Last night, a big Gmail redesign that puts Chat, Meet, and Docs side-by-side leaked out early. Google today officially announced its vision for having Gmail be the new “home for work” and G Suite.
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Following version 83’s release on Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux, the next release of Google’s browser is rolling out. Chrome 84 features a handful of user-facing changes and new capabilities for web developers.
Just before the Play Music transition, YouTube Music redesigned the Now Playing screen on Android. Google is now testing swipe gestures in the YouTube Music player for more intuitive control.
Besides Lens, Google’s big bet on augmented reality is in Maps. AR walking directions rolled out to Android and iOS last year, with more features on the way. Google Maps is now using Live View to calibrate your location.
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Back in September, Google launched a subscription service for Android apps and games. Play Pass, which has added over 150 titles since last year, is now coming to an additional nine countries and getting an annual payment option.
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Assistant’s Snapshot feed is the spiritual successor to Google Now. Since rolling out in March, Google Assistant has added more capabilities with Podcasts and recipes being the latest to join Snapshot.
Back in 2017, Apple acquired music recognition app Shazam and removed advertising, as well as third-party SDKs, from the service. The company now looks to be taking that a step further by removing the ability to sign in with Facebook on Shazam for Android.
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Following a minor layout tweak last week, Calendar on the web is getting a more substantial usability change to how you add events. Google Calendar’s pop-up dialog now lets you directly add more advanced event details.
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Google has surfaced AMP Stories since late 2018 to give publishers a way to deliver “news and information as visually rich, tap-through stories.” They currently appear as one-off cards, but Google Discover is now testing a “Stories” carousel.
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For many, exercise has been one area particularly affected by COVID-19 lockdowns and social distancing requirements. Google Fit wants to help ease that by integrating YouTube playlists on staying healthy indoors.
In recent years, Google has worked to make Image Search more capable with Lens integration and Fact Check labels. Results in Google Images will now include Knowledge Graph facts to tell users about what they’re seeing.
Some people live in Google Calendar and have picked up on how shorter entries are visualized in the exact same way as 30-minute events. This is now changing to “better reflect the true duration of the event.”
Two weeks ago, Google introduced a major Photos revamp for Android and iOS. The latest Google Photos experience is now rolling out on the web with a slight navigation redesign that removes the hamburger button.
Even without the dedicated streaming service, YouTube is a top destination for people discovering and listening to music. Google’s video site today is introducing new Analytics for Artists within YouTube Studio.
As telegraphed last month to G Suite admins, Google Currents is exiting beta and entering general availability today. The social network shut down last April, but Google is keeping the service alive for enterprise customers that need an internal way to communicate with employees.
For the past several iOS (now iPadOS) releases, Apple has worked to improve multitasking on tablets. Split View lets you use two app at the same time, and Gmail on iPads now has support for this feature.
YouTube Music continues to see a flurry of changes from Play Music migration to a revamped Now Playing experience. The latest YouTube Music test is a “Recent activity” carousel that shows library additions.
After months of work, the Google app in late April started testing an in-app browser for opening Discover articles and Search results. It saw a wider rollout a few weeks later, but Google now looks to be reverting to the previous Chrome Custom Tab implementation.
As promised last month, the Google Messages beta now takes advantage of Bubbles in Android 11. Support on the latest app beta is rolling out today via a server-side update.
In 2018, YouTube added a number of Digital Wellbeing features to help manage people’s use of the video service. The YouTube mobile apps are now adding bedtime reminder notifications.
In March, Apple announced that it acquired Dark Sky and planned to kill the Android, as well as Wear OS, app. The app has now been removed from Google Play for new users, but it — so far — still works.
Google’s goal with G Suite is to leverage AI to boost user productivity, with Smart Compose in Gmail and Docs being prime examples. Google Sheets is gaining similar features this year with Smart Fill and Smart Cleanup.
With video conferencing skyrocketing due to COVID-19, Google has been heavily pushing Meet to G Suite users. After rolling out Gmail integration last week, Google Meet is now adding a tiled layout for larger calls, low-light mode, and noise cancellation.