HTC feels very much like a forgotten smartphone manufacturer. That said, the Taiwanese brand has confirmed that it hasn’t forgotten about three of its handsets with regard to software updates. The company confirmed on Twitter that the HTC U11, U11+ and U12+ will get Android Pie by Q2 2019.
Expand
Expanding
Close
After months of waiting and temporary appearances, the Play Store Material Theme redesign is now official on Android. Google today announced the revamp after it began widely rolling out last week. The company also detailed the key changes.
In August 2017, YouTube introduced a “Messages” feature for its mobile apps and later the web. Two years later, the Google video site announced that its killing the built-in chatting functionality next month.
From Live Transcribe to Sound Amplifier, Google this year has released a number of accessibility features. The latest is for Google Docs and helps keep track of real-time updates made by document collaborators.
While YouTube Music has seen a steady series of updates in recent months, Google Play Music has stagnated ahead of its eventual replacement. In April, Google removed a direct portal for smaller artists to upload songs, and is now removing the ability to gift Play Music subscriptions.
At the moment, Gmail’s built-in spell check functionality has to be enabled manually and brings users into an editing mode. Google is now rolling out real-time spelling detection that can make automatic corrections, as well as grammar suggestions.
While most Go edition apps are limited to the Next Billion Users, Google has been slowly releasing them internationally. Google Go with Lens and Search is now the latest to see a worldwide launch.
The most obvious photography difference between the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3a is the front-facing camera. An update to Playground this week adds a “Selfie mode” for AR Playmoji on Google’s mid-range Pixel phone.
Just last week, Fossil introduced the latest generation Wear OS devices with the newest chipset and 1GB of RAM. A boon to Google’s wearable ambitions on the hardware side, the ecosystem is losing Runkeeper in the coming weeks.
Google Search has a number of built-in tools that you’d otherwise need to download separate apps for. The “roll dice” utility is getting a significant update that adds multi-sided die, while all the tools are now conveniently listed.
Expand Expanding Close
With the new Drive Priority page, Google introduced Workspaces that can be used to provide quick access to files without changing the underlying location. Google Drive is now testing the ability to create shortcuts as part of a new beta.
The Google app has added a useful share shortcut when viewing Discover articles or Search results on Android. Appearing in the top-right corner, it’s elevated from the browser’s otherwise long overflow menu.
Earlier this year, Google Play Books received a Material Theme redesign on Android and iOS, with the service in 2018 gaining audiobooks. Play Books is now adding “Beta Features” on the web to let you test upcoming functionality.
Last week, reminders in Google Assistant were redesigned on Android, while the functionality was entirely removed for G Suite accounts. Google today announced that Assistant reminders can now be assigned to members of your family or household.
Launched last month, Gallery Go is getting its first major update with a dark theme. Developed by the Google Photos team, this lightweight image viewer will add the night friendly look over the new few days.
With Course Kit, students and teachers can use Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides with existing school software. Ahead of the new semester, the service is now called Google Assignments, with Google also introducing Originality Reports.
Beyond search and editorial highlights, one way to look for Android apps in the Play Store is via categories. Google Play is now letting developers add tags to their applications to further tune where a listing appears.
Android Q’s final release is right around the corner, and the new dark theme is one of its key features. Today, Reddit has released an update to its official app with support for Android Q’s system-wide dark theme toggle.
Google’s productivity apps are gaining a series of fonts “aimed at improving reading speed.” Meant particularly for educators and students, the Lexend font family is available today in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.
One differentiating point of Android as a platform is the ability to use widgets on the homescreen. In its latest update, though, Spotify has removed the homescreen widget from its Android app.
After rolling out to Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux, version 76 of Chrome OS is now available. Notable features include Flash being blocked by default, a new single sign-on for Android apps, media controls, and much more.
Following version 76’s release on Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux, the next beta release of Google’s browser is rolling out. The Chrome 77 beta features a new welcome experience, and readies more customization options for the New Tab page and might bring Google Assistant to more Chromebooks.
In April, Google announced that Assistant will integrate with G Suite. This work and productivity push started with Google Calendar. Over the past several hours, Assistant users logged in with G Suite accounts are finding that they cannot set reminders. For the time being, this is an intended deprecation that Google has confirmed to us.