In addition to a big web update set for next month, Google Meet is picking up a new “limit data usage” setting on Android and iOS. It allows users to further optimize video call quality for their current device and network conditions.

When listening to songs in the YouTube mobile client, Google will occasionally prompt users to open the YouTube Music app for a better experience. The main YouTube app is now testing a dedicated “Listening controls” experience for music.

Gboard today is available on Android, iOS, Google/Android TV, and is now coming to Wear OS. The company touts this as bringing “faster and easier messaging” to your wearable.

With every major OS release, Android has continued to iterate on privacy and security features. Google announced today that the Play Store is adding a “safety section” that all Android applications must fill out to “help people understand the data an app collects or shares.”

Using Smart Displays and speakers as an intercom system is one of Google Assistant’s most popular capabilities. Google is now updating Assistant Broadcasts so that they appear on both Android and iOS phones. 

Last year, Adobe released a Gmail Add-on for Creative Cloud for quick access and saving. An update to the Creative Cloud Add-on for Google Workspace today extends that functionality to Google Docs and Slides.

Version 2.37 of the Google Home app is rolling out today with a small tweak that makes users more likely to use the Nest Wifi’s notification capabilities, while faster Smart Display and speaker setup is also coming.

Google Pay support is much more common and familiar on mobile than the web, but adoption is increasingly growing. To further that, a new and “improved” Google Pay button is working to increase click-through rates.

While recent weeks have seen a flurry of developments in the podcasting industry, Google has remained relatively quiet about its offering. That said, Google Podcasts has just redesigned the Now Playing screen on iOS and has widely rolled out the ability to block recommendations.

Preventing “unintentional data loss” is a big concern for companies, and Gmail is now adding an “External” badge on email conversations that include recipients outside your Google Workspace organization.

Google today announced new policies and guidelines for how Android apps can present themselves in the Play Store. This is meant to ensure that end users are not misled by app listings.

Google is rolling out a rather sizable April update to the Chromecast with Google TV that brings several fixes and a handful of new features.

Back in August, Google announced that it would turn your Android phone into a seismometer to form the “world’s largest earthquake detection network.” The Android Earthquake Alerts System will now start sending warning notifications in Greece and New Zealand.

With the underlying concept popularized by Stadia and other game services, Mighty wants to stream an entire Chromium browser from the cloud. The effort emerged this week after two years of development with a tagline of “Make Chrome Faster.”

On iPhone and iPad, the Google app is how users access Lens, Search, and Discover. For the two latter experiences, Google has already built out a rich web experience, but the iOS Search app is now becoming even more browser-like with a grid of “Tabs.” 

Back in October, Google and Parallels let enterprise users run Windows on Chromebooks for the first time. A big update is now rolling out to Parallels Desktop for Chrome OS that adds a slew of new features.

Besides being sold on the Google Store and talks of some Nest Hub sleep data integration, it’s still early days for that acquisition. One upcoming change will see Facebook no longer supported for logging on to the Fitbit website. 

When taking screenshots in Android 11+, a preview appears in the bottom-left corner for quick sharing or editing. A translate suggestion from Google Lens now also appears here on applicable screen captures.