Google and The Pokemon Company jointly built a Soli/Motion Sense demo app for the Google Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL, Pokemon Wave Hello, as you can see in the screenshots below that 9to5Google has exclusively obtained. The app is not a full-fledged game, but rather a quick demo to show how the Pixel 4’s new air gesture features work…
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Google appears to be working on a new and simple way to share files between a variety of devices, including Android and Chromebooks. We’ve managed to fully enable “Fast Share” on Android today, and here’s how it works.
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Since its availability in August 2017 in France, Google Assistant has had two hotwords: The well-known “Okay Google”, and “Dis Google” (meaning “Say Google”). Google has now announced support of the “Hey Google” hotword support in France for the beginning of July.
A couple months ago, we discovered a somewhat major security flaw that affected many OnePlus users. The company had been leaking the email addresses of hundreds of their users through the ‘Shot on OnePlus’ app. The most important issue is fixed now, but here’s a breakdown of how it happened, and what OnePlus still needs to fix.
Android Q Beta 4 is rolling out today, and some new hidden settings in the latest version of the Settings app have some details on Android Q face authentication. Not only does it suggest that “Face authentication” will indeed be a security feature when Android Q officially launches later this year, but offers some details on how it will work as well…
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Announced in 2016 and first showcased within Google Allo, App Preview Messaging lets you receive messages from third-party services even when the app isn’t installed on your device. Spotted in use by Duo last month, Google Photos now appears to be the latest app taking advantage of this functionality.
Over the weekend, Google rolled out the version 21 of Allo for Android. This update includes a cropping tool for editing profile pictures and support for the EmojiCompat library.
During the last few months, Google has been working hard to bring users to Allo and Duo. While Duo has been a relative success (it’s pre-installed on Pixels, and widely regarded as a simply great video calling app), let’s talk about Allo, and what Google do to make it comparable to the competition.
More than a month ago, Nokia announced the Nokia 8, which runs Android 7.1.1 out of the box. Google released Android Oreo soon after that, and seeing as Nokia is one of the more reliable manufacturers pushing out Android updates as of late, it shouldn’t be long before we see that release on Nokia’s new handset.
Now it’s clear, thanks to some new images published on Twitter, that the Android Oreo update for the Nokia 8 is nearing release…
Last week, our APK Teardown of Allo 11 revealed lots of interesting things about forthcoming versions of Allo, including the integration of Duo and more. Now we’ve discovered (with a little more tinkering) that Google is also testing a couple different ‘New chat’ buttons in this new version of Allo.
Since Google uses Material Design on their text messaging apps, they’ve always been using a Floating Action Button as the “New chat” button. Here are some examples of this in other apps:
But in Allo 11, Google is testing 2 new ‘New Chat’ buttons. They do the same action (basically allowing you start a chat with the contacts of your choosing), but they just look different.
This is definitely minor, but an interesting change nonetheless. Google has used FABs for this functionality in its apps since the inception of Material Design — the FAB is a pretty notable part of the language. So it’s interesting to see Google play with straying from that design.
For several months, Google has been preparing selfie-generated stickers in Allo. We gave you an exclusive preview of that feature about a week ago. Now, Allo 11 is officially introducing those selfie-generated stickers for everyone, but this update also packs evidence of several other features coming in future updates.
Google Assistant first launched as a preview inside Allo in September of last year. Support was initially limited to English, but it has since been updated with more languages. Starting today, a number of Allo’s smart features will work in two new languages.
The latest version of the Google Play Store is beginning to roll out with strings that point to a new security feature that will alert users when installing apps from unknown sources. Version 7.8 also points to Instant Apps support, pre-registration rewards, and more.
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Over the last year, YouTube has been A/B testing a revamped interface on the web for some users. An official preview of that Material design, along with its dark theme, is now available for all users to enable and test.
Several weeks ago, Nick Fox, Google’s VP of Communications Products, teased us via Twitter with an early look at Google Allo for desktop. With Allo 9.0, Google seems to be preparing the method by which you’ll connect your device to Allo desktop. We now have our first idea of how that might work…
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A couple of weeks ago, Google told us on its blog about some new features Allo would soon be getting. Today, Google Allo’s head of product has confirmed to us on Twitter that one of those features, the new button for quick access to Assistant, is now rolling out for everyone.
