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Comment: With Assistant Snapshot going away, Google Now’s radical vision is dead for a generation 

It’s been clear for some time now that Assistant Snapshot “does not have the same level of vision, central on-phone placement, or wide backing” as Google Now. It was never going to be game changing, but its upcoming demise officially closes the chapter on what could have been a radically different way to use smartphones.

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Comment: Google Now, Glass, & Wear — The future we lost by making watches miniature phones

Tomorrow will hopefully mark the beginning of the Apple Watch getting a serious competitor in the form of Samsung hardware running Google software. The wearable space is in serious need of competition, but it’s unfortunate how the two competing efforts are fundamentally the same. That similarity has deep ramifications for how we will experience technology for the foreseeable future.

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Nova Launcher’s Google Now integration now works on Lollipop devices

Just last week the talented developers behind Nova Launcher finally solved one of the biggest pain points of almost every third-party launcher by including native Google Now integration. The feature is clean and works great, but it does involve a bit of a workaround to activate. Now, the availability of that feature is expanding to older versions of the OS.


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Hands-on: A fully functional Pixel Launcher that works w/ any Android phone [Video]

Getting quick access to your Google Now feed directly from the home screen can be a little tricky. Apps using the Google Now API aren’t allowed to be published in the Play Store, so some developers have had to get a little crafty with workarounds. Still, if you don’t need all of the customizable options that a launcher like Nova has to offer, why not just use the official launcher?


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Which third-party launcher do you want to have native access to Google Now? [Poll]

Custom launchers are one of the best ways that users can take full advantage of Android’s open ecosystem. Without having to modify their smartphones, users can simply install a third-party launcher and change up the look of their device. Today, Nova Launcher received an update which makes it even better with native Google Now built-in. What other launchers should have this functionality?


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Hands-on with native Google Now integration in Nova Launcher [Video]

Google Now Launcher has long been one of the only ways to access your Google Now feed directly from the home screen, thanks to a rule restricting apps on the Play Store from using the service’s API. It’s kept third-party launchers from tapping into the service (and consequently led to slow and clunky solutions like swiping gestures to launch the Google app), but not all developers can be stopped so easily.


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Nova Launcher now has true Google Now integration, here’s how to enable it

Google Now is a powerful tool, but it only really proves its worth when it can be easily accessed. Now that Google Assistant has taken the place of Now on a long-press of the home button, having Now integrated into the launcher is your best bet. Google’s official launchers used to be the only ways to do that, but starting today one of the biggest third-party launchers is changing that…


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How to access Google Now cards with Google Assistant

Google Assistant is available on (or rolling out to) almost any Android smartphone at this point, and despite Google’s efforts to round out the experience of using Assistant, it’s still a jarring experience when coming from Google Now on Tap. Since the rollout started, one of the biggest questions I’ve seen is how to access Google Now cards with Google Assistant, so let’s take a closer look.


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How to add a Google Now gesture to Action Launcher 3

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With the death of the Google Now Launcher just weeks away, many are looking for alternate options. Thankfully, there are several great ones available. However, there’s not a single launcher on Google Play that can truly replicate the Google Now Launcher’s best feature – a left swipe for Google Now. So, here’s how to add a Google Now gesture to Action Launcher 3.


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How to add a Google Now gesture to Nova Launcher

novalauncher_googlenow_1

With the death of the Google Now Launcher just weeks away, many are looking for alternate options. Thankfully, there are several great ones available. However, there’s not a single launcher on Google Play that can truly replicate the Google Now Launcher’s best feature – a left swipe for Google Now. So, here’s how to add a Google Now gesture to Nova Launcher.


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Google is testing circular-shaped shortcuts in the Now stream

Now Circular UI

We know that Google is no stranger to silent (server side switched) testing that mysteriously and unexpectedly hits random users, but while changes to relatively niche apps like Inbox seem understandable, to see the relatively granitic Search app and the Google Now stream — which have remained largely unchanged for quite a while — even just slightly tweaked has us interested and a bit surprised…


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Google appears to be testing new ‘Dashboard’ feature in Google Now to show data from other services

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After adding new features over the past several months, it appears that Google is testing yet another new option for Google Now. This new tab, labeled “Dashboard”, will apparently be used to pull information from other Google services such as Keep, Gmail, Google Photos, and others to bring all of that information into one central location.


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Restaurant/bar cards now include reviews & best-of lists, Now cards appearing in Now on Tap in latest Google app beta

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Following improvements to Google Maps that surface interesting locales, Google Search is now showing restaurant reviews from top critics and what best-of lists (from various publishers on the web) a place has been mentioned in. In related updates, the latest Google app beta now shows weather and stock cards when triggering Now on Tap from the homescreen.


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