As we spotted in November and following the latest push for RCS support on iPhone earlier this month, Google Messages is starting to roll out iMessage reactions in beta for Android users.
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The Pixel 4a will certainly go down as a beloved Google phone. With stock running low for months, the writing has been on the wall for this affordable Pixel from 2020. The Google Store today delisted the Pixel 4a.
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Google Lens today is primarily a visual lookup tool for mobile devices, but it’s been branching out to Chrome. The next expansion could see Google Search on the desktop web add Lens.
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After teasing last year, Google today finally detailed how the “new Gmail view” redesign is rolling out on the web over the coming weeks and months.
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Like last year, Fitbit has taken until the end of January to release a personalized “2021 Year in Review” based on your health and fitness metrics. Owners of the Google-owned wearables started receiving the email on Saturday.
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Android 12 introduces a Game Dashboard that’s currently exclusive to the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro. Besides providing useful tools, Google is encouraging developers to take advantage of Game Mode API. Google Play is now listing games that are “optimized for Pixel 6.”
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With Android Automotive, Google maintains the underpinnings of the OS and various services, while car makers can fully customize the UI. That customization extends to third-party apps sporting some differences depending on the car brand.
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The migration from “G Suite legacy free edition” continues today with Google quietly noting that it will offer the ability to transfer “your non-Google Workspace paid content and most of your data to a no-cost option.”
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In this past week alone, there’s been a flurry of developments around Google and buzzy, emerging technologies. The latest sees Google Cloud ramp up a digital assets division focused on helping other companies adopt the blockchain.
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First spotted in November with a wider rollout already underway, Google today made official the new “Offers” tab for the Play Store on Android.
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Last week, Google announced that all G Suite legacy free edition users will have to transition and start paying for Workspace starting in July. This has upset non-business users that signed up for G Suite 16 years ago with their domain, and Google is now reaching out to these legacy personal users.
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Back in September, Google added support for uploading image watermarks in Docs and is now making it easy to create your own background text identifiers.
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Back in October, the Play Store got a Material You redesign that was pretty straightforward in that it only touched the homescreens. Google now looks to be adding an “Offers” tab to the Play Store that makes for a quite cluttered bottom bar.
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Google is testing a redesign of Search’s image viewer that replaces the white or gray background with some much-needed color while rearranging other information and buttons for a less overwhelming experience.
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In recent years, Fitbit has offered a few months of free Premium when purchasing a new tracker or smartwatch. Subscribers that took advantage of that offer are now discovering that they’re eligible for another free trial.
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In an email to Family Link parents today, Google previewed that kids will soon be able to access YouTube Music and more parts of the video site.
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An interesting – albeit specific – user experience (UX) study from Google’s Material Design team today goes into what transition animation people prefer the most in Android apps.
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Google Slides picked up an Android Wear — as it was called at the time — companion app in 2016 that allowed users to control presentations from their wrist. In recent weeks, Google quietly got rid of Slides for Wear OS.
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As part of the beta, Google today fully previewed the UI of its Play Games for Windows PC app. It also shared the specs needed to run Android games on your laptop and desktop.
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Back in September of 2021, Google said YouTube Music hit 50 million subscribers faster than it expected. A new market analysis report this week notes that YouTube Music grew 50% in a 12 month period with high interest from Gen Z.
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Back in June, Google previewed a second screen experience for video conferencing. Google Meet’s Companion Mode is now beginning to roll out “when joining a meeting using Google Meet hardware or the Nest Hub Max.”
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The latest YouTube “new” feature that users can test, though it’s not widely available, is “Smart downloads” for the Android app.
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Back in 2019, Google introduced real-time video call transcriptions and has since added support for more languages. The next step sees Google Meet beta test live translated captions.
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A little over three and a half years after Voice was massively redesigned, Google started telling original users that the legacy web version would stop receiving updates and encouraged them to migrate over. Legacy Google Voice is now set to be “phased out” from next month.
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