How to Extract Email Addresses from your Gmail Messages

Acme Widgets Inc. has been in business for over 10 years and they have exchanged emails with thousands of customers and suppliers. The email messages are archived neatly in Gmail but most of the email addresses aren’t stored in Google Contacts. The company is now shifting office and they need to inform everyone via email of the office move.

The big task ahead is to extract all these email addresses from the Gmail mailbox and download them in a format, like CSV, that can be easily imported into the Google address book or a mailing list service like MailChimp.

Introducing Email Address Extractor, a Google add-on that sifts through all email messages in your Gmail account, extracts the email addresses and saves them in a Google Spreadsheet. It works for both Gmail and Google Apps accounts.

The Extractor can mine email addresses from a particular Gmail folder (label) or the entire mailbox. You can choose to extract emails of the sender, the recipient(s) and those in the CC list. The add-on can also parse the email‘s subject and message body for email addresses. This is useful for extracting addresses from generic senders, like PayPal emails or contact forms, where the email addresses are contained in the message body.

How to Extract Email Addresses in Gmail

You may follow the step-by-step guide or watch the video tutorial on YouTube (download) to get started:

1. Install the Gmail Extractor add-on and grant the necessary permissions. The add-on needs access to your Gmail and also to Google Drive for saving the email list inside a Google Spreadsheet.
2. Go to the addons menu inside the Google Spreadsheet, choose Email Address Extract and click Start to launch the extractor addon.
3. Specify the search criteria and all emails that match the rule will be parsed by the extractor. You may use any of the Gmail Search operators to filter messages.
4. Next select the fields (to, from, cc, bcc) that should be parsed for extracting emails (screenshot). The add-on can also pull names of the sender and recipients if they are available inside the message header.

Click the “Start” button and the extractor will start pulling emails into the spreadsheet. The entire process may take some time depending up on the size of your Gmail mailbox.

Gmail Extractor FAQ

The Google sheet should remain open and the computer should be online during the extraction. If the connection is lost, or if the extraction process is interrupted for some reason, you can simply click the “Resume” button and the extractor will pick from where it left off earlier.

If you go back to Gmail, you’ll find a new label called Extracted. This keeps tracks of the emails that have been processed and can safely delete this label after all the email address have been parsed and extracted.

The Google Spreadsheet created by Email Extractor add-on has two sheets – All Emails & Unique Emails. The first sheet includes every single email found in your Gmail account while the second sheet is a cleaned up list sans any duplicate emails. This is the sheet you should use for building your address book.

The free version of the add-on is fully featured but it would only extract addresses from up to 500 email threads (a thread contains multiple email messages). The premium version (link) imposes no such restriction and it entitles you to 90 days of complimentary support.

Internally, it is a Google Script that uses the magic of Regular Expressions to pull email addresses from Gmail. The extracted email addresses are saved in a Google spreadsheet that can be used as input for sending personalized email messages through Gmail Mail Merge.

Also see: Schedule Emails in Gmail for Sending Later

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The story, How to Extract Email Addresses from your Gmail Messages, was originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal on 26/05/2016 under GMail, Internet.

How to Identify the Gender of your Twitter Followers

Do you ever wonder what is the demographics of people who follow you on Twitter. How many of your Twitter friends are men? Or women? Or random colored eggs, people who are either too lazy to change their default avatar or maybe they are Twitter bots.

The Graph Search of Facebook can provide deep insights into the demographics of people who are connected with you on the social network. For instance, you can write a natural language query like “My friends who are older than 30” or “My female friends who live in Delhi” and the answer will be available instantly. Such granular data is however not available for Twitter users.

Who Follows You? Males, Females or Eggs

How do you programmatically determine the gender of a person on Twitter?

The Twitter API doesn’t provide the gender information but there’s a workaround. You can take the profile picture of a Twitter user, feed it into Siftr’s Vision API and it will detect the gender of the most prominent face in the photograph. You can go a step further and use Microsoft’s Face API and it will even provide the approximate age of the subject in the photo.

Detecting Gender of Twitter users with Image Recognition

 

Analyze your Twitter Followers

Meet Twitter Analyzer, a web app that analyzes your Twitter network (friends or followers) and logs the details of all user inside a Google Spreadsheet (see screenshot). You get to know their gender, how often they tweet, where are they located, when did they last join Twitter and more.

Getting started is easy. Go to labnol.org/analyzer and sign-in with your Google Account. It requires all these permissions because the underlying Google Script saves everything inside a Google Spreadsheet that will be in your Google Drive. Once the Twitter followers have been analyzed, you’ll get an email notification.

After you’ve granted the necessary permissions, click “Authorize Twitter” to allow the sheet to access your Twitter account. It will never post any tweet to your profile. Next click the scan button and close the page. You’ll get an email once the analysis is complete and this time will vary based on the number of followers you have.

Go to labnol.org/analyzer to scan your Twitter followers

 

Identifying Humans vs Twitter Bots

Camisani Calzolari wrote a set of rules (PDF) that can help detect real users from bots, inactive accounts and fake Twitter users. Some of the rules are:

• The account has written at least 50 tweets
• the account has at least 30 followers
• the profile contains a URL
• the profile contains an image
• the profile contains a biography
• it has been inserted into other Twitter lists

The Google Spreadsheet that is generated by the Twitter Analyzer app includes most of this information as well. Thus, apart from gender analysis, the Analyzer app may help you figure out how many fake bots and inactive profiles follow you on Twitter.

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The story, How to Identify the Gender of your Twitter Followers, was originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal on 23/05/2016 under Twitter, Internet.

Google Translate Autocomplete

Google Translate for desktop now shows suggestions and autocompletes your text, much like Google Search. This works for English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Portuguese, but you have to manually pick the input language instead of relying on automatic detection.

The new feature helps you translate faster common phrases and expressions, but it's not very useful for long texts.

{ Thanks, Emanuele Bartolomucci. }

The Ever-Expanding Knowledge Graph Cards

Sometimes Google's Knowledge Graph cards use more real estate than all the other search results combined. I've searched for [from Paris with love] in the experimental mobile-like desktop interface and got a huge card with images, information about the movie, ratings, cast. Then Google displayed 10 search results and 3 other cards with John Travolta movies, Luc Besson movies and action movies, followed by another list of related searches.

Somehow, the list of search results felt like a placeholder for future Knowledge Graph enhancements.

Google Tests Card-Style Search Interface for Desktop

Google experiments with a desktop search UI that looks more like the mobile interface. The experiment uses the same white cards on a gray background for both search results and ads.

When the card-style layout was launched for the mobile site back in 2013, Google mentioned that the new look was "cleaner and simpler, optimized for touch, with results clustered on cards so you can focus on the answers you're looking for".

Google Works Better With Chrome

When you open google.com in Firefox, Safari or any other browser than Chrome, you'll sometimes see an ad for Chrome. Usually, Google's promotional messages suggested you should try Chrome because it's fast, but now Google has a new ad: "Google works better with Chrome". Clicking "Yes, get Chrome now" sends you to the regular Chrome homepage, which promotes Chrome as "one browser for your laptop, phone and tablet" since "Chrome brings your open tabs, bookmarks and recent searches from your computer to your phone or tablet, and vice versa".

Chrome has many features that integrate Google services (translation, spell checking, reverse image search, Safe Browsing, Cloud Print) and many Google features only work in Chrome (voice search, offline Google Drive, Google Play Music uploading).

Maybe Google should link to a page that explains why "Google works better with Chrome", since it's not exactly obvious. A Twitter user says that "if you can't get a 1 field 2 button form & list of results working cross-browser, you're doing it wrong", while another one finds that "'@google works better with Chrome' sounds like a bug report. Can you just fix it please?". F. Nonnenmacher thinks that "Microsoft was sued for less than that".

Android Instant Apps

Back when the desktop was king, Google used to be all about the Web and the browser. As mobile devices got more popular, browsers were no longer the most important application for many users. Specialized apps for music, video, photos, messaging, maps were much more popular because they were better suited for mobile.

Google pushed the boundaries of the mobile web with Chrome, but a few years ago it started to move on. New services like Inbox no longer have mobile web apps, Google Play Music no longer works from a mobile browser, the Google Docs mobile app no longer lets you edit documents etc. Google started to index mobile apps and link to the apps directly from Google Search. More and more sites push users to install their mobile apps, some of them display limited content and force users to install the apps to read the entire content (example: TripAdvisor).

Now Google announces a new Android feature that will make apps even more powerful. Android Instant Apps will let you launch apps without even installing them: your device will only download the required modules for displaying the content.

"With Instant Apps, a tap on a URL can open right in an Android app, even if the user doesn't have that app installed. As a developer, you won't need to build a new, separate app. (...) You modularize your app, and Google Play downloads only the parts that are needed, on the fly. And when you do upgrade, your app will be available to more than a billion users on Android devices going back to Jelly Bean," informs Google.

Right now, Google works with a small number of developers from BuzzFeed, B&H Photo, Medium, Hotel Tonight, Zumper and Disney to refine the experience. Instant Apps will be available later this year as part of a Google Play Services update.

Instant Apps will be limited to the content you want to display (a Medium article, a B&H camera), but you'll be able to install the full app if you like. It's like launching a personalized trial version of the app.

While the new feature is impressive and has many potential uses, I think it will make the mobile web even less important. If Apple launches a similar feature, developers will start to close their mobile sites and the mobile web will disappear. That's quite dangerous, since it will limit the mobile OS choice to Android and iOS. It's much easier to create a site than an app and many apps are completely unnecessary, not to mention that web apps use open standards, while mobile apps use proprietary APIs and have to rely on closed app stores. The open web ecosystem made Google what it is today.

Google Assistant

Sundar Pichai, Google's CEO, mentioned in this year's Founders' Letter that "the next big step will be for the very concept of the 'device' to fade away. Over time, the computer itself — whatever its form factor — will be an intelligent assistant helping you through your day. We will move from mobile first to an AI first world."

Right now, Google has an assistant, but it's not that conversational. You can find it in the Google Now cards and the voice search feature. It's there for answering quick questions, but it's not that good for having meaningful conversations.

This is about to change, now that Google will launch its answer to Amazon's Echo device later this year. It's called Google Home and it's a "voice-activated product that brings the Google assistant to any room in your house. It lets you enjoy entertainment, manage everyday tasks, and get answers from Google — all using conversational speech. With a simple voice command, you can ask Google Home to play a song, set a timer for the oven, check your flight, or turn on your lights".

Google Home is always listening for the "OK Google" hotword, much like the Google app from your phone. It's also a WiFi speaker with Google Cast support, so you can tell it to play music on other speakers or group it with other speakers. Google Home can even send video to your TV if you use a Chromecast or you have an Android TV.

Google Assistant is not only available in Google Home: it will also be added to the new Allo messaging app and to the Google Search app. "The assistant is conversational — an ongoing two-way dialogue between you and Google that understands your world and helps you get things done. It makes it easy to buy movie tickets while on the go, to find that perfect restaurant for your family to grab a quick bite before the movie starts, and then help you navigate to the theater."

Google starts to build its own ecosystem of devices that work together: smart routers, smart speakers, smart TVs, smartwatches, home automation devices, car dashboard integration. As people use more smart devices, the Google experience is about to change and Google Assistant will become the main "interface" for interacting with Google.

{ via Google Blog }

Make Stunning Video Presentations with Spark Video from Adobe

Adobe Voice has long been my favorite digital storytelling app for making video presentations and photo slideshows on iOS device. All you have to do import your photos, type some text, add your own voice narration and a stunning video is ready for uploading on to YouTube or Facebook.

Here’s a video story that our 10-year old made with Adobe Voice. The background music, transitions and other effects are automatically applied by the Voice app to make your video looks both cinematic and professional.

I have all good things to say about Adobe Voice except that you need an iPad or iPhone to create videos. Well, until now as Adobe has quietly launched a new suite of web apps that, among other things, will let you use Adobe Voice inside your desktop browser. The suite, known as Adobe Spark, includes tools for creating video stories, magazine-style web pages and typography posters (think of Typorama but for the web).

And the price is just right. $0.

To get started, go to spark.adobe.com and sign-in with your Facebook or Google Account. This is mandatory because all your work will be auto-saved under this account and will also be accessible on your iPad and iPhone.

Spark Video offers a PowerPoint style layout. You have a plethora of cinematic themes to choose from and each theme has its own set of background music, transitions and fonts. Changing a theme for your video is as simple as choosing one from the sidebar.

Your slides can have photos and text or both. You can either import photos from the computer or there’s a built-in search engine to help you search photos that are in the Creative Commons domain. Adobe Spark Video automatically takes care of mentioning the photo source in the closing-credits of the movie.

If you click that little ‘speech icon’, you can alter the position of the photo on the slide or mark the main point that should be focussed during transitions.

Your movies stay forever on the Adobe Spark website and you get a permanent link to share that video with friends. Alternatively, you can download the raw video in MP4 format for uploading to other sites like YouTube or Facebook or publish as an iTunes Podcast.

Adobe claims no copyright over the video or embedded music so you can legally download the video and do anything. For instance, some people may want to remove the Adobe Voice branding that’s added in the last slide and you can easily do with any video editing software.

Adobe Spark will make it easy for anyone to make cinematic quality presentations will little effort. The one feature that you’ll miss though is that there’s no option to import GIFs and video clips into your slides.

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The story, Make Stunning Video Presentations with Spark Video from Adobe, was originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal on 19/05/2016 under Presentations, Internet.

Allo and Duo: Google's New Messaging Apps

Hangouts was supposed to be Google's unified messaging solution, but things didn't go as planned: Hangouts was buggy, lacked features and many people hated it. After releasing a separate app for SMS (Messenger), Google will soon launch 2 other apps: Allo for group chat and Duo for video calling.

Both Allo and Duo use your phone number, much like WhatsApp, so you can chat or talk with anyone from your phonebook. Allo includes a special version of the Smart Reply feature from Google Inbox and it suggests replies for both text messages and photos. Smart Reply learns over time and adapts to your style, suggesting replies you are likely to send.

There's also a Google Assistant you can add to a conversation to answer quick questions, show search results and even perform actions like reserving a table at a restaurant. "The Google assistant in Allo understands your world, so you can ask for things like your agenda for the day, details of your flight and hotel, or photos from your last trip. And since it understands natural language patterns, you can just chat like yourself and it'll understand what you're saying," informs Google.

Allo lets you share photos, add text to photos, add emojis and stickers. There's also a Whisper Shout feature that lets you resize the text before sending it.

Allo has an incognito mode for private conversations. The incognito mode features end-to-end encryption and discreet notifications. Much like in Chrome, you'll need to manually start an incognito conversation and some features aren't available in incognito mode.

Duo is a simplified one-to-one video calling app that uses your phone number, works well on slow Internet connections (it uses WebRTC) and has a Knock Knock feature that shows a live preview of the caller before you answer. Hopefully, users will be able to block those who abuse this feature.

"Duo calls are in crisp HD video (up to 720p) and audio. We've optimized Duo to work well even on spotty networks, so if bandwidth is limited it gracefully adjusts quality so you're still able to connect. We also seamlessly transition calls between cellular and Wi-Fi, so you don't need to worry about what network you're on. Finally, we built Duo with privacy and security in mind and all calls on Duo are end-to-end encrypted," explains Google.

Allo and Duo will launch this summer and will be available for Android and iOS. For now, Hangouts will continue to exist, since Allo and Duo lack many of the features from Hangouts.

Google doesn't have a good track record when it comes to messaging services, so it's hard to tell whether the new apps will be successful. It looks like Allo and Duo will be simple, fast and more focused.

{ via Google Blog }

Google Image Search Ads

Google's product listing ads are now available in mobile Google Image Search. They're placed above the list of image search results and look much like the shopping ads from web search. Google also shows a colorful list of related keywords you can add to your query: brands, colors, categories and more.

"Whether they're looking for a new sofa or the perfect pair of earrings, people who search and shop on their smartphones at least once a week say that product images are the shopping feature they turn to most. And it turns out, the top questions Google Images users ask us are 'What's the price of this?’ and ‘Where can I buy it?'. That's why we are introducing Shopping ads on image search," informs Google.

Here's the "shop on Google" section from web search.

Shopping Snippets in Mobile Google Image Search

Google's image search engine now shows rich snippets for shopping sites like Amazon and eBay, but only when you use the mobile interface. Google displays the name of the product, the price, the rating and the number of reviews, stock information and a short description. There's also a message that asks users to "check website for latest pricing and availability".

Google Image Search is pretty useful for finding products and the new snippets include even more information. I'd like to see a filtering option for products in web search and image search, now that Google Product Search only shows paid listings (also known as ads) and "payment is one of several factors used to rank these results".

How to Copy an Entire Folder to Another Folder in Google Drive

Google Drive, launched almost 4 years ago, is an online vault where you can store all your files and documents. It offers nearly all the functionality that you would expect in a file manager app making it easier for you to manage files from within the browser. You can move files between folders, rename files, differentiate them with colors, add text notes for easier lookup and more.

However the one piece that is still missing in Google Drive is the ability to copy folders. You can duplicate any file in Google Drive by right-clicking the file and selecting “Make a Copy” but this option is not available for folders. A Google Script exists to copy folders in Google Drive but it is complicated.

The option to duplicate folders doesn’t exist in Google Drive

How to Copy Folders in Google Drive

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were an xcopy (Windows) or rsync (Mac, Unix) like command for Google Drive that would recursively copy everything inside a folder, easily It should not only copy all the files and subdirectories but also retain the directory tree structure and maintain the shared file permissions.

Well, we are not sure if Google will ever provide an option to duplicate folders in Google Drive but there’s an open source web app by Eric YD that does exactly what you are looking for. Here’s how to get started:

1. Go to labnol.org/xcopy and click the Authorize button.
2. Allow the app to access your Google Drive files. The app would perform the copy operation directly inside your Google account without involving a third-party server.
3. Once authorized, select the source folder using the Google File picker and specify the destination folder name.
4. Click the Copy Folder button to begin the cloning process.

That’s it. The script will run in the background and copy files, one-by-one, into the target folder.  It will log everything in a Google Spreadsheet so you know what’s happening behind the scene.

While optional, the app can also retain permissions and in the case the copied files will be editable/viewable by the same people as the original files. The copying process would however take longer if you choose to copy the sharing permissions.

Also see: Add Files in Google Drive to Multiple Folders

Copy Folders to another Google Drive Account

Say you have a folder in one Google account (A) that you would like to copy to another Google account (B). While the app doesn’t support copying across accounts, there’s a simple workaround:

1. Use labnol.org/xcopy to copy the folder in its original account (A).
2. Log into account B, create a blank folder and share it with account A.
3. Log into account A and move the copied folder into the shared folder.
4. Go back to account B and remove the sharing permissions for the folder.

The Alternative – If you are not comfortable giving access to your Google Drive to another app, you can manually copy folders using the Google Drive desktop client for Windows and Mac. Go to Windows Explorer (or Finder), select the source folder and press Ctrl+C followed by Ctrl+V to duplicate the folder.

This would however not retain the original file permissions. The other downside is that Google Drive will have to reupload all the copied files whereas in the previous case, the copying happened on Google servers directly.

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The story, How to Copy an Entire Folder to Another Folder in Google Drive, was originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal on 03/05/2016 under Google Drive, Internet.

How to Embed Facebook Message Buttons in your Website

Email has always been the preferred mode for reaching out to people on the Internet. Websites would put their email addresses on web pages and made them clickable hyperlinks using the mailto protocol. Things have changed and while email is still considered important, the new generation is known to prefer instant texting apps like Facebook Messenger over email. For them, writing an email is as boring as creating a résumé.

This step-by-step guide explains the various techniques that you can use to easily embed the Facebook Messenger button in your website. When someone clicks the Message Me button, it will directly launch the Facebook Messenger app on their mobile phone or the messenger.com website if they are on the desktop. You can choose to receive messages in your Facebook profile or your Facebook page, if you have one.

A: Simple Facebook Messenger Link

The default Facebook Messenger button is rendered using JavaScript but you can also write them in pure HTML without requiring JavaScript. The advantage is that these buttons (see demo) would show up even if the user has enabled ad blockers and second, you can embed message links inside email newsletters.

All you have to do is replace “XYZ” in the snippet below with your Facebook vanity username. If you don’t have a username yet, you can use your numerical Facebook profile ID instead. The link may be customized with CSS to resemble a button as seen in this live demo.

 <a href="http://ift.tt/1X6i2yP;
    Message us on Facebook
 </a>

Tip: If you are not seeing messages sent to your Facebook profile, it is because Facebook automatically hides messages from people that are not in your contacts / friends list. Go to http://ift.tt/1hby4Cb, click the “More” dropdown and choose “Filtered” to see all messages that are not in your main inbox.

B: Facebook Messenger Button

This is the default Facebook Messenger button (see live demo) rendered with JavaScript. Unlike the previous option that allows messaging to personal profile as well, this button is only available to Facebook Page owners for them to receive messages from other Facebook users.

To get started, copy-paste the following snippet in your blog template but remember to replace “XYZ” with the numeric ID of you Facebook Page. You can set the color as white for a blue text on white background button.

<script>      
      window.fbAsyncInit = function() {
        FB.init({
          appId      : '95100348886',
          xfbml      : true,
          version    : 'v2.6'
        });
      };

      (function(d, s, id){
        var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
        if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;}
        js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
        js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js";
        fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
      }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));      
    </script>

    <div class="fb-messengermessageus" 
         messenger_app_id="95100348886" 
         page_id="XYZ" 
         color="blue"
         size="large">
    </div>

Tip: If you are unable to use the Facebook Messenger button, it is likely that your Facebook Page is configured to not receive messages. Go to your Facebook Page settings, choose General, Messages and turn on the option that says “Allow people to contact my Page privately by showing the Message button”.

C: Facebook Messenger Box

You have seen the Facebook Like box embedded in websites but did you know that the same box can also include an inline form allowing any Facebook user to contact you without even leaving your webpage. Here’s a live demo.

In this case you need to replace “XYZ” in the snippet below with the vanity username or ID of your Facebook Page. Anyone who is logged into Facebook can message you from your website itself, similar to regular contact us forms.

<script>
      window.fbAsyncInit = function() {
        FB.init({
          appId      : '95100348886',
          xfbml      : true,
          version    : 'v2.6'
        });
      };

      (function(d, s, id){
        var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
        if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;}
        js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
        js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js";
        fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
      }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));
    </script>

    <div class="fb-page" 
         data-href="http://ift.tt/1TI9vyZ; 
         data-tabs="messages" 
         data-width="400" 
         data-height="300" 
         data-small-header="true">
      <div class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore">
        <blockquote></blockquote>
      </div>
    </div>

You should also check the Facebook Page Plugin to learn about all the other configuration options that can be easily set using the data attributes.

Related: How to Embed Facebook Posts in Webpages

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The story, How to Embed Facebook Message Buttons in your Website, was originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal on 03/05/2016 under Code, Embed, Facebook, Internet.

How to Delete the Useless Photos in your WhatsApp Automatically

WhatsApp is probably the largest space hog on our mobile phones. We all have friends and relative who diligently forward us every single motivation quote and meme they’ve received from their own network. Some think it is their duty to wake us with a “good morning” message accompanied with photos of the rising sun or chirping birds.

The bigger problem with WhatsApp is that these ‘spam’ messages often originate from contacts who are close to you in real life and thus blocking them would be considered rude. You have an option to mute WhatsApps groups but the downloaded images would still take up precious space on your mobile phone.

A simple solution to the problem would be that you open the Photo Gallery app on your Android phone, or use a File Manager app to locate the media folder of WhatsApp, and delete the entire folder containing those WhatsApps images. But since WhatsApp makes no distinction between real photographs and useless forwards, you risk deleting the good pictures too.

Are junk WhatsApp images filling up your phone’s memory?

Siftr, an Indian startup founded by ex-Adobe employees, has launched an intelligent Android App that can help you get rid of all the junk photos from your WhatsApp with no effort.

The app, Magic Cleaner, scans the media folder of your WhatsApp app and automatically detects all the junk images including screenshots, memes, video screen grabs, cartoons and other pictures with overlay text. You are then offered an option to delete all the detected images in one go.

Previous: Create Photography Websites with Siftr

How does it work? Like Cloud Vision, Google’s image recognition API, Siftr has developed their own image recognition engine that analysis the content of an image to determine whether it’s junk or not. It requires an active Internet connection because the image analysis is done on Siftr servers and not locally on the mobile phone. However it is unlikely to blow up your data plan as the app only uploads a small hash of the image and matches it against their own database of images.

I ran the photo cleaner app against a WhatsApp account that had about 4000+ images and it could successfully clean it up in about 10 minutes. The accuracy was very impressive. The app is free but you can only auto-delete a limited number of images in a single run. If you would like to delete more images, you either need to invite a friend to use the app or wait for a day.

If you have WhatsApp, which you probably do, Magic Cleaner is a must-have app. An iPhone version is in the works. Also, though the WhatsApps images are deleted from the memory card, a blurred thumbnail will still exist inside your WhatsApp message logs and you’ll have to erase them manually.

Also see: Sync WhatsApp Photos with Google Drive or Dropbox

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The story, How to Delete the Useless Photos in your WhatsApp Automatically, was originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal on 02/05/2016 under Android, WhatsApp, Internet.