How to Add Animated GIFs to Your Stories

Looking at the latest features that has been introduced on Instagram story, you probably know you can add stickers to your stories.
These stickers are interactive but, like real stickers, they don't move ... until now. In a Jan 23 update to the app, more action can be added to your stories with animated GIF stickers.

Instagram teamed up with GIPHY to provide a high-quality, transparent collection of GIFs to all Instagram users.
While the photo app cut ties with the service due to a controversial, racist GIF, GIPHY support is currently reinstated. To sift through such a large volume of GIFs, Instagram built a search feature into GIF stickers, which gives users access to countless options that match whatever location, mood, or event they want to capture. Snapchat's going to be playing catch up on this one — GIF stickers are pure, goofy fun.

Searching For & Adding Live Stickers to Stories

Adding GIFs to stories sounds more complicated than adding stickers, but it's pretty much the same process.

To get started, swipe right or tap your icon under "Stories" to access the story camera as you normally would. Once you take or choose a photo or video, you just tap the smiley-sticker icon in the top-right corner of the display. Among the stickers, you should find the GIF search option on the second sticker page.

You can simply browse the GIF stickers on the screen or you can search for them by name in the handy "Search" field. Just tap there, enter your query, then tap the GIF you want. You can place and resize the GIF on your story like you would any other sticker.

What do you think about GIF stickers? Think you'll use them in your stories? Let us know in the comments below!

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How to use Google Photos on Android & Desktop without downloading the app (PWA)

Google Photos is now available as a Progressive Web App (PWA) on Android devices, so you no longer need to download and install the application on your Android smartphone or tablet before using it. The PWA is also available on desktop through the Google Chrome browser.

A Progressive Web App lives in your browser and allows you to enjoy the features of a native application without actually installing it on your device, which is a huge plus for users of smartphones with low storage capacities.

With this latest development, Google Photos joins other apps like Twitter and Google Maps Go in the growing list of native applications that have PWA versions. PWAs don't have the same adoption rates as native applications yet, but with big players in the smartphone and app industry including support for them by the day, PWAs just might overtake native apps someday, especially on mobile devices.

For now, though, PWAs are still limited in their applications, and they don't offer the full range of functionalities provided by their native counterparts. Google Photos PWA currently doesn't have an offline mode, so you can only use it when you're connected to the internet. You also don't get push notifications yet on Android, but the notifications are available on the desktop version. Other features unavailable on the PWA right now are automatic photo uploads and Share Target support.

How to get Google Photos PWA on Android & Desktop

For both platforms (Android and Desktop), you have to be using the latest Google Chrome browser in order to use Progressive Web Apps. Simply update the browser to version 67 and above, and you're good to go.

For Android

1. Visit photos.google.com in the Google Chrome browser.
2. Click on the three dots at the top right corner of the browser.
   
   
   
3. Select "Add to Home screen".
   
   
   
4. Click on "ADD" on the dialog that appears, and wait for a few seconds for the Google Photos PWA to be added to your home screen.

For Desktop

1. Visit photos.google.com in the Google Chrome browser.
2. Click on the three dots at the top right corner of the browser.
   
   
   
3. Select "Install Google Photos.." from the list of menu options.
   
   
   
4. Click on "Install" on the alert window that appears at the top of the browser.

NOTE: If you can't see the Install Google Photos option on your desktop even after updating to Chrome 67, visit chrome://flags/#enable-desktop-pwas and change the option for Desktop PWAs from Default to Enabled, restart the browser and try again.

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How to get iPhone X-like gesture navigation on any Android smartphone

Gesture navigation is not a new thing on smartphones, Android and iPhones alike, but with the iPhone X came native support and custom gesture navigations. Google is just adding native support for gestures on the upcoming Android P which currently runs on a very small percentage of smartphones, and you have to either be using a custom ROM pre-loaded with the feature or install a third-party application to enable gesture navigation on your device. One of such apps, probably the best of them all, is Navigation Gestures by XDA Developers.

Navigation Gestures does everything almost every other gesture-control app will do for you, but it is unique in that it is the only gesture control app that allows you to completely hide your phone's default navigation bar without requiring root access. If you're not a root user, you'd have to use the navigation bar in conjunction with gestures when using other apps, which doesn't seem so exciting.

Another interesting thing about Navigation Gestures is that it supports a wide range of Android devices, indeed almost any Android smartphone running Android 8 Oreo down to JellyBean (4.2). It, however, doesn't support Android P and higher, which shouldn't be a cause for concern since native support for gestures is being added to Android from that version upwards anyway.

How to get gesture control on any Android smartphone

All you need to do is to head to the Google Play Store and install the Navigation Gestures application. Most gesture controls are enabled by default on the app, but to get some additional gestures for actions like pulling down the notification shade, pulling down quick settings, opening the power menu and media controls, you'd have to install a premium addon for just $0.99, also from the Play Store.

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Nokia 3.1 Review, Quick Specs and Price

The Nokia 3.1 is the successor of 2017's Nokia 3 smartphone, and it comes with beefed-up hardware and the latest software version. It was launched alongside the successors of the other high-end and budget Nokia smartphones launched in 2017, the Nokia 2.1 and Nokia 5.1.

The Nokia 3.1 is slightly larger than its predecessor, comes with a faster processor with double the number of cores, double the memory, better cameras, a stronger battery and the latest software updates. Considering that the Nokia 3 was the company's most successful smartphone in 2017, the number of upgrades on the Nokia 3.1 aren't surprising.

Nokia 3 Specifications Review

Design & Display

The Nokia 3.1 comes with a 5.2-inch IPS LCD display which has an HD+ (720 * 1,440) pixel resolution. It's covered with 2.5D curved glass and protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 3, like the Nokia 3.

The smartphone keeps the looks of the Nokia 3, featuring a polycarbonate back and metallic (aluminium) frame. It has a thickness of 8.7 millimetres and weighs just 138.3 grammes.

Storage & Performance

The Nokia 3.1 comes in two memory variants, the first with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory, and the second with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory. Both can take an external microSD card with a size of up to 128GB to complement the default storage.

The smartphone is powered by an octa-core 1.5GHz MediaTek MT6750N processor which promises a 50% increase in performance over its predecessor. Graphics rendering will be better too, thanks to an improved Mali T860 GPU.

Battery & Camera

The Nokia 3.1 packs a 2,990mAh battery, an upgrade from the 2,600mAh unit powering the Nokia 3. It comes with a 13MP camera on the rear (with a LED flash) and an 8MP camera with 86.4-degree wide-angle lens on the front for taking selfies.

Connectivity & Software

The Nokia 3.1 comes with a dual SIM slot and supports 4G LTE connections, including those with Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) functionality. It runs on Android 8.0 Oreo and will be upgraded to Android 9.0 P when the final build is released later in the year.

Nokia 3.1 Price and Availability

The Nokia 3.1 comes in Blue with Copper, Black with Chrome, and White with Iron colour options and will be available for sale starting from June. The 2GB RAM version costs $160 (N58,000) while the 3GB RAM version costs $195 (N72,000).

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Creating a Video From Pictures Using Movavi Video Editor

Would you like to create a video from some pictures that you have captured in the past? It could be photos from a vacation, a special occasion, or even just with a particular person that is important to you.

By compiling your photos into a video, you could transform them into a memento of sorts. In fact if you dress it up with some stylish animated transitions, solid background music and a few other bells and whistles – it will really stand out. Assuming you’d like to do all of that, there’s no easier way than with Movavi Video Editor, this guide will show you everything you need to know about how to Create a Video From Pictures Using Movavi Video Editor.

Guide to Create a Video From Pictures Using Movavi Video Editor

1. Create Project in full feature mode
All that you need to do to start compiling a video from your pictures is launch Movavi Video Editor and select the ‘Create project in full feature mode’ option to open the editor.

RECOMMENDED - How to Create a Video Guide from Scratch with Movavi Screen Capture Studio

2. Add Media Files
Next you should add the pictures that you want your video to comprise of by clicking on the ‘Add Media Files’ button and selecting them.


3. Timeline
In the ‘Timeline’ area you’ll be able to see all the pictures that you added to Movavi Video Editor and can drag them around to position them in the order that you want. If you like you could drag and drop image files in that area as well, to add them to your video.

By this point you should have the structure of the video all laid out, so the next step is to start giving it a bit of polish and jazzing it up. There are a lot of ways in which you can do that with Movavi Video Editor, but a good place to start is by adding some background music by clicking on ‘Add Media Files’ and selecting the song you want to use.

Adding Transitions
Another way to make your video stand out is to place transitions between some (or all) of the pictures. In Movavi Video Editor you can either open the ‘Transitions’ tab and drag and drop specific transitions between pictures, or you could click on the ‘Transition Wizard’ icon above the ‘Timeline’ to add them to all your pictures.

On top of all that Movavi Video Editor’s features will let you apply filters and special effects to your video, transform the frame and orientation, enhance the pictures, or add creative captions to it. Simply put you’ll have no shortage of ways in which to make your video look truly impressive.

As you can see using Movavi Video Editor as a picture video maker is easy and straightforward. At the same time it will place numerous powerful features at your disposal and give you a lot of options to customize your video and make it look and feel exactly the way that you want it to.

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Nokia 2.1 Review, Quick Specs and Price

The Nokia 2.1 is the 2018 version of the Nokia 2, one of the new Android smartphones launched by HMD Global in the last year. The Nokia 2.1 was launched alongside the Nokia 3.1 and Nokia 5.1, also refreshes of the Nokia lineup in 2017.

Some of the specifications are similar to those of the Nokia 2, but there are upgrades in some departments, especially in the hardware. The phone comes with a bigger display and a more powerful processor, and everything is topped with the latest software and promises of an update to the next version of Android.

Nokia 2.1 Review

Design & Display

The Nokia 2.1 comes with a 5.5-inch display which has an HD (720 * 1,280) pixel resolution and anti-fingerprint coating. This is an upgrade from the 5-inch display present on the Nokia 2, although it appears that the Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection has been sacrificed in the process.

In terms of design, the Nokia 2.1 looks pretty much like its predecessor. It has a polycarbonate back with a metallic frame, but the speaker count has been increased to two, both front-facing. The phone is still lacking a fingerprint sensor.

Storage & Performance

The Nokia 2.1 is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 425 Mobile Platform processor with a clock speed of 1.4GHz and an Adreno 308 GPU handling its graphics. The RAM size remains 1GB, and there's still 8GB of internal storage which can be expanded up to 128GB via microSD.

Battery & Camera

Not much has changed in these sections; the smartphone sports an 8MP camera with autofocus and a LED flash on the rear, while a 5MP camera handles selfie photography at the front.

The Nokia 2.1 packs a 4,000mAh battery, which is a little downgrade from the 4,100mAh unit powering the Nokia 2. There's no sign of fast-charging yet, though.

Connectivity & Software

The Nokia 2.1 comes with a dual SIM slot and supports 4G VoLTE network connectivity. It runs on Android 8.1 Oreo (Android Go edition) out of the box and will be upgraded to Android P (Android 9.0) when the final build is released by Google later this year.

Nokia 2.1 Specs

• 5.5-inch IPS LCD display with HD (720 * 1280) pixel resolution & anti-fingerprint coating.
• Dimensions - 153.6 * 77.6 * 9.67 mm.
• Weight - 174 grammes.
• 1.4GHz Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 Mobile Platform Processor.
• Adreno 308 GPU.
• 1GB RAM.
• 8GB Internal Memory, expandable up to 128GB via microSD.
• 8MP Rear Camera with Autofocus and LED Flash.
• 5MP Front Camera.
• Dual SIM Slot.
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2 LE.
• 4,000mAh battery.
• Android 8.1 Oreo (Android Go), upgradeable to Android P.

Nokia 2.1 Price and Availability

The Nokia 2.1 comes in Blue with Copper, Blue with Silver and Grey with Silver colour options and will be made available for around $115 (N42,000) in July 2018.` 

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Google Assistant Screen Search not working? Here's a fix

Here's A Quick Fix to Google Assistant Screen Search not working - Google Assistant has many uses related to searching for and finding out information, one of which is to find things on the internet related to what is currently displayed on your phone screen. This feature, called Google Assistant Screen Search, was first introduced as Now on Tap in the days of Google Now. The feature hasn't been working properly of recent, with many users (including me) getting a Nothing found on screen result. In this article, I'll show you how to use the Google Assistant Screen Search despite this bug using a workaround.

To use the Google Assistant Screen Search feature, you have to start Google Assistant (by long-pressing your phone's home button or manually launching the application) and tapping the What's on my screen? button. However, when I tap the button immediately after launching Google Assistant, I get the following result:

This is not a one-time glitch. It happens over and over again and is probably a bug in the latest update to the Assistant app. There's currently no fix for it, but there's a workaround, and it's not by clearing the cache and data for your Google app, uninstalling and reinstalling the Assistant application, or installing the beta version of the app. It takes a simple thing: patience.

When you launch Assistant, wait for around 3 seconds before tapping the What's on my screen button. If this doesn't work for you, wait until the four dots at the bottom of the screen turn into a microphone before tapping the phone, and the feature should work properly.

We hope Google will fix this soon in an update to the Assistant application. Till then, you're welcome.

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How to Send message to Contacts on WhatsApp without saving their number

Looking for a way to send message(s) to a phone number without having it saved as contact in your WhatsApp? Here's how, works for both Android and iOS devices.

From inception till now, WhatsApp has been a peer-to-peer messaging platform, which means that you have to personally know someone, or at least have their primary phone contact before you can message them. In fact, you have to save the contact of the individual you wish to message via WhatsApp on your phone, with or without a name...or do you?

In this article, I'll show you how to send messages to a contact on WhatsApp without saving their number.

Without much ado, there are two ways to send messages to an unsaved phone number on WhatsApp, and one is easier than the other (takes fewer steps). These are explained below:

Method 1

Unsaved number with one or more groups in common

If the contact you want to send a message to without saving is on the same WhatsApp group chat with you, you can message them easily. Simply open the WhatsApp group, find any message sent by that contact to the group, and click on the contact's number displayed on top of the message.

In the menu that appears, select Message [contact's number] and a new chat will be opened for you and that contact. You can then proceed to send messages to the contact without saving their phone number.

Another way you can do this, if you can't readily find a message sent by the contact to the group (or don't want to), is to open the group info page (from the overflow menu or by clicking the group name at the top of the group chat) and scroll through the list of members until you find the particular contact's number.

Then click on the number and select Message [contact's number] and a new chat will be opened for you and the contact.

Method 2

WhatsApp Click to Chat

WhatsApp has a feature called Click to Chat with which you can send messages to numbers not saved in your phone's address book directly. To do this, you'll need to create a special URL with the contact's phone number in international format. When the URL is clicked or visited in a web browser, a new chat will be opened between you and the contact on WhatsApp (on your phone or on WhatsApp Web).

To create the special link, add the contact's phone number at the end of this link https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=. To get the international format of a phone number, remove the 0 at the beginning and add the country code without the + (and the leading zeros if the country code starts with zeros).

For example,

If the phone number is 08012345678 and the country code is +234, the international format for WhatsApp Click to Chat will be 2348012345678 and the link will be https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=2348012345678.

Again, if the phone number is +001-(555)1234567, the link will be https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=15551234567.

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List of devices with Qualcomm Quick Charge 4 and 4+ Fast Charging

Fast charging used to be associated with the most premium of devices, but competition in the technology industry has seen this flagship feature trickle down to high-end and mid-range smartphones, though it's more likely to be in a device in the former category than the latter. There are different fast charging technologies available from different OEMs and across different devices, but there's no doubt that Qualcomm's Quick Charge is the most popular of them. If you're looking for devices that support the latest Qualcomm Quick Charge 4 /4+ fast charging tech, this article provides a list of them.

Quick Charge 4 and 4+ are the latest versions of the quick charging tech from popular chip maker, Qualcomm, and they were launched early in 2017. But despite the fact that they've been in existence for more than a year now, the number of smartphones that support and use them are relatively low.

Many OEMs that use Qualcomm have decided to stick with Quick Charge 3.0, and that's largely due to the fact that there's not much difference between the two quick charge versions, and many OEMs are coming up with such technologies of their own for use on their devices. Oppo has VOOC, OnePlus has Dash Charge, MediaTek has Pump Express, and even Google's Pixel devices use USB Power Delivery (USB-PD).

However, some other OEMs have seen some light in the dark tunnels that are QC4 and QC4+, and have taken the plunge. These are listed below:

• BQ Aquaris X2.
• BQ Aquaris X2 Pro.
• Razer Phone.
• Smartisan R1.
• ZTE Nubia Z17.

Is it ironical that these smartphones all support Quick Charge 4+?

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Nokia 1 Review, Quick Specs and Price in Nigeria

The Nokia 1 is on the bottom of the chart containing the new Android smartphones launched with the Nokia brand name by HMD Global since the resurgence of the brand last year, and as expected, it's a basic smartphone with low-end features and a budget price. But it's not all low-end as we are used to.

The Nokia 1 comes with Android Go, a build of the latest version of the Android operating system, Android 8.1 Oreo that's designed to run efficiently on low-end and entry-level smartphones like the Nokia One. That means you get the latest software features available in the Android ecosystem on a phone that costs less than a hundred dollars. Fair bargain, if you ask me.



The Nokia 1 also brings something back from the old Nokia we all knew -- Nokia Xpress-on covers that make it as easy as a case swap to change the look of your smartphones. This is made possible by the design of the device, which has the front covered in black bezels and a silver frame, and the entire back and part of the frame covered by the Xpress-on cover. That way, you can simply use an Xpress-on cover with another colour of your choice, and you get a fresh-looking device.

Other features of the phone are pretty basic, but they're not disappointing. The display is covered with a 4.5-inch IPS LCD FWVGA screen and the phone is 9.5 millimetres thick, even though the battery has a capacity of only 2,150mAh.

The Nokia 1 is powered by a 1.1GHz Quad-core MediaTek MT6737M processor paired with a Mali-T720 GPU. It has 1GB of RAM for multi-tasking and 8GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 128GB via its external hybrid micro-SD/Nano-SIM slot.

Its 5MP main camera takes decent shots that are brightened by its accompanying LED flash, but you can't expect much from the 2MP camera on the front. For a budget smartphone, the Nokia One supports a wide range of (global) 4G LTE bands, even more than you would find on a far more expensive high-end smartphone.

Nokia 1 Specs

• 4.5-inch IPS LCD display with FWVGA (480 * 854) pixel resolution.
• Dimensions: 133.6 * 67.8 * 9.5 mm.
• 1.1GHz Quad-core MediaTek MT6737M Processor.
• Mali-T720 GPU.
• 1GB RAM.
• 8GB Internal Memory, expandable up to 128GB via microSD.
• 5MP Rear Camera with Autofocus and LED Flash.
• 2MP Front Camera.
• Hybrid Micro/Nano SIM Slot.
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2 LE.
• 2,150mAh battery.
• Android 8.1 Oreo (Android Go).

Nokia 1 Price and Availability

The Nokia 1 is already on sale for $85, and is available in Nigeria for around N25,000.

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