Playing video on an Android device is generally done through an application dedicated to that purpose. YouTube, Vimeo, and most other video services have their own applications so you don’t have to play things through the browser. Some videos, though, need to be played through a browser. Now, Chrome for Android is quietly adding a new feature that makes watching those videos feel a bit more native.

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With increasing frequency, a number of Pixel and Pixel XL owners are encountering a bug with the Pixel Launcher and its capability to quickly search Google from the shortcut. This issue seems to completely disable the ability to use the Google Search pill to perform any sort of query.

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Following yesterday’s release to Mac, Windows, and Linux, Chrome 59 is now rolling out to Android. Google notes faster page loading and less memory usage in this version, as well as other stability fixes and security patches.

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Without actually announcing anything, the Facebook application on the Google Play Store has been updated to also work on Android TV. Don’t get too excited just yet as the application on your big screen won’t actually resemble the news feed found on the web or on your phone. What Facebook does bring to Android TV are all of the different videos that you see plastered around the social network…

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Chrome 59 is rolling out now to Mac, Windows, and Linux with a number of developer-focused features and security fixes. The biggest addition is support for native macOS notifications and full support of the animated PNG format.

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For those not in the Beta Program running the latest Android O developer preview, the June security patch is now rolling out. Still on 7.1.2, this update features minor bug fixes and a number of security patches for Google Pixel and Nexus devices.

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Google Photos recently rolled out the ability to create Photo books, as well as an archiving function to clear away clutter from the main image feed. In version 2.16, the latter feature is gaining some smarts with Assistant now suggesting pictures to automatically archive.

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As development continues on Android O, more Google apps are beginning to support picture-in-picture mode. Play Movies & TV is the latest, with version 3.26.5 (via Android Police) adding it to devices running the developer preview.

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Google Drive is full of powerful tools, and Sheets is one that many rely on as an alternative to Microsoft Excel. Today, Google is debuting several new features for Sheets that are bound to become incredibly useful to its users.

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The latest Gboard beta is now rolling out and with it are a number of improvements to the marquee search feature. Built-in search gets a revamp with more actions on cards, multiple search results, and quicker access to GIF search.

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Google has announced a slew of new security features for Gmail, including early phishing detection based on machine learning, unintended external reply warnings, and other defenses against new threats.

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As widely rumored, Android Pay is finally available in Canada beginning today. Google’s payment service is now available in its 12th country, with support from a number of local retailers, apps, and banks.

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Microsoft is launching a new task management app for Android today called Planner. Previously available as a web app only, Planner works with eligible Office 365 accounts for organizing tasks visually and collaborating across teams.

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Google Search is now better at understanding art and surfacing relevant information. In partnership with the Arts & Culture team, there is a new interactive Knowledge Panel, while Street View in museums is using machine learning to recognize paintings.

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A lot of Google’s awesome software is free, and the company made a lot of photographers happy last year when it dropped the price tag on its $150 collection of photo editing tools, the Nik Collection. Today, however, Google has revealed that it will no longer be providing updates to that suite.

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After several months of testing, YouTube is finally rolling out a redesign of its Android app to all users. A new bottom bar is the primary change, with core parts and navigation of the app otherwise remaining unchanged.

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It seems like we’ve been saying that Waze is coming to Android Auto for ages now, but in the public eye, very little progress has been made. Waze announced plans about two months ago for a beta test, and today it’s finally taking action on that.

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Google I/O is a developer event and that focus was in full force earlier this month. Of course, for the consumer, it can be a bit hard to be interested by the laying of groundwork for future functionality.

However, compared to previous years, I/O 2017 was wildly exciting for the slew of updates that Google quickly rolled out to one of its existing products. A year after its introduction, the Assistant received new features that notably make it more useful and reaffirm how important it is to Google’s future.

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