After critical comments on Saturday, Android chief Hiroshi Lockheimer is back with some “thoughts and clarifications” on RCS and iMessage.

Apple-owned Shazam has just released a Chrome Extension that works to identify what’s playing in your “Netflix or YouTube video, that Soundcloud mix or in a Twitch streamed video game,” but it doesn’t work for all users just yet. 

Following yesterday’s announcement of changes to Speaker Groups and Assistant device set-up, Google has started to update its devices and applications. The latest version of the Google Home app no longer lets you use a phone’s physical volume button on the Media screen/player. 

Last week, Google unintentionally showed a storm warning meant for the Philippines worldwide. Following that incident, severe weather alerts in the Pixel Launcher’s At a Glance widget appear to have been disabled entirely.

Google previewed a slew of new features coming to Chromebooks this year. Until then, Chrome OS 97 is rolling out today with a brand-new audio player as part of a broader tweak to the Gallery app.

Following the US ITC ruling in favor of Sonos, Google this afternoon announced a series of changes to how Speaker Groups and its Assistant devices work.

For the longest time, Google Photos has allowed users to control whether videos can automatically upload over cellular. A recent Google Photos for Android update quietly removed that particular video backup setting and replaced it with a “daily limit” that was first introduced in India.

Back in August, Google updated Tasks for Android and iOS with tabs that let you quickly jump between lists. The instance of Google Tasks that exists in the web sidebar of Gmail, Docs, and other Workspace apps now looks to be getting a similar redesign, as well as the ability to favorite items.

At the start of this year, Google rolled out the ability to track key vitals directly on your Android device. Google Fit on iPhone has now quietly received the same ability to measure your heart and respiratory rate using just cameras.

Google Voice is primarily aimed at enterprise, and many of its new features are for paying Workspace customers. However, starting today, regular Google users in the US will also benefit from the addition of Voice “rules” for call forwarding and other custom actions.

Stephen Curry last week broke the all-time record for three-pointers made in NBA history, and to celebrate Google Photos is out with a new ad featuring pictures and videos from his personal library.

According to Merriam-Webster — yes, I’m purposefully being cliche, the em dash can be used to separate extra information in place of a comma, colon, or parenthesis. Google Docs will now autocorrect for the em dash (—), but it’s using the wrong default shortcut.

In time for last-minute holiday shopping, Chrome for Android is getting a particularly useful price drop tracker right in the tab grid.

Just yesterday, Google said it was shutting down its “Museletter” experiment for turning Google Docs into paid newsletters. Area 120 is now back with “Qaya” for easily creating web storefronts.

Google is making a straightforward tweak to the Calendar mobile apps so that the first-party account switcher now appears in the top-right corner.

Google is making a text box/compose field tweak to the Chat mobile and web apps that sees the Workspace communication service look more like the consumer Messages client for SMS/RCS. 

Google Photos is rounding out the year with upgraded camera animations for “Cinematic photos,” as well as the wide availability of several Memories-related features.

One of the best features of the new Assistant is Continued Conversation, where your Pixel’s microphone briefly stays open after a response has been given to allow follow-ups. For the past week or so, Continued Conversation on all Google phones, including the Pixel 6, has been broken.

The addition of scrolling screenshots that allow you to capture the entire screen was a big part of Android 12. Google has now quietly added support for Android 12’s scrolling screenshots in Chrome.