The “Sleep Score” is one of Fitbit’s most alluring metrics that people like to compare and improve on. Fitbit is now testing “Sleep Animals” as a friendly but surprisingly smart way to encourage “better sleep health.” 

Google is making a change to Chrome settings that lets users more easily delete the data stored by sites. At the same time, the Google browser is moving the ability to delete individual cookies into DevTools.

Last year, Google announced that Search’s Top Stories carousel will no longer require a website to adopt Accelerated Mobile Pages in order to appear. The move away from AMP continues as Twitter for Android and iOS now just open the regular version of mobile webpages. 

One way of making the endless torrent of personal and work video calls more palatable is by setting unique backgrounds. Google Meet on the web is introducing new “immersive backgrounds” that attempt to give your surroundings some life.

Ahead of Chrome OS getting major updates every four weeks at the end of this month, Google today detailed the new six-month “long-term support” (LTS) channel for education and enterprise customers.

One aim of the Workspace suite for Google is to adapt to the “future of work,” including the growing popularity of hybrid working arrangements. As such, Google Calendar meeting invites will soon let you specify how you’re attending.

Last week, Google announced that the Nest Hub (2nd gen) is adding more sleep data and improved snore detection. The latest update to the Google Fit app enables the new Sleep Stages graph even as the information has yet to appear on the Smart Display.

With last year’s Pixel phones, Google introduced new machine learning-powered editing tools that later came to all Android devices with Google One. iOS users with a One subscription now have access to those new filters in Google Photos.

While Chrome has been modernized over the years — most recently for Material You, many UI components are quite old. Chrome for Android is now testing a replacement to the snackbar that uses top banner notifications.

Back in March, Google Fit introduced heart and respiratory rate tracking that uses the Pixel’s camera, and the Pixel 6 is now getting this capability in “early access.” 

Since 2019, Google’s video site has been experimenting with ways to de-weaponize the dislike button in response to targeted campaigns and to improve wellbeing. YouTube is now going ahead with hiding the public dislike count.

Back in July, YouTube Music lost its very useful ‘Offline Mixtape’ app shortcut, but Google is now introducing “Play My Station” as a pretty good replacement for those that want to start playback immediately. 

As promised last month, the Google Home app now features a built-in remote to control your Android/Google TV. Starting on Android, you no longer have to use the Google TV app or the included physical remote to control your television.

Project Relate is a Google research effort to “help people with speech impairments communicate more easily with others and interact with the Google Assistant.” It’s actively looking for public English-speaking testers from four countries.

Officially, watching Google’s cord-cutting service on the web requires Chrome or Firefox, while Chromium-based browsers — like Microsoft Edge — also work. In recent days, YouTube TV has rolled out support for Safari on macOS.

In 2019, Google started testing a review and approval system for Docs, Sheets, and Slides. After the two-year beta period, “formal document approvals” are now rolling out to Workspace users.

Google Arts & Culture went momentarily viral in 2018 for introducing a camera feature that compares your selfie to famous portraits, and the app is now offering the same capability for pets.