The Google Assistant preferences page allows you to sign in and select what services to use on Smart Displays and speakers. A small tweak today sees Google Assistant separate settings for “Photos” from “Videos.”

With Chat serving as a key part of the integrated Gmail experience, Google lets users quickly specify their activity status. In addition to the existing availability options, you’re now able to set a custom status in Gmail and Chat on the web.

Google is rolling out a handful of new features for Meet that focus on improving safety and security. Namely, the ability to have co-hosts in Meet calls is coming to more Google Workspace users.

In recent months, search has been one area of YouTube Music that Google has been constantly iterating on with tweaks and additional capabilities. The YouTube Music Android app now lets you search songs and albums that you’ve locally downloaded.

Ahead of the new school year, Assistant is gaining a handful of features to help families organize their day. Assistant’s popular Family Bell sees a pair of phone and visual updates, while Google Search is also adding study aids.

Over the weekend, the new Google Assistant on Pixel phone started losing its original translucent UI. The design that replaced it is now appearing on other (non-NGA) Android devices with minor tweaks – a shorter panel – and greater emphasis on Lens.

Google is debuting “Cursive” on the HP Chromebook x2 11 that gives Chrome OS a dedicated app for handwritten notes. It lets users — of stylus devices — create, edit, and organize their thoughts. 

Android 12 brings with it a big overhaul to notifications and Quick Settings. Many parts of the redesign launched with Android 12 Beta 1, but Google is now rolling out an “Ongoing call” chip for the Phone app.

Following iOS 14 last fall and Android 12 in the coming weeks, Google has a renewed focus on homescreen widgets, a UI element that it pioneered. One of the first revamped widgets to launch widely is “Your memories” for Google Photos.

Ahead of the broader Material You redesign, Google is rolling out a small tweak to one particular important and frequently used component in apps. The time picker UI across Google’s Android apps are getting updated to a new, more touch-friendly design.

With Meet getting Google’s full attention over the past year, Duo has not seen a meaningful update in quite some time. Google Duo is soon receiving a homescreen redesign that adds a “New Call” button that hopes to simplify the app.

In late 2021, classic Hangouts will stop working for enterprise Workspace customers and only Google Chat will be available. Google is now beginning that process of deprecating the Hangouts app and website for free personal accounts with a warning and sign out.

Earlier this year, Google said it was replacing the old Wifi companion app with the unified Home client. This involves shutting down most controls and removing it from Google Play and the App Store. The latter has finally occurred after originally being scheduled for June.

With the last Pixel Feature Drop in June, Google touted a new Gboard feature that highlights “key snippets” of copied text with a phone number or address. Gboard 10.9, currently in beta, introduces a setting to disable that feature.

Like with the $129 Nest Thermostat that launched last year, the Google Home app is needed to control the new Nest Doorbell and Cam lineup. The companion client will be updated with several camera features in the process.

Google Forms is beginning to roll out a highly requested feature that will see entered text, selections, and other progress be automatically saved as a draft. This allows you to easily return to a task or assignment. 

Where supported, “Sign in with Google” is a convenient way to log in to third-party services without having to keep track of different passwords. Google is now consolidating its sign-in offerings, which includes the new “One Tap,” under “Google Identity Services.”

The biggest product change to YouTube TV in recent months was the launch of a 4K Plus add-on. In a wide-ranging interview today, YouTube chief product officer Neal Mohan talked about YouTube TV and how no price hike is coming soon.

Google officially announced the Maps for Android dark mode in February and widely rolled it out a month later. The Google Maps dark theme is now officially set to arrive on iPhone and iPad in the coming weeks.

Similar to Smart Displays and speakers, Google is adding Accessibility settings for Assistant on Android. However, the exact functionality remains unclear at the moment.

Besides the Material You redesign becoming more widely available on Android 12 today, Gboard introduced new settings for “Emojis, Stickers & GIFs” that provide better control over related suggestions and the appearance of expressive media.