Smartphones

How To: Change the Owner of a Telegram Group Chat to Pass the Torch to a Different Member

Group chats are fun, effective ways of staying in touch with the many people in our lives. Whether it's the local friend chat or the group from work, we rely on these groups to keep connected. Running one of these group chats, however, can be a monster task. If you're feeling overwhelmed with administrative responsibilities, why not pass on that burden to another member of the Telegram group?

How To: Undo a Thumbs-Down Rating for a Song You've Grown to Like on Pandora

Pandora has a simple ratings system that works by hitting either the thumbs-up or thumbs-down icon on a track that's playing on your station. If you choose the former, the song you like along with others similar to it will play with more frequency, while selecting the latter will prevent that song and others like it from playing in your station moving forward.

How To: Found a Hot New Pandora Track? Here's How to Share it with Friends

One of the best parts of Pandora is its personalized stations that auto-generate songs within the specific style or genre you've chosen. Not only does this play your favorite tracks with regularity, it also opens your ears to previously unknown songs or artists — ones you may fall in love with and want to share with others.

How To: Your Favorite Pandora Station Getting Monotonous? Add Variety to it and Make it Exciting Again!

Whether you're out for a drive, commuting to work, or just taking a stroll, listening to you favorite tracks on Pandora takes the legwork out of choosing which songs to play next. After a while, however, you go-to playlist can get repetitive, as the same songs from the same artists seem to play over and over. Luckily, Pandora makes it easy to add variety to your stations in just a few taps.

How To: Use These Apps to Transfer Your Spotify Playlists to Apple Music

Music streaming services make it difficult to transfer your favorite songs and artists from one service to another and for a valid reason: they don't want you to leave. But when it comes to switching, playlists are a big concern, because who wants to do it all over again? Luckily, if you're moving from Spotify to Apple Music, you can use a third-party app to take playlists with you.

How To: Same Songs Playing on Different Pandora Stations? Here's How To Remove Them Outright

With such a vast selection of music genres available, it's easy to build up a massive list of stations in Pandora that can make your go-to playlists harder to find. Fortunately, the app lets you easily remove unwanted stations to streamline your experience and listen to your favorite tunes in the fewest taps possible.

How To: Block Links to Your Telegram Account When Your Messages Are Forwarded

Forwarding messages is a helpful Telegram feature that makes it easy to share funny and entertaining content with other contacts. However, for the privacy-centric, forwarding poses an issue, as messages of yours that are delivered elsewhere carry a tag back to your account. Luckily, you can make your messages anonymous, so anyone receiving messages of yours that are forwarded won't be able to see you originally sent the message.

How To: Change the Background & Chat Bubble Colors in All Your Telegram Chats for a Customized Look

One of the more competitive aspects to chat apps these days is customizability. It seems every messenger wants to offer the largest number of options for users to make the app feel like a truly personal experience. Telegram is no stranger to this customizability, offering tools where you can select backgrounds and chat bubble colors.

How To: Complete the Registry of Foundables & Obtain Treasures in Wizards Unite

From the first moments of booting up Harry Potter: Wizards Unite to the hours of walking you're bound to experience, one thing is clear — encountering Foundables and defeating their Confoundables is a significant plot point of the AR game. While you receive rewards each time you retrieve a Foundable, the real treasure comes from completing parts of the Registry, called "Families."

How To: Everything You Need to Know About Inns & Greenhouses in Harry Potter: Wizards Unite

We Harry Potter fans all remember Hogwarts students pulling Mandrake Roots in the greenhouses in Chamber of Secrets. Well, in Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, we now have an opportunity to work in our own Greenhouses, as well as dine inside Inns scattered throughout the map. Let's take a look at how these two establishments help you along your magical AR journey.

How To: The 4 Best Phones for Making Actual Phone Calls in 2019

While our smartphones are many things, one of their primary functions is to make calls. Many of us try to avoid ever having to make calls, but there are situations when it's a must, such as wishing your grandma happy Birthday or calling 911 — and in those times you want stellar call quality.

How To: Friends Can Help You Raid Fortresses in Harry Potter: Wizards Unite

If you've read or watched anything Harry Potter before, you know friendship and teamwork are huge parts of the story. The same goes for Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, with its "Wizarding Challenges." Here, you can tackle Fortresses full of Foes alone, but why do that when you can battle with up to four other friends at once? Here's how it all works on Android or iOS.

How To: Hate Spam Calls? Here's How Wireless Carriers Can Protect You

In recent years, unwanted calls have become a top priority for the FCC. In 2016, analysts estimated that US customers received over 2.4 billion robocalls per month. As a result, the FCC has provided carriers new tools to combat this problem.

How To: Should You Be an Auror, Magizoologist, or Professor in Harry Potter: Wizards Unite

Niantic's Harry Potter: Wizards Unite offers players an augmented reality look into the world of witchcraft and wizardry. The Wizarding World and Harry Potter novel series is full of unique and interesting characters, which is why it makes sense that Wizards Unite offers you to take the role of one of three "Professions" — Auror, Magizoologist, and Professor. The question is, which one do you pick?

How To: Use Slipstream to Catch Up in Mario Kart Tour

In Mario Kart Tour, you will find that sometimes you are just having a hard time passing the person in front of you. As hard as you try, you have been stuck in second place and you're on the last strip of the track with no items at your disposal. Here is where using a technique known as Slipstream comes into play.

How To: Everything You Need to Know About Archiving Chats in Telegram

In Telegram — as with all instant-messaging apps — threads and conversations can pile up quickly. But you don't need to stare at all of your open chats on the main screen of the Android and iOS app. Instead, you can archive any conversation you like, keeping your main chats view relevant to your day-to-day communications without needing to delete any for good.

How To: Go Dark in Skype to Save Your Eyes & Your Battery Life

As the premiere app for chatting and video calls, it only makes sense for Skype to provide a dark theme to help prevent eye strain and minimize battery drain. Not only that, it has to also keep pace with popular messaging apps like Facebook Messenger that also have the feature built-in.

How To: Enable Dark Mode in WhatsApp for iPhone or Android

Dark mode not only aids in battery life and low-light viewing, but it also just looks better. This is why apps like Facebook Messenger, Twitter, and Chrome are adopting dark themes, leading us to wonder when WhatsApp will join in on the fun.

How To: Tired of Skype? Here's How to Delete Your Account Using Your Android or iPhone

There are a number of reasons you'd want to delete your Skype account. You may have decided to move away from the app in favor of another service like WhatsApp or FaceTime, or perhaps you want to erase your account due to an online hack. Regardless of why you might want to delete your Skype account, doing so isn't quite as straightforward as it appears.

News: Google Is Taking on Apple's iMessage with RCS — Here's How Android's New Texting Experience Stacks Up

You've probably heard of RCS messaging. The new standard has been promoted by Google as their answer to iMessage and is the backbone behind the new "Chat" features in Android Messages. With RCS, Android phones will now enjoy enhanced messaging like iPhone users have had for years — but is it really the same?

How To: Share Your Phone's Screen in a Skype Chat So Others Can See What You're Looking At

Video calls are not only awesome for socializing, they're also handy for demonstrating a process or showing people what you're currently working on with your phone or computer's screen. Skype lets you do just that on both Android and iPhone in just a few taps.

How To: Use Telegram's GIF & Sticker Search to Send That Perfect Reaction

Remember trying to express yourself over the 160-character limit on SMS texts? We've come a long way since then, and messaging services have nearly taken over with emoji, chat effects, custom interface colors, and other personalizations. Necessities for messages these days include GIFs and stickers, and Telegram makes it easy to find those perfect reactions for any moment.

How To: Set Nicknames for Anyone in a Messenger Chat — Even Yourself

For the most part, people use real names on Facebook. That's all fine and well for keeping tabs on those you know, but it can make friendly Messenger chats feel oddly formal. Skirt around this stiffness by giving your friends nicknames in Messenger for Android and iOS, so your conversations reflect the way you and your friends communicate in real life.

Coming Soon: Watch Videos Together with Facebook Friends in Messenger

For all its faults, you can't say that Facebook hasn't been instrumental in connecting friends and family together, no matter where in the world everyone is. That's why one of its upcoming features — watching videos together with Facebook friends directly in Messenger — is so novel. It's just another example of the internet bridging gaps that couldn't be bridged just a short while ago.

How To: Set Telegram's Night Mode Manually, Automatically, or on a Schedule

Whether gabbing via cloud chat or Secret Chat, there's no denying that private messaging is one of Telegram's strengths. Communications can often occur at night, where Telegram's default bright white theme can be a bit uncomfortable to use, but Telegram supports dark mode on Android and iOS — with a few different themes to match any late-night chatting style.

How To: Instagram Stories Has Lyrics for Songs Now!

The Music sticker is one of Instagram's best features. With it, you can add music directly to your story, incorporating a high-quality soundtrack to your favorite moments. On June 6, Instagram upped the ante on this feature, introducing live song lyrics that play throughout your story. Karaoke, anyone?

How To: Use PS Express to Remove Zits & Other Imperfections in Your Selfies

You finally did it! You've combined all your knowledge about photography and angle to take the perfect selfie. It looks stunning, and you cannot wait to post that bad boy to Instagram. But wait, what's this? Your skin looks so uneven and — is that a zit!? I guess the selfie gods were not in favor of your skin when you snapped it. Luckily, you can fix all of those minor flaws with the help of Photoshop Express.

How To: Change Your Notification Sound & Call Ringtone in Facebook Messenger

When you hear a "ding" on your phone, chances are it's a new notification for Facebook Messenger, and it could be a fairly painful sound depending on how loud your volume's set. Thankfully, you aren't stuck with this singular alert option, so if you're unhappy with both this sound and the call ringtone, you can change it to something else — something less distressing.

How To: Paper Chart to Digital Excel Spreadsheet in Seconds!

Creating a digital spreadsheet by hand can certainly be tedious, especially if you're copying a printed paper table word for word, number for number. Instead of typing information that's already there, however, use Microsoft Excel on Android or iOS to snap a photo of that printed chart and import it directly into your digital one.

How To: Stop Continuous WhatsApp Alerts from Overwhelming You by Muting or Leaving Group Chats

Group chats on WhatsApp are great for getting your friends all in one place, but the bigger the group, the more notifications you'll probably get. Needless to say, it can get annoying real quick. You can mute notifications for all your conversations, but that's not practical if some are important. However, there is an option to mute group chats themselves and even leave them when needed.

How To: Create Cinematic Photos with PS Express

If you want your photos to look like they came straight out of a movie scene, the best method is to use split toning. Many Hollywood producers use this effect to recreate the cinematic look of cameras before the digital film era, which is why most people associate split toning with a cinematic feel.

How To: Get a Dark Theme on Gboard for iPhone or Android

If you've been paying attention to the smartphone industry, you've certainly noticed a rise in dark mode lately. With most phones now sporting OLED panels, which use less power to display darker colors, users have been begging developers to include a dark theme in their apps. Lately, Google has been happy to oblige.

How To: Change Your Display Name on Skype to Stand Out More

Your Skype contact list might contain a sea of names that make it tough to find a specific person you're trying to reach. The same goes for your loved ones and colleagues, especially if you have a common name like Jennifer or John. Knowing that, you might want to change your Skype display name to set yourself apart.

How To: Instagram Is Working on URL Links for Stories

On Instagram, it's all about the sharing, but not all features are equally sharable. Take stories, for example. While an IG staple, stories can't be easily shared outside the Instagram bubble. However, that's about to change. We now know Instagram is hard at work on a feature that lets you share a convenient link to your Instagram story to any other platform — text, email, social app, and so on.

How To: Telegram Lets You Delete Messages & Whole Conversations for Everyone

If you're looking to keep your conversations private, look no further than Telegram. Its cloud-based chats are secure and its optional end-to-end encrypted chats even more so, but you can't really prevent someone in the conversation from sharing your messages. However, you can lessen that chance by taking back your messages, deleting them for both you and the other end of the discussion.

How To: Personalize Messenger Conversations with Different Chat Colors

Blue has defined Facebook's color scheme since its inception. Both Facebook's main app and Messenger theme are blue, which means your chat bubbles, like emoji, and menu bar items are also. While certainly a satisfying color for chat, you may get sick of it after a while, especially when it's in every thread. Luckily, Facebook lets you customize the color of individual Messenger chats.

How To: Read People's Messages in WhatsApp Without Letting Them Know You're Doing So

WhatsApp, like other popular messengers on iOS and Android, shows when recipients have read your sent messages with a blue double check mark indicator. On the flip side, for those of you who are bad at replying promptly or don't feel like replying at all, you can disable "read receipts" so the senders won't know when or if you even read their messages.

How To: Go Dark in Google Maps

Dark mode is one of the most requested features these days, but it's even more important with a navigation app. If you're using Google Maps for directions while driving at night, the default white background will shock your eyes and make it harder to see the road in front of you. Thankfully, you can now enable a dark theme to make this whole process a lot safer.

How To: Ditch the Thumbs Up in Messenger for a Custom Default Chat Emoji

When you can't think of a way to respond in Messenger with words, emojis and stickers will do the trick. Since Facebook is all about the "likes," which use a thumbs-up icon, there's a shortcut to the symbol just to the right of the chat field. It's always there to send a quick like in response to something. But it doesn't have to be the standard Facebook thumbs-up sign — it can be any emoji you want.

Coming Soon: Delete Personal Data That Google Assistant Uses Without Having to Open a Browser

New features are coming to Google Assistant for Android and iOS. You'll be able to use the assistant right inside Waze, enable Driving Mode to see only relevant activities, get your how-to questions answered faster, and have it better recognize personal references in your life. All of this means consuming more data, but there will be more tools that let you erase data you share with Assistant.