You can now customize snooze times in Inbox by Gmail (and Google finally added a Contacts button)

Google has published a quick update for Inbox by Gmail that makes a small, but important tweak: you can now customize your “morning” and “evening” times for snoozing email. The app originally sets 7:00am and 7:00pm for snooze times for everyone who downloads it, but that might not always be the most convenient (such as for yours truly, whose mornings unfortunately begin far before the sun rises at 7:00am).

If you’re not aware what snoozing in Inbox is, it’s a feature that lets you dismiss an email until a later time. The email will popup again at the time you specify as if the email just arrived in your inbox. It’s a very convenient tool that makes it tough for you to forget about an important or interesting email that you can’t read immediately.

Google says the latest change will go into effect automatically, so there’s no need to wait for an update from Google Play. It’s also obviously immediately present in the desktop website as well.

Google will ask you if you want to customize your snooze time the next time you go to snooze an email, and anything you snooze from there on will popup at your new time (even if you previously had an item snoozed before the update arrived). You’ll also be able to differentiate between morning and evening times, so your 6am wake up time doesn’t necessarily have to be matched by a 6pm evening time.

Oh, and one more thing: Google finally added a quick button to access Google Contacts on the desktop web from within Inbox. It’s about damn time.

[via Google]

T-Mobile’s JUMP! On-Demand lets you upgrade up to 3 times per year

Upgrading once every 2 years wasn’t enough. For some, upgrading yearly isn’t quite enough. And apparently once every 6 months has become a bit too restrictive, as well.

So now T-Mobile’s going a step further. The company has introduced JUMP On-Demand, the first in their string of announcements of improvements for existing Un-Carrier features.

JUMP On-Demand’s big benefit is that customers can upgrade up to 3 times per year, and there are no restrictions on when those upgrades occur. That means you don’t have to wait a minimum of six months, which is great for those who just have to get their hands on every big smartphone that launches in a year.

There are some other key things to keep in mind, too. For starters, the program no longer requires a monthly fee, though this does mean you’ll no longer get insurance for your phone. You can add that insurance back for a lower fee (about monthly) if you so choose.

It’s also worth noting the phone is technically being leased to you and you don’t actually own it unless you pay for the device in full, though this was largely the same way it worked before. Here’s how T-Mobile explains it:

With Jump! On Demand, you make payments on your phone for 18 months. After 18 months, you can simply turn in your phone with nothing more to pay, or upgrade to your next new phone and start a new plan, or make a final payment and keep your phone.

If you keep your phone and make the final payment, the total of your payments will equal the retail price of the phone. In addition, customers can pay off their JUMP! On Demand plan at any time by paying the remaining payments in advance, and keep their phone without penalty.

Sounds good to us. JUMP On-Demand begins June 28th, so there won’t be much of a wait if you’re eager to take advantage. T-Mobile says this is just the first of many “AMPED” announcements that will bring us improvements to all their existing Un-Carrier moves, so stay tuned!

Google Hangouts has been pre-installed over 1 billion times

When an application crosses a billion installs on the Google Play Store, it always sounds like a big deal. It’s an illustrious club that few belong to. Apps like Facebook, WhatsApp and more recently, Facebook Messenger, have all joined the 1 billion downloads club and that’s saying something. Most of those apps had to be physically downloaded (not all the time, but mostly) by Android users before they could hit that milestone.

Then there are a handful of Google apps that are also apart of this club. Apps like Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, and Google Search. You know, the apps that stand in the back of the room with their embroidered blazers, smoking their pipes, telling stories about how they easily joined up because of their family name. These are the apps that already come pre-installed on your Android device before you even take it out of the box. It should come as little surprise to anyone that another app from Google’s software suite is joining that list, with Google Hangouts now crossing the 1 billion downloads mark.

If nothing else, this milestone — which, by the way, means nothing — points a spotlight directly on an app that is in bad need of an overhaul. With more than a billion “installs,” we think it’s time Google finally gives Hangouts a little TLC. Giving the app a new coat of paint with Material design and bringing it up to speed with its iOS counterpart (which has the ability to send video clips) would be a nice start. Can you think of anything else you’d like to see in a Hangouts refresh?

Hangouts (Playboard) | Hangouts (Play Store)