In addition to a big visual redesign for Assistant on phones, Actions on Google today are becoming a more viable platform for developers. These Google Assistant apps can now offer subscriptions and other digital goods to users.
First announced at I/O 2018, Google is officially rolling out a Google Assistant redesign for mobile phones. Focussed on bigger visuals and new controls, the company has been testing several of the components for the past several weeks.
Historically, Google is not a litigious company when it comes to patents. The company is now supporting the Prior Art Archive to help patent examiners make better informed decisions on whether to grant an application by making it searchable through Google Patents.
Formerly called Google Ideas, Jigsaw is an Alphabet company tackling global security challenges with technology. The incubator’s latest Android application is called Intra and works to combat online censorship of information and news sites.
Back in July, Google Voice joined the G Suite family of enterprise apps and was more recently redesigned with a new icon, Contacts tab, and other business features. Following renewed attention in 2017, the service has greatly improved, but suffered a slight stumble last month when it accidentally disabled a key capability.
Google last week celebrated its 20th anniversary with a Doodle, Street View tour of its original garage HQ, and a love letter to Easter Eggs. The latter tribute comes as a new game has just been uncovered, yielding an elaborate text adventure.
Earlier this year, Google and Ubisoft announced a game server hosting project, while Google Cloud has also been working to power multi-player gaming experiences. With Project Stream, Google will make Assassin’s Creed Odyssey playable right from desktop Chrome starting later this week.
Chrome Extensions are very useful, but are ripe for abuse given the utility and wide-ranging access. Google in the past year has taken steps to police extensions, but is today announcing more policies aimed at developers, as well as new options to give users more control.
Last year, YouTube began displaying concert showtimes underneath music videos on the web and mobile. The Google video site is now expanding that ad extensions space to include movie showtimes, app installations, and more.
Google Maps is probably one of the company’s most-used and more-adored products, and it’s always getting updated to try and improve things for the better. Today, Google is announcing a slew of new features for Maps users including a new “Commute” tab.
Back in March, YouTube began testing picture-in-picture on the web for simultaneous watching and browsing. While the previous A/B test was limited in scope, a new YouTube Miniplayer appears to be widely rolling out this evening
Just before the official launch of Google Podcasts in June, our APK Insight spotted Cast streaming in development for the Android client. Appearing for some users earlier this month, Chromecast support is now more widely rolling out today.
Google announced a number of big updates for Search earlier this week. Today, a desktop revamp for Google Images is rolling out that leverages the Google Material Theme, while image credits now appear in results.
Earlier this week, Google announced a number of updates to Google Search as it prepares for the next 20 years. Today, the Your Trips feature is getting ready for the holiday travel season with improved organization, more suggestions, and hotel ratings.
Alphabet in January unveiled Chronicle as the latest project to graduate from the X moonshot factory. Focusing on cybersecurity, this company includes the VirusTotal malware scanning tool that Google bought in 2012. Today, the Alphabet division is launching VirusTotal Enterprise for corporate customers that want advanced capabilities.
Announced at I/O 2018, Smart Compose in Gmail takes Smart Reply a step further and leverages Google’s AI to write entire messages for users. It’s already rolled out to regular accounts and is now coming to G Suite and enterprise users.
Virtual reality is a growing market, and one of the best places to find content for it is through YouTube. Unfortunately, the popular Oculus ecosystem hasn’t supported YouTube VR. That is, until now, as today it’s been announced that Google’s service is coming to the $199 Oculus Go in the near future.
In recent weeks, Android Messages has been redesigned with a Google Material Theme and dark mode, while also gaining a Messages for web client. Version 3.6 is now rolling out with advanced search and a new Material icon. Other new features include contact sharing and automatic previews.
Chrome 69 earlier this month introduced a Google Material Theme, smarter Omnibox, and a host of other new features for the browser’s 10th anniversary. In recent days, changes related to Account sign-in and clearing cookies were met with criticism. Google has now announced a handful of changes for Chrome 70 that should fix those issues.
Google is leveraging machine learning throughout all of its products from bilingual support in Assistant to productivity optimizations in Drive, and even to cool data centers. The company is now tapping AI to improve flood forecasting as part of Google Public Alerts.
Following Android Messages officially receiving a Google Material Theme and dark mode, the default SMS/RCS client is now slated for advanced search functionality. This revamp features a new design, filters, and is rolling out later this week.
In light of Europe’s GDPR privacy rules coming into effect this May, there has been increased calls for similar regulation in the U.S. Ahead of a Congressional hearing tomorrow, Google on Monday released a “Framework for Responsible Data Protection Regulation” in support, while recently revamping its Safety Center.
Google shared this morning that Google Lens was coming to Google Images. Meanwhile, last week, Google updated the Android app to version 1.1 and made visual search more widely accessible via the Share sheet menu.
To mark its 20th anniversary, Google today announced a number of changes to advance its marquee product. Focusing on AI and more visual content, Google Search is adding Activity cards to surface past searches, while subtopics allow for dynamic organization of results. Today’s new features are powered by a Topic Layer for the Knowledge Graph.