Hangouts holdouts will have to finally say goodbye to Google’s most resilient chat app later this year. On Monday, the company announced it would start migrating consumer Hangouts users to Chat before the former is no longer available after November 2022. If you still use Hangouts on mobile, you’ll see a prompt starting today to move to either the standalone Chat app or the Chat experience in Gmail. “Hangouts has been replaced by Google Chat,” the company declares in the notification.

Over on Gmail, Google won’t begin prodding Hangouts users to switch over until July. The Hangouts web client will remain available until November, and the company says users will have “at least” one month of warning before the platform’s webpage begins automatically redirecting to the Chat website instead. If you’re still actively using Hangouts, Google promises your conversations will automatically transfer to its newer app. That said, you can also use the company’s Takeout service to download a copy of your data.

Google has been gradually phasing out the Hangouts brand in favor of its newer messaging services for some time now, so it’s not surprising the company has finally decided to sunset the platform. And while it never enjoyed the popularity of some instant messaging apps, Hangouts had its devout fans.

Google is warning of a sophisticated new spyware campaign that has seen malicious actors steal sensitive data from Android and iOS users in Italy and Kazakhstan. On Thursday, the company’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) shared its findings on RCS Labs, a commercial spyware vendor based out of Italy.

On June 16th, security researchers at Lookout linked the firm to Hermit, a spyware program believed to have been first deployed in 2019 by Italian authorities as part of an anti-corruption operation. Lookout describes RCS Labs as an NSO Group-like entity. The firm markets itself as a “lawful intercept” business and claims it only works with government agencies. However, commercial spyware vendors have come under intense scrutiny in recent years, largely thanks to governments using the Pegasus spyware to target activists and journalists.

According to Google, Hermit can infect both Android and iOS devices. In some instances, the company’s researchers observed malicious actors work with their target’s internet service provider to disable their data connection. They would then send the target an SMS message with a prompt to download the linked software to restore their internet connection. If that wasn’t an option, the bad actors attempted to disguise the spyware as a legitimate messaging app like WhatsApp or Instagram.

What makes Hermit particularly dangerous is that it can gain additional capabilities by downloading modules from a command and control server. Some of the addons Lookout observed allowed the program to steal data from the target’s calendar and address book apps, as well as take pictures with their phone’s camera. One module even gave the spyware the capability to root an Android device.

Google believes Hermit never made its way to the Play or App stores. However, the company found evidence that bad actors were able to distribute the spyware on iOS by enrolling in Apple’s Developer Enterprise Program. Apple told The Verge that it has since blocked any accounts or certificates associated with the threat. Meanwhile, Google has notified affected users and rolled out an update to Google Play Protect.

The company ends its post by noting the growth of the commercial spyware industry should concern everyone. “These vendors are enabling the proliferation of dangerous hacking tools and arming governments that would not be able to develop these capabilities in-house,” the company said. “While use of surveillance technologies may be legal under national or international laws, they are often found to be used by governments for purposes antithetical to democratic values: targeting dissidents, journalists, human rights workers and opposition party politicians.”

Flo, one of the most widely used period tracking apps, says it intends to launch a new "anonymous mode" in an effort to address privacy concerns in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. “We will soon be launching an ‘Anonymous Mode’ that removes your personal identity from your Flo account, so that no one can identify you,” the company said in a statement shared on Twitter. 

It’s not clear how this will work or when it might launch. We’ve reached out to Flo for more details on "anonymous mode."

Period tracking apps have come under particular scrutiny ever since a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked last month. Privacy advocates and legal experts have warned that data collected by period tracking apps, which is often shared with other entities, could be used to fuel investigations into people seeking abortion services. News of the Supreme Court’s decision led to renewed calls on social media for people to delete period tracking apps from their phones and remove their personal details from the services.

Notably, Flo itself has a messy history when it comes to protecting users’ privacy. The app came under fire in 2019 after The Wall Street Journal reported the app was sharing users’ sensitive information, including details about their menstrual cycles and if they were trying to get pregnant, with Facebook, Google and other third-parties.

The company reached a settlement with the FTC in 2021 over allegations it misled users about how their data was handled. Flo said at the time that the settlement “was not an admission of any wrongdoing.” The company said in an update in May that it had “successfully completed” an independent privacy audit that was a requirement of the settlement.

Google is rolling out Chrome OS version 103, which includes features that will make it easier for users to share things between Chromebooks and Android devices. For one thing, as the company announced at CES, Phone Hub is getting an upgrade. From your Chromebook, you'll instantly be able to access the latest photos you took with your phone, even when you're offline.

When you take a picture with your phone, it will automatically show up in the Recent Photos section of Phone Hub (which allows you to control some of your mobile device's features from your laptop). You'll need to click on the image to download it, though it's a more elegant option than going to the Google Photos website or emailing yourself a photo.

Google

Also new is a way to get a Chromebook connected to the internet more quickly. If you're trying to link your laptop to a WiFi network that's already saved on your Android phone, you can use Nearby Share. Go to the WiFi network tab in the internet settings on your phone. After you select the Share option, you can tap the Nearby button and choose the Chromebook you want to get online. The Chromebook should then automatically gain access to the internet and save the login credentials.

In addition, Google revealed the Chrome OS Screencast app it announced earlier this month will start rolling out this week. You can use that to record, trim and transcribe video.

Later this summer, Chromebooks will gain fast pairing support for hundreds of Bluetooth headphone models including, of course, Pixel Buds. Fast Pair will save the headphones to your Google account, so both your Chromebook and Android phone can connect to them swiftly.

Google said it will roll out more features to make Chromebooks and Android devices play more nicely with each other later this year. The company is looking to take a page out of Apple's playbook with updates like these. Apple has long offered deep integration between its devices, including features such as WiFi password sharing and iCloud photo syncing, which helps it get people more invested in its ecosystem.

If you store all your passwords on Chrome and use an iPhone, signing into your various accounts is about to get easier. The latest release of the browser for iOS (version M104) will bring the ability for you to set Chrome as your Autofill provider. It'll also add new "enhanced safe browsing" and Chrome Actions to the app on iPhones and iPads. 

Many of this features are already available in the Android edition of Chrome, like the Password Manager, which uses data you've elected to store in the browser to sign into apps on your phone. Enhanced Safe Browsing, when activated on your iPhone or iPad, will check if websites you're visiting are dangerous. Also, "Chrome warns you if your username and password have been compromised in a third-party data breach" when you enter your credentials into a website. It'll then urge you to change them everywhere. 

Something that's not yet available on Android is the first page when you re-open Chrome after awhile. According to Google's blog post, "We're making it easier for you to discover new content or start a fresh search in Chrome for iOS when you've been away for awhile." This is supposed to make "it easier to browse content, start a new Search or easily get back to your most frequently visited sites" while still letting you locate your recent tabs. Google added that this "will also come to Android soon."

Those who rely on Chrome's built-in translation tools might find the updated language identification model helpful. Google says this new on-device version will help you "accurately figure out the language of the page you're visiting, and whether it needs to be translated to match your preferences."

Meanwhile, Chrome Actions will make doing things like clearing your browsing data or opening an incognito tab easier on iOS. You won't have to go into the three-dot menu to hunt for those options anymore — you can just type a search term for the setting into the URL bar. "Delete history," for example, will bring you to the page to clear your browsing data. And if you were looking for info on that setting online, you'll still see the suggested search results below the suggested Action. 

Finally, Google also tweaked the three-dot menu "to be scannable and to highlight the most important destinations, such as your history, passwords and settings. The company said "your most commonly used destinations will be available at the top of the menu" and actions like creating Bookmarks or adding stuff to Reading List will be located higher up in the vertical menu. 

TikTok users now have another way to catch up on their For You page. The app is available on Vizio smart TVs starting today and you'll be able to watch TikTok TV content directly from the home screen.

The app, which landed on smart TVs from the likes of Samsung and LG last November, reworks the TikTok experience for big-screen viewing. TikTok TV features popular videos from categories including gaming, comedy, food and animals. If you have a TikTok account, you can log in to view videos from your Following and For You feeds. The app has an autoplay feature as well, so you'll be able to watch an endless string of TikToks without interruption if you wish.

If you’re an iOS user, you’re likely used to tapping “Report Junk” any time you receive a spam iMessage, which sends the information directly to Apple. MacRumorsreported that junk SMS messages will soon be included in the reporting feature on iOS 16 beta 2, which was released today for developers and will roll out to the public this July. Apple is only rolling out the feature for certain carriers but hasn't specified which ones. 

Users who flag SMS messages as junk will be sending the number and content of the text to both Apple and their phone or device’s carrier. Reporting unwanted texts to a phone carrier normally requires forwarding the entire message to a four-digit number (that most people likely have to look up), so wrapping this feature into the upcoming iOS update will save users a step. Reporting a message as junk doesn’t block the number, so users will still have to do this manually. 

If you’ve noticed an uptick in suspicious texts that offer free gift cards or delivery alerts for packages you didn’t order, you’re not imagining things. Spam and scam SMS messages are on the rise, partly due to data breaches and the availability of software that makes it easy for scammers to send such messages in bulk. Nearly 12 billion spam texts were sent in the month of May in the US, according to an estimate from spam blocking app RoboKiller.

If you’re nervous about installing the beta version of iOS 16, you’ll only have to wait a little while — Apple expects to officially release iOS 16 to the public in the fall.

While Google has long included a password manager among its account perks, accessing a native version of that tool on your Android phone or tablet hasn’t been straightforward. Before a recent Google Play Services update, you had to navigate to the “Privacy” section of Android’s Settings menu to find an option to launch the software. But as 9to5Google points out, you can now add a home screen shortcut to the tool on your Android phone or tablet.

You’ll have the option once you’ve updated to Google Play Services version 22.18. The easiest way to do that is to tap on a direct link to the software’s Play Store listing and manually download the latest release. Once that’s done, open the Settings app on your phone, then navigate to the Privacy section and tap “Autofill service from Google,” followed by “Passwords.” Doing so will launch the Google Password Manager. At that point, you’ll want to tap on the gear icon at the top of the interface to open the applet’s settings menu. You should then see an option that says “Add shortcut to your home screen.” You know what to do next.

Even the simplified process isn’t as straightforward as it should be, but Google making it easier to see and modify your passwords will also make it easier to change them when the situation calls for it. 

Telegram has launched its paid $5 per month Premium subscription tier first revealed last month, it announced in a detailed blog post. Some of the notable features include a larger maximum file upload size, faster downloads, more channels and unique new stickers. 

The current limit on file size uploads is 2GB, but Premium users can send files up to 4GB in size, handy for folks who send a lot of video or large ZIP files (all users can download those extra-large documents). Paid users will also be able to download media and files at their full network speeds, rather than seeing restricted speeds. 

The Premium plan also doubles limits, letting you follow up to 1,000 channels, create up to 20 chat folders with 200 chats each, add a fourth account to any Telegram app, pin 10 chats and save up to 10 favorite stickers. And users will get unique stickers with full-screen animations visible to all users, along with unique reactions.

Other features include voice-to-text transcriptions, chat management, longer bios, animated profile pictures, more characters for media captions, 400 favorite GIFs, up to 20 public t.me links, premium badges and app icons and an ad-free experience. 

Telegram also announced that it became one of the top give downloaded apps worldwide in 2022 and now has 700 million monthly active users. It also unveiled several new features for all users, including verification badges for public figures and organizations, join request for public groups, improved bots, improved chat previews on Android, improved external sharing on iOS and more. The update is rolling out gradually, so if you don't see it now, "the new version will become available soon," Telegram wrote. 

Nearly four months after integrating Comixology into its other services, Amazon acknowledged the platform has been left worse off. “We understand that the current experience needs improvements, and want you to know that we’re working hard to get those out the door as quickly as possible,” the company said in an 11-part Twitter thread spotted by Gizmodo.

In the coming weeks, Amazon promised to address some of the more prominent issues that have plagued the digital comics service since its integration with the Kindle app. For instance, an upcoming beta version of Comixology’s web-reading client will bring back support for double-page spreads. Additionally, Amazon said it was working to fix a problem with its store algorithm that causes the software to show results for novels and non-fiction books when customers search for comics, manga and graphic novels.

Amazon noted that some of the enhancements would arrive soon, but others do not yet have a release date. “We’ll let you know when this launches,” the company said of a feature that will allow people to filter for their comics within the Kindle app. “We know there’s a lot more that needs to be done to improve the Comixology experience, and we have many more initiatives we’ll share soon,” the company said.

For fans, Amazon’s handling of Comixology is particularly frustrating given that the previous version of the app was serviceable and included many of the features the company is now working on adding. Unfortunately, they can’t use that software anymore since it was shut down by Amazon shortly after it completed the Kindle integration. To make matters worse, Comixology is the only digital service you can currently use to purchase comics piecemeal from a variety of publishers.