📲 Test #185 - Have you tried this new search engine?

Greetings testers!

Yes, Brave finally released their new search engine to the public beta and you can give it a try as well. There is a chance that we will finally get an alternative to Google and Bing (Microsoft, DuckDuck Go) search indexes. Brave uses its own search index but it still takes some part of results from Google and Bing.

There is one interesting historical fact about beta testing that I decided to share on our refreshed Snapchat Beta page. Did you know? The official Snapchat beta community had almost 3m members on Google+ back in 2016 and got suspended because it was making a huge load on the Google Cloud infrastructure?

On a side note, in order to improve our service and focus on what's matter, I need to know which apps do you care about the most. Please check out apps that are important to you from this form if you want to help us build a better product 🙏

I realised that TestingCatalog newsletter was never shared on Product Hunt before but before doing this, I would like to make sure that it is really great, valuable and useful. Current open rates are not very impressive so if you know any reason which stops you from opening or newsletter every Friday, please share it with us as well. Thanks for your support!

P.S. if anyone can help us with organising a better listing on Product Hunt, I would love to discuss it too

What's new?

• 📲 Brave released its search engine to public beta and you already can set it as the default
• 📲 Creators can now apply for Ticketed Spaces on Twitter for Android
• 📲 Discord is rolling out Stage discovery to more countries, adds favourite emojis section, and more

Top Stories

Brave released its search engine to public beta and you already can set it as the default

Earlier this year Brave announced its privacy-focused search engine. It became available in Early Access to a limited number of registered beta testers for some time and now it is finally available to the public. During the early access, beta testers were asked not to share any info or screenshots

TestingCatalogAlexey Shabanov

How to set Brave search as the default:

• Open Brave settings page.
• Select the Search Engines option.
• Select Standard tab.
• Pick Brave search option.

Creators can now apply for Ticketed Spaces on Twitter for Android

There is a new tab on the Twitter sidebar that is called Monetisation. From there you will be able to apply for access to Super Follows and Ticketed Spaces. Super Follows feature will require at least 10k followers and only available on iOS for now. Ticketed Spaces feature only requires

TestingCatalogAlexey Shabanov

Necessary requirements to apply for Ticketed Spaces:

• You should have at least 1000 followers.
• You should have hosted at least 3 Spaces within the past 30 days.
• You should be at least 18 years old.

Discord is rolling out Stage discovery to more countries, adds favourite emojis section, and more

The stage discovery feature was released on June 1 to the US, AU, GB, and CA regions. The latest app change-log contains an explanation of this feature and now it seems to be available globally. rollin out stage discovery! browse public audio events and hop into the audience. want to

TestingCatalogAlexey Shabanov

How to discover Stages on Discord:

• Tap on the Stage Discovery tab from the bottom navbar.
• Select a Stage and tap to join the conversation.

For Content Creators

📲 Telegram

• Telegram prepares an update for the inline bot commands menu

📲 Google Analytics

• Google Analytics on Android got report sharing functionality, better search, and more

📲 YouTube

• YouTube may soon let you play entire videos right on the home page

📲 Snapchat

• Snapchat introduces new ways to expand Spotlight, plus, it will soon let you share your live locations privately with your friends

📲 TikTok

• TikTok Adds a New Program Called “Jump” in Its Already Long List of Great Features

📲 Twitter

• Twitter is working on Facebook-style reactions
• Twitter Adds Indian Payment Provider Razorpay to Tip Jar Options

📲 Facebook

• Facebook is pushing a new layout to start and join Rooms on Android
• Facebook Tests Public Comments Display on Facebook Stories
• Facebook wants to take on Clubhouse and Spotify with its new mobile app features
• Facebook Adds New Post Control Options in Groups, Helping to Guide Group Interactions
• Facebook Group Admins will soon be able to allow posts by types; this will allow feeds to become saturated and much more targeted
• Facebook Tests New Animations When Sharing a Post in the News Feed

📲 Instagram

• Instagram is making Rooms video chats available to more users
• Instagram is working on a few handy features including “Fan-club” stories, and NFT-inspired Collectibles on the platform to enhance the engagement of users
• Instagram Tests New Content Recommendations Within the Main Feed, Sometimes Above Profiles You Follow

📲 WhatsApp

• WhatsApp is rolling out a new UI for business profiles
• WhatsApp multi-device support to be limited to one phone per account
• Facebook is planning to add shops on WhatsApp to make shopping more convenient
• WhatsApp beta on Android adds voice note waveforms, the ability to forward sticker packs
• New “view once” feature similar to Instagram will be released on WhatsApp too

📲 Messenger

• Messenger is making it easier to switch between accounts and Pages on Android

For Early Adopters

📲 Google Messages

• How to change the font size on Google Messages

📲 Google Fit

• Google Fit changes how distance and calories are calculated, deleting old data in 30 days

📲 Google Assistant

• Google Assistant’s latest test makes it easier to scan or read the current screen aloud
• Google Assistant gets standalone ‘Lock screen’ settings for Android

📲 Google Phone

• Google Phone update makes it even easier to message businesses

📲 Microsoft Edge

• Microsoft Edge is borrowing one of Chrome's best features

📲 Microsoft OneDrive

• Microsoft adds basic photo editing features to OneDrive

📲 FitBit

• Fitbit is ‘reviewing’ an option to turn off Minions-themed activity badges

📲 TeamViewer

• TeamViewer for Android finally adds support for biometric authentication

TestingCatalog Project

I started working on a new project 😎 App changelogs are dead. If you are tired of seeing "bug fixes and performance improvements" in every changelog - you will like it.

How do you normally figure out what new features were released for your apps? Please send us your replies so we can understand this issue better.

Happy Testing!

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TestingCatalog - Revue

A weekly digest of TestingCatalog about Android apps and beta testing. Explore unreleased apps, feature insights for popular apps, and beta testing tips 📲

RevueAlexey Shabanov