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.
Since last night, some Nest users have had their cameras and other smart home devices go down and have remained offline since. However, this outage appears to be somewhat limited in nature to the (US) West Coast.
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Nearly two years after the last settings redesign, Google is taking another stab at making it easier to control and manage the ever-growing list of what Assistant can do.
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As teased by Sundar Pichai in April, the YouTube app on your phone will soon serve as a connected, second-screen experience for videos playing on your TV.
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In August of 2020, 9to5Google reported that Google was planning to replace Duo with Meet. This development was finally made official today – and will see the app that the vast majority of Android users have installed on their devices get renamed to Google Meet later this year.
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Following Lens last week, Google Calculator is the next first-party application to be updated for tablets and other large screen Android devices.
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Announced later than usual, June 2022 will bring seven games to Stadia Pro with all titles announced in one go following last month’s rather protracted reveal. That matches the previous high for 2022 in February.
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We previously reported on key Pixel Watch specs like the chip and health sensors, and can now provide some details about the battery life of Google’s first wearable.
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At I/O 2022, Google said the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro will feature a “next-gen” Tensor processor, and a new report today says it will again be manufactured by Samsung.
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The last update to Google’s two-factor authenticator (2FA) app for Android in May 2020 introduced a Material Theme redesign and the ability to easily transfer accounts between devices. Google Authenticator 5.20 is now rolling out and hides codes until you tap to reveal them.
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More than other streaming services, YouTube Music is defined by its algorithmic suggestions on what to listen to next. This feature is great in the Up Next queue but downright annoying in the Home feed. YouTube Music constantly juggles the order, if not the outright appearance, of carousels from one refresh to the next.
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At the start of this year, YouTube Music updated its Home feed for tablets and promised that more UI optimizations are coming, especially for playlists. One smaller change sees YouTube Music offer an improved settings layout on Android.
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Google traditionally marks Memorial Day in the US with a flag on its homepage and gray version of the company logo.
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At I/O 2022, Google previewed that it was working on a Pixel tablet for next year, and such a device has now emerged in a list of Universal Stylus Initiative (USI) products.
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Like the main Android client, Google is now offering Play Store betas for YouTube Music and TV to presumably test new features ahead of time.
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Later this year, YouTube Go will shut down after being deemed no longer necessary. In a possible sign of things to come, Google’s “Gallery Go” app this week lost its “Go” branding.
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In March of 2021, Google started using federated learning on Android to improve “Hey Google” hotword accuracy. An upcoming “Personalized speech recognition” feature now looks to help Google Assistant get “better at recognizing your frequent words and names.”
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Google is rolling out Chrome OS 102 starting today with a handful of notable changes. This new version will be fully available over the coming weeks.
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The University of Oregon’s Center for Digital Mental Health is launching a new digital wellbeing study that collects data using “passive and continuous sensing technology” on your Android and Fitbit via the Google Health Studies app.
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In addition to the web redesign becoming more widely available, Google Play is rolling out a rather granular “Compatibility for your active devices” section for app listings on Android.
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As first tested in November, Google is rolling out a big redesign of the web Play Store that brings it inline with other services after many years of the same user interface.
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As seen by camera-based heart and respiratory rate tracking in Fit for Android, one aspect of Google’s Health initiative is leveraging existing devices to collect health data. Google is now in the process of testing on-device snore and cough detection for Android and/or Pixel.
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Back in September, Gmail introduced a useful way to further refine search results on Android, and those filters now appear when viewing labels.
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Google is updating Drive on the web with useful keyboard shortcuts to make managing your files much simpler. Fortunately, the key combos are pretty standard and align with modern file browsers, but they only work in the Chrome browser.
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Google is rolling out a mid-cycle update to Android 13 with Beta 2.1 today. This follows the release two weeks ago at I/O 2022.
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