Send tips/talk to abner@9to5mac.com or @technacity (open DMs).
Abner Li has worked at 9to5Google since 2015 and in late 2020 took on the role of editor-in-chief. He is keenly focused on tracking what happens at Google, and is often the first to spot new features in Google’s ever-growing family of applications that are updated on a daily basis, including Search, Assistant, Maps, Workspace, Android, Chrome/OS, Wear OS, and YouTube Music.
To him, what Google does greatly impacts the technology space and modern life. Inside the company, he is particularly interested in the key products mentioned above, as well as services like Google Podcasts and Google Lens. Each are massive platforms that can be unwieldy to grasp, with Abner keenly bent on understanding their philosophy and future direction. He is most excited about Google’s plans for augmented reality glasses.
Abner spearheads the APK Insight program at 9to5Google to chronicle all changes in the company’s Android apps, often finding new features before they are officially announced. This includes redesigns and revamps, launches, and new products.
A big area of interest is Google’s hardware division, including Pixel, Fitbit, and Nest. He detailed all of the Pixel 3’s camera features before launch and scooped the 2nd-generation Nest Hub’s Soli-powered Sleep Sensing capability, including how it would integrate with Google Fit.
Recently, Abner detailed the Pixel Watch’s specs in full before launch, including bands and pricing. He also got wind of the Pixel Tablet’s ultimate form factor.
Google is rolling out Android 15 Developer Preview 2 today ahead of next month’s first beta. It continues work on a number of tentpoles with more capabilities taking shape in this release.
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Last year, ChromeOS introduced Camera and Microphone access toggles that match the Android experience, and Chromebooks will soon be getting a location privacy control.
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Qualcomm is following its announcement at the start of this week with another chip: the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3.
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Following Messages last year, Google Contacts is now the latest app to replace its navigation drawer as part of a small redesign today that really simplifies things.
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Google has yet to enable system-level Predictive Back in Android 14, but the in-app variant is live in some apps, including Gmail most recently.
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The first two generations of Samsung Galaxy Gear watches in the early 2010s had cameras. Coming in at around 2 megapixels, the quality was unsurprisingly mediocre. With Wear OS having a renaissance, it would be interesting if Google and its partners experimented with cameras.
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Following the February announcement, Android’s new cloud photo picker, which supports Google Photos and other apps, is more widely rolling out.
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Google Lens is rolling out the highly-requested ability to save your Visual Search History so that you can return to any analyzed image in the future.
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The official line from Google is that “not all Pixel 4a (5G) and later phones work on all 5G networks.” Google maintains a list of countries where 5G is available on the Pixel and it was recently updated.
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We’ve noticed an uptick in notifications sent by YouTube Music since the start of 2024, and the mobile app is now readying an “Activity” feed.
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Following the announcement in late February at MWC 2024 and the March Pixel Feature Drop, Google Maps for Wear OS is more widely rolling out public transit directions.
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Following the tease at the Pixel Watch 2 launch in October, Google Health provided an update on Fitbit Labs at The Checkup 2024 event.
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Google is finally rolling out a straightforward Material You redesign of Play Books for Android. It follows the new icon introduced last year, with the app rarely seeing updates.
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In a rather interesting development, the At a Glance homescreen widget found on all Android devices is no longer branded as an extension of Google Assistant.
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While we’re waiting for the audio recorder redesign with noise cancellation and Voice Moods to become available, Google Messages has updated the playback UI to make use of the new Material 3 slider.
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When the Material You revamp of the Fitbit app rolled out in September, most but not all pages were modernized. We now have a look at a redesign of Fitbit’s Sleep stats page.
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Google Calendar “appointment slots” have long allowed education and enterprise users to create and reserve specified time slots. Google is now removing that capability and replacing it with “appointment schedules.”
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Besides using Gemini to power features in its apps and services, Google offers its LLM to third-party developers. Apple is reportedly in talks with Google to license Gemini for the iPhone.
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Qualcomm today revealed the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 as a smartphone chip with some flagship-level features that comes in below the 8 Gen 3.
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With the Sense 2 and Versa 4 announcement in August of 2022, the “Fitbit by Google” branding emerged. That’s now going away in favor of just “Google Fitbit.”
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A bug introduced with this month’s Android 14 QPR2 update breaks Pixel Launcher Search settings so that you cannot disable people/contact or Play Store results.
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Following the last sale in February, the US Google Store is once again discounting the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro this spring.
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As previewed in early February, the Google Phone dialer app has removed the Nearby places search feature on Android.
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Back in October, the main YouTube rolled out a slew of mobile updates like stable volume and a hum to search capability. Song search is now rolling out to YouTube Music.
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