With YouTube Premieres, creators can count down and raise awareness about their upcoming videos. YouTube is introducing three new features for Premieres, including trailers, to further boost “real-time, communal experiences.”
Expand Expanding Close
Back in October, Google unveiled a $1 billion plan to pay publishers for content that appears in its “News Showcase” carousel. Google News Showcase is expanding today with a number of updates.
Expand Expanding Close
People are increasingly turning to their mobile devices to shop for goods and order food. Google is now making it easier for customers to message stores through posts, while businesses can reply through the Maps app and get more customer stats.
Expand Expanding Close
Over the past few years, Google has been growing a mostly food-centric social network inside its mapping application. Google Maps is now elevating that focus even further with a community feed.
Expand Expanding Close
Last December, Google brought Assistant’s real-time translation tool to mobile after debuting on Smart Displays and speakers earlier in 2019. Google is now providing even quicker access to Assistant Interpreter Mode with a dedicated app shortcut for Android.
Expand Expanding Close
Opening a PDF uploaded to Google Drive provides a basic preview. You’ve long been able to edit PDF files by selecting the “Open with Google Docs” option, and the import experience is now offering improved support.
Expand Expanding Close
Next year, Google Chat will go free ahead of the eventual deprecation of classic Hangouts. The Google Workspace team today is highlighting upcoming changes that will begin to launch later this week.
Expand Expanding Close
Back in October, Google announced that Chat was going free next year as part of the eventual deprecation of classic Hangouts. The company detailed several transitions related to this, including a change to group video calling that brings Meet into the existing Hangouts app.
Expand Expanding Close
After coming to education users in September, Google Meet attendance reports are now rolling out to enterprise customers with more insights and additional features.
Expand Expanding Close
Last month, Google announced a number of updates to improve the underlying technology powering Search. Language understanding capabilities introduced this year allow Google to factor your past queries to suggest additional searches.
Expand Expanding Close
The Google Opinion Rewards app has long allowed users to answer questions and surveys in exchange for Play Store credits. Google is now trialing “Task Mate” in India to “earn money doing simple tasks on your smartphone.”
Expand Expanding Close
Fitbit yesterday started rolling out Google Assistant to the Versa 3 and Sense. As part of that, users can now link their Fitbit accounts to Google Assistant for basic sleep and wellness data.
Expand Expanding Close
Back in September, the Home app lost the ability to trigger Assistant Routines. Google Home 2.31 today returns that capability, while there’s a big revamp to media controls.
Expand Expanding Close
Search has long had the ability to open links you click on in a new tab so that Google’s list of 10 blue links never closes. Google is now testing prominently surfacing that option just underneath the search bar.
Expand Expanding Close
As previewed in August, Google Meet is now rolling out breakout rooms. At launch, it’s only available to Enterprise for Education customers and meant to aid distance learning.
Expand Expanding Close
Back in September, Google introduced iPhone and iPad widgets for Photos, Search, and YouTube Music. In addition to Gmail yesterday, Google Drive and Fit widgets are now on the iOS home screen, with Calendar and Chrome also previewed today.
Expand Expanding Close
In mid-2019, Google decided to take over and speed up the launch of RCS. A little over 17 months later, Google announced today that it has completed a global rollout of RCS, while Messages will start testing end-to-end encryption.
Expand Expanding Close
With the launch of iOS 14 in September, Google’s key apps were updated to support the latest platform features. After adding default email app support, Gmail now has an iOS home screen widget. Google is also highlighting how Chrome on iPad supports opening multiple windows.
Expand Expanding Close
The last Chrome update of 2020 is starting to roll out and Google is touting a handful of performance improvements. Chrome 87 features tab throttling and better resource management, as well as a number of user-facing additions.
Expand Expanding Close
In addition to a broader fall update with speed improvements and “more intuitive controls,” Google this August announced a new Weather Tile for Wear OS. That’s rolling out now along with a Breathe Tile.
Expand Expanding Close
Following a step-focused redesign in April, Google Fit is now getting a richer homepage that can display more information, as well as additional sleep data and a sharing feature.
Expand Expanding Close
While the prevailing thought might be that people are using mapping and navigation services less amid COVID-19 restrictions, Google has been working to make its app more useful and relevant. Google Maps today announced three new features, including live transit “crowdedness” status.
Expand Expanding Close
After a big update last week introduced new My Mixes and homepage “moods,” YouTube Music is rolling out a carousel of “Quick picks” to instantaneously generate a radio playlist.
Expand Expanding Close
Earlier this year, Google announced that it would default to auto-deleting location and search data. Building on that, the company is introducing two settings to control “whether your data in Gmail, Meet and Chat can be used to offer ‘smart’ features in these and other Google products.”
Expand Expanding Close