Last year, Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides introduced an Activity dashboard to provide stats and easily see who has viewed a document. The three G Suite apps are now adding sharing history and comment analytics.
Google announced this morning that Hangouts Chat is coming to Gmail. That integration was teased earlier this year as one of the legacy features coming from classic Hangouts. At Cloud Next 2019, Google detailed public Guest access, Meet/Voice integration, and a Progress Web Apps to replace Electron clients.
Just last month, YouTube TV expanded to every U.S. television market. The two-year old cord-cutting service is now increasing its monthly subscription rate to $49.99 for all users, and adding more channels.
With Google killing its social network for consumers and brands last week, the service is now solely focussed on enterprise customers. To usher in that new era, Google+ was rebranded to Google Currents at Cloud Next 2019.
This October, Google is retiring Hangouts “classic” for G Suite enterprise users. Ahead of that, a number of legacy features will be added to the Hangouts Chat and Meet replacements. At Cloud Next 2019, Google announced Chat integration in Gmail, while public streaming and live captioning are coming to Hangouts Meet.
Google unveiled Assistant nearly three years ago and it is now accessible on every major platform from Android to Chrome OS to Google Home. Despite its wide availability, the smart assistant has been limited to personal Google Accounts. At Cloud Next 2019, Google announced G Suite integration for Google Assistant in beta.
Months after it first popped up in one of our APK Insights, Google Duo is finally rolling out its Data Saver feature. Available to some users now, this feature looks to limit data usage with just the flip of a switch.
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Google.com has long allowed users to filter search results by time from general increments to setting a “custom date range.” The search engine is now testing a new “before:” and “after:” command to filter right from the search box.
The Google Material Theme began rolling out to Drive for Android in mid-March. It should be widely available today as a Play Store update that also leverages the native camera UI when scanning documents. Google is also testing a dark theme for Drive that’s not yet widely rolled out.
Snapchat announced today that, after months of work, the popular social app will start rolling out a brand new version of its Android app. In an effort to squash bugs, improve compatibility, and just be faster in general.
Earlier this year, Google introduced a Material Theme redesign for Play Books on Android. Now widely rolled out, version 5.1.9 today adds a handful of new features for audiobooks, including audio quality and download size, as well as customizable backward/forward increments.
Every year, YouTube partners with Coachella to stream the desert concert series online. The arrangement is now in its ninth consecutive edition with Coachella 2019, and Google this year is pushing YouTube Music and broadcasting a performance in Times Square.
We’ve seen the Samsung Galaxy S8, S8+, and Note 8 on almost all US carriers get the Android Pie update, with US unlocked users seemingly overlooked, until now.
Last year’s visual refresh of Assistant on phones integrated many UI elements first introduced with Smart Displays. Notable features included a visual snapshot, and redesigned responses that include images and sometimes on-screen controls. Google today is making Assistant responses on Android even more visually rich.
If you have a daily commute, Google Maps’ recent addition of incident reporting features has probably come in handy more than once. Now, it seems Google is aiming to further improve this feature by adding the ability to report slowdowns causing traffic jams.
Earlier this week, we spotted Hangouts Chat in the G Suite panel ahead of Cloud Next 2019. Before the conference next week, Google’s latest enterprise messaging app is redesigning its side panel to help users keep better track of ongoing chats.
Inbox is dead, long live Inbox! Well, despite the love for Inbox by Gmail, it finally ceases to function for the vast majority and will now simply be a relic of email organization likely broken down and scavenged for parts by the real Gmail team.
The latest version of the Google Phone app this week suggested that Call Screen was coming to Nokia and Motorola devices. The latter OEM confirmed this today, with the Assistant feature now rolling out to the Moto G7 and Motorola One.
Spotify is testing further integration with Google Maps as well as a Sleep Timer, and song sharing.
Google Home users last month got a brief preview of the John Legend voice announced at I/O 2018. Starting today, it is officially available as Assistant’s first-ever celebrity cameo across Google devices. However, it is only available for a limited time.
With the new Gmail for web last April, Google introduced a “quick-access side panel” with widgets for Calendar, Keep, and Tasks. It has since been added to other G Suite apps like Drive and Docs on the web. The next service to make an appearance in the side panel could be Hangouts Chat.
Earlier this year, Google Slides and other Drive applications were revamped with the Material Theme on the editor and web homepage. Slides is now gaining the ability to insert and play audio files during presentations.
Google’s Spring Cleaning for 2019 is killing off some beloved apps and services, and Inbox by Gmail is one of the biggest casualties. This past weekend, one possible replacement for that app confirmed its Android release date. Spark Mail arrives on Android the day Inbox dies.
The Conversation View in Gmail groups together emails with the same topic so that users can easily view past messages in an experience reminiscent to texts and chats. However, Google is now introducing a key change so that Gmail will be stricter about what messages get threaded.