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.
Back in November, Google announced that Gmail would directly show package and delivery tracking in your inbox. If this feature isn’t live yet, you can manually enable it in Gmail settings.
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As part of the Home app Public Preview, Google has redesigned Wifi controls with the list of connected devices seeing the big upgrade.
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MusicLM is Google’s latest generative AI, and it can turn text descriptions of varying complexity into high-fidelity music.
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In November 2020, YouTube Music introduced an “activity bar” with various moods to tune what appears in the Home feed, and it’s now available on the web.
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Last fall, it looked like Fitbit was going to revamp its mobile apps. That has yet to launch, and Fitbit has now removed screenshots showing off what was presumably the Android and iOS redesign.
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Last July, we reported on how Google published a detailed French repair guide for the Pixel 6a. Since then, the company has made available Pixel 7 and 7 Pro repair manuals, but limited availability to owners in France.
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Spotted in development last year, Google announced today that it’s rolling out the ability to require your fingerprint to access Incognito tabs in Chrome for Android.
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Back in July, the Pixel Launcher’s At a Glance widget picked up Air Quality (AQI) alerts, and there’s now an individual setting to turn them on/off.
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Last November, we previewed a Material You redesign of the Google app, and it’s now rolling out on Android.
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As part of the layoffs, Google killed all but three Area 120 initiatives. It has now emerged that one of those projects is the acqui-hired “Liist” team working on a “Gen Z consumer product.”
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Given the under-display fingerprint sensor, Google maintains a list of “Made for Google certified brands” that make screen protectors for the Pixel 6, 6 Pro, 7, and 7 Pro.
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“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” That sentiment, along with derivatives like “people don’t know what they want until you show it to them,” makes predicting the future of technology difficult as it takes one innovation to completely shift the paradigm. It’s especially the case for the coming wave of AI features for new and existing Google apps.
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Google’s hardware design team occasionally takes its own teardown shots, and one for the Pixel 7 Pro works quite nicely as a wallpaper for the phone in question.
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When presenting in Meet, Google is making it easier to share Slides with people on the call with a pair of changes.
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Google announced today how Android and the Play Store will change to comply with recent regulatory rulings in India.
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Since we already have a good idea of the hardware, the remaining unknowns about Google’s upcoming fordable are focused on the software experience. The latest tidbit is how the Pixel Fold will offer the same Flip to Shhh gesture as on phones for enabling Do Not Disturb.
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After first appearing on the Fitbit Sense 2 and Versa 4 in mid-December, the Google Maps app now fully works.
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YouTube very rarely goes down, but YouTube Music this afternoon (Pacific Time) is facing a partial but widespread outage across the Android, iOS, and web apps.
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Back in September, Google started testing an “Omnibox Modernize Visual Update” to revamp a core part of the mobile browser. Chrome for Android is now rolling out a Material You address bar redesign that adds more Dynamic Color.
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In mid-November, YouTube Music rolled out a redesigned Now Playing screen on Android that notably hid the dislike button, but has now disappeared and the old interface is back.
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The US Department of Justice, along with eight other states, sued Google today, alleging antitrust practices in digital ads to “unwind Google’s monopolistic grip on the market.”
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On Android 13 QPR2 Beta 2.1, a bug can crash Pixel Launcher search if you attempt to scroll through results.
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Some users of the Google Home app Public Preview have received a thorough survey asking them to rate the redesigned experience. Spanning 20+ pages, it appears as a card in the Activity tab.
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As of Monday afternoon (Pacific Time,) Twitter for Android is down in an outage that appears specific to that client.
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