Back in September, Gmail for Android removed text labels from its core navigation element; this change now makes sense as Google is making the bottom bar more persistent.

Google announced User Choice Billing for the Play Store in March to let Android apps use their own payment system. Spotify is now rolling out initial billing support, while Google Play is bringing UCB to more markets, including the US.

As the 2022 Android Dev Summit series continues, Google has released a “Now in Android” app on the Play Store to serve as a reference for the best modern development practices. 

Ahead of the 2022 World Cup kicking off on November 20, Google is adding a handful of features to help fans keep track of the tournament across Search, Maps, and Google TV.

Besides announcing Mac and Windows VPN support today, Google One for Android is getting the tablet redesign that was previewed back in May.

While we wait for YouTube’s to go back live, Google Contacts is in the process of getting a new Android widget that lets you more prominently place a person on your homescreen.

Last year, YouTube announced that its streaming service subscriber count hit 50 million, and that has now grown to over 80 million for Music and Premium.

This year, Gmail on the web has undergone two big updates and the integrated redesign with Material You is now set to fully replace the previous iteration. 

Following the announcement last month, the Google Home app Public Preview is beginning to go live.

For some, if not most, Gboard’s emoji picker is likely one of their most heavily used interfaces on their phone, and Google is redesigning it today.

Google previewed that a number of new features are coming to Messages last month, but one that didn’t get highlighted is a new photo picker that’s starting to appear for some users.

YouTube Music’s Home tab just consists of various carousels, but the app is now testing a prominent playlist card that does a better job of standing out.

At the start of August, Google replaced the Duo logo with Meet’s four-colored icon only to bring it back due to user confusion. With the latest update to Google Meet, the Duo icon is once again gone on Android.

At I/O 2022 in May, Google announced “My Ad Center” to let you control advertising by topic and brand. It’s now starting to roll out with a rather bold approach that might get people to interact with advertising more by letting them customize it directly. Once live in the coming weeks, My Ad Center will offer an app-like (think: topics and interests in Google News or Discover) level of customization.

Back in April of 2016, Google updated Calendar for Android and iOS with a tool to help you find time for personal goals. Amid another upcoming removal, Google Calendar is planning to get rid of “Goals.”

Ahead of the holiday shopping season, Gmail is adding package tracking and delivery information in a glanceable manner.

Over the last few days, Fitbit integration with Heart Connect has gone live. One helpful aspect of Heart Connect sync combines Nest Hub Sleep Sensing data with your Fitbit heart rate in Google Fit.

Google Lens will only become more important going forward, and one sign of that is its addition to the google.com homepage today.

Google released the last update to the Pixel’s Recorder app with Android 13 QPR1 Beta. The Pixel 7 and 7 Pro will launch with Recorder 4.0 with some nice usability tweaks, but a bigger multi-speaker support upgrade is coming later.

As 2022 starts winding down, Google has now opened Users’ Choice voting on the Play Store for the  best new Android app and game.

Following Samsung and Google Fit, Fitbit now supports Health Connect with version 3.69 widely rolling out this morning.