If you watch a lot of YouTube on your phone or tablet, you might be getting sick of the ads that often run before the video you want to see. If you've ever said to yourself that you would pay serious money in order to get rid of the commercials, YouTube is going to give you that opportunity. In an email to its content providers, the video streamer explains that it will soon start allowing users to pay a monthly subscription fee for ad-free access to YouTube.

The email from YouTube also explains how content providers will receive a share of the revenue that YouTube collects from this monthly fee. Right now, there is no word on how much YouTube will seek each month for a subscription to its ad-free service. This is hardly new since many free ad-supported apps offer a premium paid version that eliminates ads.

YouTube has been making some changes with the most recent being the introduction of YouTube for Kids. In less than a month, the "safe" version of YouTube has been installed more than 2 million times.

VIA

A New feature has been added to "Google Now" for Android, which is the Google Search App. This new feature will allow you to send text messages via Google Hangouts simple using your Voice using the well-known phrase "Okay Google".

This feature is a server-side enabled, so you won't be needing to install any APK or do any updates to your device. All you have to do is just say "Okay Google" followed by "Send a Hangouts message" and then your message. It will then ask you whom you want to send the message to followed by your message before you can send it.

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Google announced that YouTube for Android will now support 360 degree videos. To do this, Google met with the manufacturers of 360 degree movie cameras such as Bublcam, Giroptic's 360cam, IC Real Tech's Allie, Kodak's SP360 and RICOH THETA. The purpose of these get togethers was to make sure that YouTube would be able to play such videos made with their cameras. For now, those shooting 360 degree videos will have to include a script that will allow YouTube to upload the video with the correct metadata. In the future, Google hopes to have this done automatically.

With the update to YouTube for Android, users can move their phone or tablet around while a 360 degree video plays, in order to catch all of the different angles on the screen.

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According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Google has Android version for virtual reality in the works. The new build will allow the search giant to compete with the likes of Facebook, which recently acquired Oculus for $2 billion.

Android for VR will be freely distributed just like its sibling for smartphones and tablets. Google has reportedly committed tens of engineers to the project. Two of the engineers behind Google Cardboard are said to be leading the project.

No timeline on the release of Android VR has been mentioned. I won't be surprised if we hear more about the platform during this year's Google I/O.

Source WSJ

Google will be deprecating the Google Talk application for Windows. Google stopped allowing people to download the app long time ago but you can still continue using it, that is, until February 25,th.

Google already has a replacement in the form of Hangouts, which has been around for over a year now, and includes a lot more features, such as group messaging, audio and video calls, and emoji support.

If, however, you use Google Talk on a third party application, such as Pidgin, to access Google Talk, you can continue to use it for now, as only the Windows desktop app of Google Talk is being deprecated for now. However, it is still recommended to switch over to Hangouts for all the additional functionality you are getting.

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