WhatsApp public group links appear in the beta branch

WhatsApp group chats look set to receive a much sought after feature in the near future. The ability to share link invitations to public groups has just been updated in the beta branch and should be heading to the main app in the near future. The update also throws in a quick button for forwarding media to other contacts as well.

The new features have been spotted in version 2.16.281. After the update, WhatsApp group admins can invite people to their group through a new "invite to group via link" option that appears at the top of the contacts list. This creates a unique link to the chat, which you can then share with anyone you would like. The link can also be revoked, just in case it makes its way into the wrong hands.

To supplement the new link feature, there's also a new QR Code generator that you can print out your link, and the ability to write your chat link directly to an NFC tag using your phone. While unlikely to be useful for day to day contacts, these feature might be handy for those looking to create WhatsApp groups for sports teams, meetups, and what have you.

See also: WhatsApp planning a passcode protection feature14

Along with the group chat update, the latest WhatsApp beta also contains a new quick forward button for media. This little icon now appears next to every image, video, and link that you're sent, so that you can quickly forward them to another WhatsApp conversion if you wish.

If you want to try out the latest WhatsApp beta, you can either sign up to the Play Store beta and wait for the version to appear, or head on over to APK Mirror to manually install the update.

Download from APK Mirror

Sign up to the beta

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Report: Huawei Honor 6X slated for launch in China on October 18

Huawei continues to gain traction as a key player in the mobile world, considering that the Honor 5X alone sold more than 8 million units in its first nine months on the market. One year after the debut of the 5X, Honor could introduce its successor on October 18.

Key specifications and images of the Honor 6X first came out in the open in a TENAA certification filing. As details from the Chinese regulator show, Huawei has a new trick up its sleeve for the mid-range smartphone: a dual-camera contraption on the back.

Although details about the camera's sensor size and aperture remain unknown at this moment, we can expect the rear and front shooters to carry forward the stellar specifications for which consumers have come to love the high-end P8 and P9. That was thanks to the Chinese company's collaboration with Leica, though it remains to be seen whether the Leica tie-up will extend to Honor phones.

Beyond the optical features, the mid-range Honor 6X appears to be sporting a 5.5-inch display with of Full HD resolution and to run Android 6.0 Marshmallow, according to the TENAA document. Below the camera setup, a fingerprint scanner also appears in the images.

Honor 6X is also said to pack Qualcomm's Snapdragon 625 processor, 2 or 3GB of RAM and an expandable 32GB of internal memory under the hood. The TENAA filing also reveals the handset will bear the model number BLN-AL10 and incorporate an USB Type-C port, with dual-SIM and 4G LTE support.

The handset will hit store shelves in a metal body, just like its predecessor. There's no word about the pricing at this point. The question is, will you be eager to get your hands on Honor 6X once it rolls out? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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Xiaomi Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus don’t disappoint: high specs, low prices

At its press event in Beijing, Xiaomi released the latest generation of its flagship family, and keeping up with a long and storied tradition, the new Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus deliver excellent specs at very reasonable prices.

Don't miss: Xiaomi Mi 5 review

Despite their "s" designation, the Xiaomi Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus feature a different design when compared to the Mi 5, which was released earlier this year. The Mi 5s is the smaller, lower-spec'ed device, at 5.15 inches, while the 5s Plus boasts a 5.7-inch display and a feature set that can compete with any device out there.

Both phones are made of aluminum, with a couple of cosmetic and functional differences: namely, the Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus lacks the antenna lines of the Mi 5s, and features a rear mounted fingerprint sensor, instead of a frontal one.

Xiaomi Mi 5s specs

• 5.15-inch Full HD, 600 nits, 95% NTSC
• Snapdragon 821, 2.15 GHz
• 3GB RAM/64GB storage or 4GB RAM/128GB storage (LPDDR4/UFS 2.0)
• 12MP rear camera (Sony IMX 378, PDAF, OIS, dual LED flash)
• 4MP front camera (f/2.0 aperture, 80-degree viewing angle)
• 3,200 mAh battery
• LTE with 3-carrier aggregation
• USB Type-C
• Under-glass fingerprint sensor
• Android 6.0 Marshmallow, MIUI 8

Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus specs

• 5.7-inch Full HD, 600 nits, 95% NTSC
• Snapdragon 821, 2.35 GHz
• 4GB RAM/64GB storage or 6GB RAM/128GB storage (LPDDR4/UFS 2.0)
• Dual 13MP rear cameras (Sony IMX 258, RGB and BW sensors, PDAF, OIS, dual LED flash)
• 4MP front camera (f/2.0 aperture, 80-degree viewing angle)
• 3,800 mAh battery
• LTE with 3-carrier aggregation
• USB Type-C
• Rear mounted fingerprint sensor
• Android 6.0 Marshmallow, MIUI 8

The fingerprint sensor on the Xiaomi Mi 5s is one of the highlights of the device, as this is one of the first examples of an under-glass fingerprint solution on a smartphone. The device still features an indentation in the glass to give users tactile feedback about the position of the reader, but the reader itself is placed beneath the cover glass.

We're looking at Qualcomm's ultrasonic fingerprint reader, dubbed Sense ID. LG, Synaptics, and other component makers have their own under-glass sensor solutions.

The prices of the Xiaomi Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus are in line with previous devices in the series. While the Chinese prices are often lower than the prices of Xiaomi devices in India and other markets, they're still a good indicator of what to expect. Here's the breakdown:

• Xiaomi Mi 5s 64GB/3GB: 1,999 yuan (~$300)
• Xiaomi Mi 5s 128GB/4GB: 2,299 yuan (~$345)
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus 64GB/4GB: 2,299 yuan (~$345)
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus 128GB/6GB: 2,299 yuan (~$395)

The Xiaomi Mi 5s and Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus will be available in China from Thursday, September 29, in dark grey (brushed metal), gold (brushed metal), silver (matte), or pink (matte). No word yet on the eventual availability of the two devices in other markets, but we expect separate announcements in the close future.

What do you think of the new Xiaomi Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus?

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Ocean Master, Ocean Note, and Ocean Smart could be HTC’s next phones

When we first heard about the HTC Ocean last month, it wasn't quite clear if this was just an intriguing concept from the company or a real product that's on the way. It appears that the latter may be the case, as dedicated HTC leaker LlabTooFeR has posted three device codenames that may indicated upcoming devices – the Ocean Master, Ocean Note, and Ocean Smart.

The naming convention doesn't reveal much, but it suggests that HTC could be working on a basic, premium, and supersized version of the Ocean. The Master would presumably come with some more expensive cutting edge features, the Smart may be the baseline model, and the Note could be, well you know.

Codenames

OCEAN MASTER
OCEAN NOTE
OCEAN SMARThttps://t.co/r4FY9I0Ske

— LlabTooFeR (@LlabTooFeR) September 21, 2016

We don't have any details in the way of hardware specifications for the HTC Ocean range, but the interesting feature about these phones may be the contextual touch-sensitive frame technology that was leaked by Evan Blass last month. The concept video shows off a technology that can control software by sliding your hands along the side of the phone or by swiping your finger to the edge of the display. It looks pretty neat, but HTC will have to convince us of how well it would work in the real world.

More cool HTC stuff here (including the tablet that launched @evleaks): https://t.co/S3WaZkeog9
Check it out before it gets pulled! http://pic.twitter.com/YJwmZb0Sje

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) September 20, 2016

Still, we have no idea if or when these handsets will be arriving on the market. HTC has been a little preoccupied working on its new Desire smartphones and the soon to be announced HTC designed Google Pixel phones due for release on October 4th. It's possible that the Ocean range will appear sometime in 2017, perhaps even as a revamp to its struggling flagship series.

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Google unveils YouTube Go for offline viewing and sharing

If you've been trying to take your YouTube videos on the go, but don't always have the best coverage or a beefy data plan, you'll be pleased to hear that Google wants to remedy the problem with its new YouTube Go app. This new app allows viewers to save videos for offline watching and sharing at a later date, but it will only be available to Indian users, at least at first.

YouTube Go was unveiled at a Google product event in Delhi. It is designed with Indian consumers in mind, and they will be the first to be able to download the new app. The app builds on India's Smart Offline feature that was added into the main YouTube app earlier in the year, by offering additional controls over offline storage.

"YouTube Go was designed and built from the ground up with insights from India, in order to bring the power of video to mobile users in a way that is more conscious of their data and connectivity, while still being locally relevant and social."– Johanna Wright, VP of YouTube product management

The app allows users to preview videos and pick the download quality around their storage capacity and data allowance. There's also a local share feature that can be used to swap videos to other phones without having to use the internet, which presumably makes use of a Bluetooth connection. The app keeps track of your saved videos in a handy tab, so users won't have to sift through download folders to find a specific video.

YouTube Go is currently accepting registrations from those who want to be one of the first to download it. There's no word yet on exactly when the app will go live in India, nor if or when YouTube Go will be available in other parts of the world.

Sign up for YouTube Go

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90 percent of Galaxy Note 7 owners are sticking by the handset

Slowly but surely, Samsung is collecting up and dishing out Galaxy Note 7 replacements following the battery issues that I'm sure you're all familiar with by now. This whole saga hasn't deterred the Samsung faithful though, as the company reports that a whopping 90 percent of Note 7 owners have taken up the company on the offer of a replacement Galaxy Note 7.

When Samsung announced the Galaxy Note 7 recall just over three weeks ago, the company offered consumers the option of a replacement Galaxy Note 7, exchanging the phone for a Galaxy S7 or S7 edge, or a full refund. Rather than opting for an alternative Galaxy or a refund with which to potentially buy an alternative flagship smartphone, the vast majority of consumers have stuck with the Galaxy Note 7 in faith that Samsung will fix the issue promptly. This is certainly an encouraging sign for a company that is undoubted concerned about the impact that the recall will have on the company finances and reputation.

"Just over three weeks ago, Samsung committed to a global replacement program for the Galaxy Note7. Last week, that program began for the majority of markets and the progress is encouraging. Our focus now is to make sure that all affected devices are replaced as quickly and efficiently as possible." – DJ Koh, President of Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics.

Samsung also boasts that 80 percent of customers have taken the company up on its exchange offer in Singapore, and we know that more than 70 percent of Canadians have returned their phones. However, Samsung still appears to be having some trouble encouraging a large number of consumers to return their potentially dangerous handsets in the US and South Korea. The company can only claim that "more than 60 percent" of handsets in these countries have been successfully recalled. This is despite the fact that the company has issued a software update that limits battery capacity and encourages customers to return their phone.

In South Korea, Samsung has actually delayed returning the Note 7 to store shelves so as not to deter the stragglers from returning their phones. Some consumers appear to be awaiting the arrival of replacement models before turning their Note 7 in, and the 500,000 phones now in the US will hopefully further boost the number of returns before the smartphone is due to go back on sale in the country in late October. However, it would be wise to return the handset as soon as possible, firstly for safety but also because it's not clear how much longer Samsung will offer the choice of a full refund.

Have you returned your Galaxy Note 7, and did you opt for a replacement or a refund?

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Google Assistant in Hindi is coming by the end of the year

Two of Google's main focuses, AI and "the next billion users," are coming together, as the company announced the upcoming availability of Assistant in Hindi.

Google thinks that its growth in the coming years will be coming from the people who are just getting online for the first time, often thanks to affordable smartphones powered by Android. Hundreds of millions of those users live in India, a market that Google has singled out as a major focus for all of its initiatives.

That's why the next language supported by Assistant, Google's AI-powered virtual assistant, will be Hindi.

Hindi is the fourth most used language in the world and Google thinks that supporting it in Assistant will help boost the adoption of Allo, its new messaging app. Allo allows users to invoke Assistant in their chats and ask it questions like "how's the weather" and many others.

See also: Google Assistant: The top features you should know23

A "preview" version of Assistant in Hindi will be made available by the end of the year, Google said. Users will be able to converse with Assistant in English and Hindi and quickly switch between the languages.

Caesar Sengupta, Google's VP of product management, used the occasion to plug Duo. The executive said Duo has seen "amazing uptake" in India, a market where Google is working with companies including Micromax to pre-load Duo on their devices.

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