Apps & Services
Samsung NavStar and Clockface get new features and fixes [Good Lock]
Samsung is quickly backing up its Good Lock modules this year. The company has updated several modules, reflecting Samsung’s intention to make its device more customizable than before. To keep this up, the Korean giant has released new updates for its Good lock modules, including NavStar and Clockface.
Samsung NavStar gets new update
With the help of the NavStar module, you can easily customize your device’s navigation bar. It offers different options which take your navigation experience to the next level.
One UI 5.1’s launch officially confirmed and brings new feature for Galaxy watches
Some of the tasks you can perform with this are as follows:
- You can show and hide the navigation bar.
- You can change the color of the navigation bar.
- You can add useful buttons to the navigation bar.
- You can change the icon of the navigation bar to your favorite image.
- If you are using gesture mode, you can change the hinted background, handle length, and color.
What’s new
Now Samsung has released a new update for NavStar. The update comes with version number 5.1.2.23. The latest update of Navstar brings some fixes for the inbuilt functions, such as dark mode, show task stack, and navigation bar size. In brief, the update fixes the schedule of the dark mode of the navigation bar, which was not working properly before; it has also resolved the issues for running the apps in the ‘Show task stack’ in the Foldable devices and Tablets. It also fixed the issue related to the stability of the navigation bar, which was stuck in the System UI when used with Nultistar’s cover launcher.
v5.1.2.23 (One UI 5.X) - Fixed a problem where the dark mode of the navigation bar was sometimes not turned off when the dark mode was set to 'turn on as scheduled' - (Fold, Tablet) Fixed an issue where some apps did not run and a toast message appeared in the "Show task stack" option - (Flip) Fixed an issue where the navigation bar was abnormally large or the System UI stopped error when used with MultiStar's cover launcher.
New update available for Samsung Clockface
If you want to customize the system’s clock, it can be easily done with the help of the Clockface module. The Clockface is a module that provides several types of clock face templates. With the help of this, you can easily change your device clock style. It also allows some editing, like selecting the clock face style and decorating it by adding text, images, and Gifs.
What’s new
As you know, the Clock face is available in many Galaxy devices that have supported the Good lock module. Now Samsung has served a new update with version 2.3.3. With this new update, Samsung has expanded the support of Clockface for Galaxy Tab S8 series. However, the update is available for all Galaxy devices which are running on Android 11 to Android 13. It may carry some bug fixes that improve the stability and performance of the module.
- Support Tablet ( From Galaxy Tab S8)
Google is continuously working towards the betterment of the Android ecosystem. It has brought several new features and innovations to its own designed applications, including Google Wallet, Google Maps, Google Messages, and many more. Now, with the latest development, the company is getting a new option in settings that lets you turn off the expressive animations.
Google Messages introduced expressive animation two months ago. Under this functionality, users get a cool animation feature that enables your still emoji to be expressed in an expressive way and makes the conversation more interesting. Now, with the latest development, if you don’t like this animation, you can also turn it off.
You can follow these simple steps to turn off the expressive animation: Navigate to the settings and then scroll down. Here you will find the new toggle option’show expressive animations’. Just tap it to turn it off.
The new option for turning off the animated expressiveness appeared with the latest Google Messenger beta 20240426_01_RC00, which indicates that the new changes are limited to those users who have already joined the beta program, while for other users it will take a while to expand this feature.
If you haven’t enrolled in the beta program and want to try this new option, you can apply for it now from the Google Play Store. Once you get registered, it will provide you with a new update immediately. Now you just need to install it and check for the option.
Apps & Services
ByteDance wants to kick off TikTok in the US market rather than selling it to an American firm
TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, would have to shut down TikTok in the US market rather than sell it to an American firm. Following many assertions and statements for years, finally, it appears that ByteDance wants to ditch TikTok from the US market. Menahile, earlier reports significantly suggested that eventually TikTok will get banned in the US and was officially approved by the US House, Senate, and President of the US, Biden.
According to a source shared by Reuters via Android Police, ByteDance, which is the parent company of TikTok, seems looking up to ditching TikTok in the US completely rather than selling it to an American firm, while after the official approval, ByteDance was given the last 270-day deadline that either the company needs to release TikTok from its ownership forever or completely stop TikTok in the US market.
ByteDance counts a small part of TikTok’s revenue, though:
Meanwhile, the company is currently eyeing over some other legal options, but if all the legal options proved unsuccessful, then it’s quite clear that TikTok would be leaving the US market forever. On the flip side, some sources also reveal that the highly engaging properties of TikTok are due to its core algorithms, while these core algorithms are the most essential section of ByteDance’s technology. Moreover, this ditching of TikTok in the US will not really impact ByteDance’s current operations in the US market, as the company accounts for a small part of revenue through the app.
Sources further added that last year, TikTok gained about 25% of its revenue from the US market, which significantly means that it could be a sudden decrement within the revenue stream. However, ByteDance’s dedicated app, Douyin, which is certainly a Chinese version of TikTok, Also, no American firm is willing to pay billions to acquire TikTok without its core algorithms. Meanwhile, all these factors significantly indicate that if the legal efforts proved to be a failure, TikTok would have to leave the US market for sure.
Over the years, Google has made several improvements to its most crucial application, the Google Play Store, and it constantly provides new utility features and improvements. Now, with the latest development, the company is working on a new capability to handle multiple application downloads.
According to the information, Google is looking to bring a new capability to download multiple applications together. Previously, when you tap on the install button of the applications, it starts downloading them one by one. When one application fully downloads, it starts downloading the second application.
However, it is worth noticing that the phenomenon of multiple downloading is limited to only two applications, meaning if you tap on more than three applications to download, it will start downloading two applications while the third one is still pending.
Additionally, the simultaneous download is limited to the new installs, but it will not apply to the update section. We hope that Google may expand the multiple downloads to update phenomenon and may increase the number of downloads together in the next developments.
As per the information, the new change has already started working on several devices, at least for the Android 14 installed devices with the latest version of the Play Store (40.6.31).