Ahead of the upcoming (or already under way) school year, Google Meet is gaining a number of features for students and educators. At its back-to-school event, Google today provided a Meet education road map for upcoming moderation tools and other functionality intended to boost interactivity amid distance learning.

YouTube Music in recent weeks has seen a spurt of new features from a revamped Now Playing screen to cloud library uploads. A related change now sees Google link to YouTube Music when you’re searching for albums.

Last week, Google started rolling out the ability to import Google Wifi networks into the Home app. This is part of a bigger update that sees Google Home add the Wifi app’s “advanced networking” settings, which means you no longer have to use two clients.

In June, the classic Hangouts to Google Chat migration started in earnest for G Suite customers. Free accounts are expected to get transitioned next, and there are now signs that this is underway. Over the past few days, classic Hangouts users are receiving messages in Google Chat.

Google today announced two big features for its mapping service on Apple platforms. After removing in 2017, Google Maps is bringing back its Apple Watch app, as well as adding support for CarPlay Dashboard. 

With the rise of video conferencing, Google is increasingly pushing Meet across its products. Gmail for Android and iOS are adding a dedicated “Meet” tab and the ability to quickly make/take calls inside the app.

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Back in April, Google revamped YouTube Music’s Library to work more like Play Music, and now the Artists view is getting another upgrade to just show saved songs. It comes as the company this week detailed the shutdown timeline for Google Play Music.

Last summer, Amazon, Apple, and Google were criticized for not properly disclosing how human reviewers analyze audio snippets from each of their assistants. Google in response paused the practice for Assistant and other products, but is now resuming and making audio recordings entirely opt-in.

With the launch of Nest Wifi, the Google Home app added a number of controls for managing your network. While Google Wifi devices are able to get this Assistant integration, the factory reset required is an inconvenience. Fortunately, the Google Home app is now adding support for importing Wifi networks.

Google tries to differentiate its G Suite apps by leveraging AI to boost user productivity. It’s now bringing several key features, including Smart Compose, that first debuted on the desktop web to Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides for Android and iOS.

From Photos to Docs and Drive, sharing on Google services is primarily performed with links where a file is sent to the cloud and then distributed. There are times, however, when the upload process takes too long or you want a share to be more ephemeral. Apple’s offering is called AirDrop, and Google has been working on a solution for its devices over the last few years. After testing picked up in the past month, Nearby Share on Android is launching and beginning to roll out today.

In May, the push to get Play Music users to switch to YouTube Music started in earnest with the launch of a long-awaited transfer tool. Google today explained the shutdown timeline for Play Music and fully detailed what’s going away.

Ahead of the eventual deprecation of Play Music, YouTube Music continues to introduce features from Google’s original streaming service to entice users to switch. The latest additions include a “Recent activity” section and setting to “Allow external devices to start playback.”

A month after launch, Stadia picked up the ability to view game Achievements online and on Chromecast. The streaming service logged awards from day one, but an interface wasn’t ready until December. Stadia Achievements are now rolling out on the Android and iOS apps.

Back in 2017, Google Fi introduced a Group Repay feature to simplify plans with multiple members. The MVNO announced its getting rid of the feature in a little over a month. 

Google ads have long featured a “Why this ad” feature that explains some of the reasons a particular piece of advertising content was served to a user. Over the coming months, the functionality is seeing several tweaks and will soon be called “About this ad,” while Google today unveiled an Ads Transparency Spotlight extension for Chrome.

Using a credentials manager is convenient and highly recommended in this day and age. Google is upgrading Chrome Autofill on Android with biometric support when inputting credit card information, as well as introducing a “touch-to-fill” accounts list.

Earlier this month, the Google app pulled its custom in-app browser for opening Search results and Discover articles. It was not particularly well liked for eschewing the standard Chrome Custom Tab implementation on Android. The latest Google app beta is now testing it again and made some tweaks along the way.

Earlier this month, Google announced that Gmail would soon incorporate chat, group, and video messaging. The standalone apps are still seeing updates, with Google Chat for Android and iOS today picking up a dark theme.