One of early Google’s most ambitious projects was to scan the world’s books and make them available online. The project ran into a number of copyright issues, but still exists as Search’s book lookup functionality. Today, the service is getting redesigned with the Google Material Theme.
Back in March, Google widely rolled out speed trap and accident reports in Maps for Android. The service today is adding more types of incident reporting while bringing the popular feature to iOS.
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To mitigate last year’s Spectre vulnerabilities, Chrome introduced Site Isolation. Version 77 last month saw the Android browser gain similar protections as the desktop counterpart, with Google today detailing the security measure and future plans.
YouTube Music has been testing redesigned artist profiles for quite some time now. This revamp now looks to be more widely rolling out to Android and iOS today.
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G Suite productivity apps on the desktop web have a very convenient .new shortcut that lets you quickly open a blank Doc, Sheet, Slide, and much more. Google Keep now supports this time saver for creating a new note.
With the launch of Android 10 last week, Google teased night-friendly looks for Gmail and Maps. A dark theme for Google Assistant and Search is now beginning to roll out for some users.
After quietly coming online in March, Google at I/O 2019 officially announced that Podcasts is available on the desktop web. That rudimentary player has been quietly updated with several tweaks in recent days.
One of the biggest features in Android Q (or Android 10) is its system-wide dark theme. Everything from notifications to the settings menu has been given a dark overhaul, but apps are also going to be a huge part of that as well. The majority of Google apps support this system-wide toggle, but few third-party developers have followed the company’s lead. Here are some non-Google apps that support Android 10’s dark mode toggle.
From detailed voice guidance in Maps to Android 10’s upcoming Live Caption capability, Google has a slew of accessibility features. The latest in Chrome can automatically create descriptions for images on the web that lack any identifying labels.
Google Tasks is sparingly updated, but it’s getting a sizable refresh today that introduces a dark theme. More importantly, the Android app gains two homescreen widgets with Google Tasks 1.7.
As part of World Sight Day, Google Maps is improving walking directions for people with visual impairments. The Google service can now offer more detailed voice guidance and new types of verbal announcements.
At I/O 2018, Google noted how celebrity voices are a top Assistant feature request. Following Amazon last month bringing its first voice to Echo, Google Assistant today is getting its second with Issa Rae.
Back in May, Google revamped mobile Search results by adding site favicons to each listing. The company is now A/B testing a similar redesign for the Google Search results page on desktop web that also removes URLs.
Celebrity Assistant voices were announced at I/O 2018 and the first one rolled out in April. At the time, Google specified that John Legend would only be available for a limited time. Another Assistant celebrity voice is now being teased and set to be announced tomorrow.
In addition to the dark theme being more widely available over the past day, the latest update to Google Play is also rolling out on Android. However, the latest version has an annoying little bug that breaks inline app changelogs.
While YouTube was one of the first Google apps to adopt a dark theme, the Android client is finally moving away from a custom implementation. As a result, it will respect Android 10’s system-level setting.
Google has a whole ecosystem of home Assistant devices from Smart Displays and speakers to Chromecast-connected TVs. With a new “Stream transfer” feature today, all three categories will work better to move playing media from room to room.
Grasshopper comes from Google’s Area 120 incubator and the coding tool is today gaining a desktop web client. Previously limited to Android and iOS, it’s now better suited for larger screens and adding new lessons.
While Drive was one of the first Google apps to adopt the Material Theme, Docs, Sheets, and Slides followed later on the web and mobile. The latest set of updates brings Material Theme tweaks to the productivity app’s editor interfaces on Android.
Back in September, the Camera app found on the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL leaked. We now have access to Google Camera 7.1, which should be a near-final version ahead of next week’s announcement at Made by Google 2019.
In recent years, video has become an increasingly important format in Google Search. To help webmasters better optimize performance, the Search Console is adding and expanding two new reports related to video.
Earlier this month, Google announced a slew of Photos features, including in-store prints and story-like Memories. We first got wind of that latter feature in July, along with another called “Photo frames.” That ability to control what Google Photos content appears on your Smart Display is now beginning to roll out.
Google Assistant has a lot of third-party capabilities called Actions. To aid discoverability, Google has long offered a browsable Explore page, and there’s now an updated card in Assistant’s Updates feed.
Back in July, we spotted Assistant replacing the old “Voice search” capability in the Google app. There have been more reports of that occurring recently, with new Google app help videos suggesting that’s still on track.