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.
With last week’s Google Material Theme, Gmail for Android added the bolder “dangerous” warnings first introduced on the web. Powered by machine learning, Google today shared how it is leveraging TensorFlow to block 100 million additional spam messages every day.
Over the past year, Susan Wojcicki has taken to regular videos and blog posts to discuss progress on the platform. The YouTube CEO today set out her goals and priorities for the new year, as well as recapping efforts from throughout 2018.
Besides providing services like Gmail and Google Drive, G Suite allows administrators to control what apps users can and cannot install on work devices. These Play Store distribution features are now available as part of basic mobile management.
Safer Internet Day is officially today, but Google is spending the entire week discussing security and launching new features. The first is a Password Checkup Chrome extension that will advise users to reset credentials breached on third-party sites, while Cross Account Protection extends first-party tools to re-secure breached Google Sign In apps.
The traditional Chinese calendar, which incorporates 12 zodiac animals, leverages moon cycles to mark the new year. In 2019, this date falls on February 5th and begins the Year of the Pig. To celebrate, Tuesday’s Google Doodle incorporates an AI Experiment that novelly uses your device’s front-facing camera to teach shadow puppetry.
Google last year announced that it’s shutting down Inbox following the big redesign of Gmail. With that deprecation set for next month, the company is reportedly testing legacy features like bundles and reminders in the new Gmail for Android.
Last December, Google released a funny Christmas-themed ad called “Home Alone Again” that saw Macaulay Culkin reprising his role as Kevin McCallister. Featuring a smart home with Google Assistant devices, the company today posted what is essentially a reaction video of Joe Pesci watching that ad.
With Hangouts classic set to be retired later this year, Google is moving full steam ahead on making Hangouts Meet a full featured video conferencing solution. The latest enterprise-focussed feature sees Google add fixed IP addresses for the G Suite service.
Following Gmail earlier this week, the latest G Suite app to get the Google Material Theme is Google Voice. The core navigation and user experience of the VOIP service is unchanged, but this update does provide a clean refresh.
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Google Arts & Culture often leverages augmented reality to share works through viral features like Art Selfies and Pocket Gallery. The Android and iOS app was updated this week with a new Camera tab that makes all these AR features easily accessible.