Trust on the internet is derived from Certificate Authorities that issue digital certificates to verify that users are actually visiting legitimate sites. Over the years, Google and other browsers have removed authorities that fail to be up to par, with Chrome now pushing a new Certificate Transparency Policy that comes into effect today.
Originally teased for I/O 2018, Google today is announcing a new .app top-level domain. Google bid and purchased the TLD in 2015 for a notable $25 million and is launching it today with apps, developers, and security in mind.
Google Assistant continues to add new first-party capabilities and update existing functionality, like remembering podcast playback across devices. Its latest feature is slightly more minor and sees the addition of a “Stocks” section to Settings.
Following the release of version 66 for Mac, Windows, Linux, and Android, Chrome 67 has entered the beta channel. A mostly developer-focused release, it allows testing of the new WebXR Device API, while web applications can now access various device sensors. There are also a handful of user-facing changes on Android and Chrome OS.
India is a very important market for tech companies, with Google referring to the entire region as where the “next billion users” will come from. To that extent, it has launched a number of specialized products, with the latest being Knowledge Graph cards in Search for exam results.
As part of its continuing efforts to expand into a broader news market, Twitter is rolling out a new timeline change that groups tweets about the same story together. This feature aims to put all tweets about a story under the same banner, making it easies for users to see different takes…
One of Android P’s highlight features is a revamp to notifications with inline images and smart reply. Meanwhile on a parallel track, Google’s Area 120 incubator recently released Reply, which adds similar smart suggestions to all apps, among other intelligent features. An upcoming update might make notifications even more powerful on Android P.
Following a release to Mac, Windows, Linux, and Android last week, version 66 is now rolling out to Chrome OS. Besides media autoplay restrictions and password export, this update contains a number of small tweaks, as well as Meltdown mitigations for all Chrome OS devices.
One of the more useful features of the Pixel Launcher is the “At a glance” widget that shows your calendar appointments and acts as a shortcut to Google’s built-in Weather app. In the latest beta version of the Google app, this widget is available on the latest Android phones.
Just last month, the Google app significantly updated its built-in podcast player with a homepage and subscriptions. An interview series this week revealed that Google has grander podcasts ambitions centered around AI and transcription, which allows for semantic analysis and mass search.
The Google Assistant can do a lot, with the company touting “over 1 million actions to try.” Since launch, one way to find out the smart assistant’s capabilities was by viewing the aptly named “What can you do?” section. However, in recent days, Google has removed and swapped that help screen out.
Yesterday’s launch of the new Gmail includes a plethora of new features and design tweaks, with some coming to other Google apps in the future. One of those changes is to the Google bar for G Suite users.
Following the launch of Photos in May 2015, Google began winding down similar functionality in Google+. A full deprecation of the remaining backup feature is now set for next month as older versions of the Android and iOS apps will stop working.
Last week, the revamped Google Earth celebrated its one year birthday, noting that in the past 12 months Google added updated 3D and 2D imagery for 40% of the world’s population. With a number of exploratory features since the redesign, Google Earth is now adding fun geography quizzes.
YouTube Kids is a dedicated app from the video network that aims to provide a child friendly experience. Unfortunately, those algorithms charged with policing content have occasionally failed, with Google now launching a more heavily curated section of the app that only displays human-approved videos.
An update to Gmail for Android is rolling out today with a corresponding “Snooze” functionality to match the revamped web interface and service. However, the implementation is unfortunately less intuitive than Inbox’s.
After a midnight unveil, the new Gmail is beginning to launch for the first wave of users. We’ve managed to enable the new design on a personal Google Account, and are quickly finding that a refreshed Material Design is front and center in delivering this brand new experience with countless usability tweaks and streamlined features.
Google Chrome is probably the browser 90% of Android users are using on a daily basis, but there are some excellent third-party options available. Opera has long been trying to reinvent the browser, and today it is unveiling its latest attempt with Opera Touch.
Two weeks ago, Google informed G Suite admins that a new version of Gmail on the web was in the works, with leaked screenshots quickly revealing the revamp. Google is officially launching that redesign today and taking the lid off a number of new smart features.
In addition to a leak late last month, the Gmail on the web revamp confirmed the existence of Google Tasks. Today, Google’s new and unified to-do solution is available for Android with heavy “Material Design 2” stylings.
If you’re a frequent user of Instagram, you’ve probably shared photos with your friends using Stories. But have you ever wanted to share multiple images or videos without having to keep going back into Stories and selecting something from your gallery? Well, you’re in luck because Instagram has just launched this feature in its Android app.
With iOS 10 in 2016, Apple switched to a water pistol for its gun emoji. The new design was not widely adopted — if not critiqued — until this year where there’s been a rash of changes on other platforms. Google is now the latest to match Apple’s design direction on the gun emoji with the upcoming version of Android.
Last week, G Suite began rolling out a new enterprise-grade version of Education to its customers, while major launches in recent months include the addition of Hangouts Chat. Today, G Suite is adding convenient new profile information cards on web apps.
With the new Gmail for web thoroughly leaked, it’s clear that many of the upcoming features are coming directly from Inbox. In light of the upcoming redesign, many questions have arisen about that other increasingly niche email alternatives, with Google offering an answer today.