ARCore is Google’s platform for mobile augmented reality which does not require specialized hardware. As of December, it’s available on 250 million devices and powers features like Playmoji on the Pixel 3. The latest developer release today introduces a new Augmented Faces API and an ARCore Elements app for learning about basic principles.
Playmoji made a big splash at the Grammys last weekend, and just today Google released a new “Love” pack for Valentine’s Day. Revamped alongside the Pixel 3 last year, these AR stickers might be coming to other Android devices this month.
Since launching in 2016, Google Assistant has expanded from speakers to phones, headphones, and Smart Displays. Each platform has a way to surface all of Assistant’s capabilities, with the phone interface recently tweaking the “What can you do?” list of commands and features.
In addition to a homepage Doodle and new ‘Love’ Playmoji for the Pixel, Google is celebrating Valentine’s Day with free Play Store credit for everybody. However, the usual terms and conditions are present.
Since Google Assistant launched on phones, the slide-up panel has featured a carousel of suggestion chips to help surface functionality. This feature has just been tweaked and more likely to draw your attention thanks to colorful icons.
At CES 2019, Google announced interpreter mode for Google Home speakers and Smart Displays. The Assistant feature began rolling out earlier this month, and is now fully available for consumers as Google talks up the benefits for concierge and hotels.
While the Taptic Engine has been a staple of flagship iPhones since 2016, most iOS keyboards — including the system default — do not support haptic feedback. Google today updated Gboard with support for haptics on every key press.
Google is set to deprecate Hangouts classic later this year and move all G Suite users to Hangouts Chat. Ahead of that transition, Google is porting over legacy features, like today’s addition of typing indicators.
Late last month, Google Voice for Android was updated with the Google Material Theme. The revamp is now beginning to make its way to iOS with many of the latest design stylings.
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The latest updates for the Moto Z3, Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus are now bringing the February security patch to devices in the United States.
The overflow icon is a common UI convention that’s leveraged throughout Android to hide settings and other unimportant options. Google is now replacing it in the Play Store with a “tap & hold” gesture and bottom sheet menu.
Later this week is Valentine’s Day and if you’re a Google Duo user, the app just added a special treat for sending video messages to that special someone in your life. A new Valentine’s Day effect in Google Duo applies the first filter to the app for adding hearts to your message.
In recent weeks, Gmail on mobile has seen a slew of new features and is rumored to get more from Inbox. The web version of Gmail is now adding several options to make the right-click menu more powerful and helpful when quickly triaging messages.
A report yesterday revealed that the upcoming Google Maps AR navigation mode is first being tested with Local Guides. Google is now detailing the “global localization” technique behind the feature and how it leverages a Visual Positioning Service, Street View, and machine learning.
Pushbullet has been a powerful app on Android for years now, and today it’s getting its first major update in quite a while. Pushbullet is adding a new Material Design look, dark mode, and more.
Google Fit was revamped last year with a focus on Move Minutes and Heart Points, as well as the Material Theme. In January, the activity tracking app launched a #GetFitWithGoogle challenge to emphasize the latter metric. With the competition over, Google recently shared how many users participated, while adding a new Single stat widget.
While real-time Google Lens was the big augmented reality announcement at I/O 2018, another exciting in-development feature was teased. Google Maps is working to leverage the camera to overlay walking directions, business listings, and other helpful guides. A first look today details the interface and that’s it coming first to beta testers.
For the past several weeks, Google has been preparing a dark mode for Chrome on Mac and Windows given that both desktop operating systems feature a system-level functionality. A night theme for Android is now in testing with the latest Chrome 73 beta.
Unlike past betas, Chrome 73 includes a handful of new user-facing features. The browser gains a new “Sync and Google services” section in Settings, and more features tied to signing-in with your Google Account. There are also a handful of new features for Picture-in-Picture and media playback that developers can take advantage of.
Following last year’s Google Material Theme and complete launcher redesign aimed at tablets and other touchscreen devices, Chrome OS 72 is rolling out today. This big release brings Android 9 Pie to more Chromebooks and features a handful of other notable changes to Assistant, Cast, and PiP.
Over the past several weeks, some users have spotted a Google Assistant shortcut on the Google.com mobile homepage. As of this evening, it appears to be widely rolled out and lets users launch Assistant on their phone.
Play Games on Android is one of Google’s most Material Theme-heavy apps. After adding a dark theme in December, the latest version widely rolling out today has redesigned the settings page and tweaked some options.
Since launch, YouTube Music has slowly added new features including UI tweaks and Queue changes last month, as well as Sonos speaker integration. However, Google’s music streaming service is still frustratingly missing functionality as evidenced by the latest addition: adding full albums and playlists to other playlists.
Last month, Google tested the impact of Search news results that lacked snippets, headlines, and images to comply with the European Union’s proposed Article 11. Ahead of the Copyright Directive being finalized, the company shared how news publishers could see a 45% reduction in traffic.