Over the past several months, Google has been testing various tweaks to the Google Feed on Android. These design changes could now be accompanied by a complete rebrand of the feature to “Discover.”
Mobile phones are notoriously bad at aiding emergency dispatchers in pinpointing your exact location. To address this, Emergency Location Service (ELS) provides 911 with a more accurate location. Google is now launching this lifesaving technology on Android in the U.S. starting with T-Mobile.
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Fortnite is the game that took the world by storm, and it’s constantly getting updated with new content. This week, Epic Games is rolling out version 5.41 with some new patches, limited time modes, and a crazy new item.
Google’s Slack competitor is gaining the ability to snooze notifications. A staple feature of any enterprise messaging app, the implementation in Hangouts Chat conveniently alerts other users when you’ll return.
Chrome OS 69 is rolling out today following the Android and desktop release last week. Version 69 includes the Google Material Theme to coincide with the browser’s 10th anniversary. Meanwhile, Linux apps are launching on the stable channel for select devices, while Chrome OS adds Night Light and easier to access system-level voice dictation.
One of YouTube’s first standalone services was YouTube Gaming to capitalize on streaming games to a live audience. With the explosive rise of an Amazon-owned Twitch, Google is now integrating gaming into the main YouTube site and mobile apps.
Since its inception, Accelerated Mobile Pages has been criticized as a Google takeover of the web under the guise of speed. Of course, AMP is appreciably faster with wide adoption from a variety of publishers. Google is now hoping to alleviate that concern with an “open governance model” that cedes decision-making to third-parties.
Google finally launched its own podcast player, Google Podcasts, earlier this year. The app is pretty barebones, but seems to be adding features all the time. Now, it appears that Chromecast support is rolling out.
Spotify is one of the most used music streaming services available today, but recently its Android app has been subject to some big issues. A handful of bugs in the Spotify app cause music to stop randomly, notification controls to disappear, the app to show itself offline, and much more…
In regards to cars, Google has a two-prong approach with Android Auto and Android Automotive. The former is an infotainment system that features Assistant and Google Maps, while the latter involves Android running on cars. Google is now working with Renault, Nissan, and Mitsubishi to bring Android Automotive into 2021 vehicles.
It’s pretty amazing what clever developers can do with apps on Android, but sometimes their aspirations don’t always work out. This week, the popular app Weather Timeline has been pulled from Google Play…
Add-ons in are essentially mini applications that brings useful third-party functionality into Gmail, Google Docs, and other G Suite services. The first add-ons for Google Calendar are conferencing tools from Cisco, Citrix, and other enterprise services.
In addition to features like bilingual support, one way Google Assistant is improving its global footprint is by supporting local services. Over the weekend, the company added support for Bugs Music, a Korean streaming app that specializes in high-resolution audio.
With several major services updated to the Google Material Theme since I/O 2018, the latest to feature it is a common everyday utility. The redesign of Google Calculator includes a tweaked color palette that is expectedly very bright and makes great use of Google Sans.
While the primary Android client picked up a dark theme earlier this month, another YouTube application gained the appearance just before it. YouTube TV on the web quietly added the mode in August, with the look matching the rest of the YouTube family.
With the Pixel 2, Google introduced a very impressive Now Playing feature that uses on-device neural networks to always recognize what’s playing in the background. Google is now improving Assistant’s and the Google app’s native Sound Search feature with the same underlying technology.
AV1 is an open, industry-backed codec that will allow for more efficient and better quality video streaming. YouTube is beginning to test AV1 through an initial beta with Chrome 70 and Firefox Nightly on desktops now supporting it.
Earlier this month, Google celebrated Chrome’s 10th anniversary by introducing a Google Material Theme for the browser, making the Omnibar smarter, and introducing a slew of other useful features. Chrome 70 is now rolling out in beta with various new APIs that developers can take advantage of.
Over the past several years, Google has introduced new features to provide important safety information during emergency events and natural disasters. Ahead of Hurricane Florence, Google has enabled an SOS Alert for those directly impacted by the Atlantic storm.
In light of YouTube’s algorithmic approach to finding appropriate videos for kids failing, the Google division turned to human curation in April. YouTube Kids is now launching the ability for parents to pre-approve every video and channel available their child, while adding a new experience geared towards older kids.
Spotify is one of the most popular music streaming services available today, but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect. This week, the service is revealing that it is adjusting its annoying download limit to let users store a lot more music for offline listening.
Announced last year, Hangouts Meet is Google’s video conferencing solution for enterprises and larger organizations. Today, the service is adding support for live streams like company-wide meetings and other events where users need to tune in, but not necessarily participate.
Earlier this year, Google launched a $300 million company-wide effort to support journalism by adding features throughout various products. Today, the Google News Initiative is offering 200,000 free G Suite licenses for local to medium-sized news organizations.