), and smarter scaling makes text more readable. It's easier to set preferred languages for apps, and developers can be more accommodating to people who speak gendered languages like French.

Android 14 DP1 also includes some under-the-hood improvements that can make the most of your battery and screen. There are tighter controls on alarms, foreground tasks and internal broadcasts, all of which can reduce power consumption. It should also be easier to build apps for foldable phones and tablets, so you may see software that makes better use of your hardware's visual real estate.

And yes, Android 14 can block users from sideloading very old apps. Google will require that apps target at least Android 6.0 (Marshmallow), as some malware is written for older versions to avoid a permissions system introduced in 2015. This won't prevent you from running apps that are already installed when you upgrade the OS, and you can use command line instructions to force installations. However, you may have to look for alternatives if there's an ancient app you'd hate to give up.

This first preview is available through the desktop Android emulator as well as the Pixel 4a, Pixel 5 and newer Google phones. The first Android 14 beta should arrive in April, and Google expects "platform stability" (read: release candidates) in June. As always, the developer previews don't represent the sum total of what the new platform will bring. We'd expect Google to reveal more conspicuous changes at its I/O conference in the spring.

When Twitter introduced its curated “For You” tab at the start of this year, the feature shipped with an oversight. If you closed the Twitter app or web client after switching to the platform’s reverse chronological “Following” timeline, both would default back to the For You feed after you came back. At the end of January, Twitter took an initial step to address that oversight, tweaking the web client to remember the tab you left off at before closing your tabs. At the time, the company said a similar fix was “coming soon” for Android and iOS. That fix is now available.

Today’s change won’t bring back Twitter’s old “twinkle” button, but it does let you stick to your preferred timeline. And if you primarily use Twitter to follow real-world events, it should make it easier to use the app for that purpose. Notably, the change to Twitter's interface coincides with the company's recent decision to cut off third-party clients. That move led to apps like Tweetbot shutting down, leaving the official client the only way to access Twitter.