Over the past few versions, Google has made a number of tweaks to improve Chrome’s performance across the board. The latest has improved JavaScript page load performance in the browser by 10-20% over the past year.
Instagram is rolling out an update today that adds new features for stickers in both Stories and Direct messaging. The new features include more custom geostickers for cities, a new selfie sticker, and a “sticker pinning” feature that gives you more options for adding stickers to videos.
Stateside, Google Express provides home deliveries for groceries and other goods. The company has now quietly launched a similar service in India. Google Areo is more focused on food delivery and home services, like calling an electrician.
Following its announcement earlier this year, Hyundai has today announced that its integration with Google Assistant is available for BlueLink users on recent Hyundai vehicles.
Google has been trying to make mobile payments work for some time now, just like several other companies such as Samsung and Apple. However, no company has yet to be widely successful at achieving widespread adoption. Today Google has announced more progress in this area as it brings Android Pay functionality to several mobile banking applications…
Google Home and Google Assistant do a lot of things, but they don’t integrate as well as they should with Google’s dozens of other services. Slowly but surely, though, Google is changing that. Today, the company has announced another new feature for Google Assistant and thus, Google Home — flight price tracking.
Google Photos is one of the company’s best services by far, and it’s always getting better and better. In its most recent update, 2.13, Photos has added video stabilization for videos that have already been recorded, as well as hinting at some future features.
Update 4/13: Today’s Google app beta update to version 7.0.8 removes the Notifications toggle from phones.
Earlier this evening, Google Assistant added a new “Notifications” option in settings on both phones and Google Home. Unfortunately, the new setting does not appear to do anything yet.
Google’s latest A.I. Experiment is not only a fun and clever tech demo, but it also makes for a useful drawing tool. AutoDraw leverages machine learning to replace your scribbles with illustrations from talented artists in order to quickly draw something.
Chrome has finally addressed one of the biggest annoyances with the modern web. Thanks to the new scroll anchoring feature, page jumps that occur when you browse a site before it finishes loading are noticeably reduced.
Minecraft Pocket Edition for Android is getting an update today that brings a new Chinese Mythology Mash-Up Pack and more. Included in the pack are 26 new skins, texture sets, and other goodies:
When Google Home launched, it — through Google Assistant — had the ability to take note of your shopping list and drop the information into Google Keep. Yesterday, Google dropped that system in exchange for a new one where and starting today, it’s live for most people…
Minecraft announced today on its blog that an upcoming update for the game will bring a new community-driven Marketplace feature to players of the Pocket edition of the game for Android and other mobile devices.
Audio calling in Google Duo started with a limited roll out last month, starting with certain regions, such as Brazil. Now, though, we’re getting confirmation that this feature is rolling out to all users around the world.
I haven’t watched live television at home in years. At the very least, my typical show viewing is delayed to the day-after online premiere, but more frequently until the full season is added to a service like Netflix. Meanwhile, news has been augmented by Twitter and other illicit livestreams for major events.
As such, something like YouTube TV is especially geared towards habits like mine and to that of a generation who does not watch in real time. After a few days of using the service, I think YouTube TV is fantastic — due not only to a combination of content and technical prowess, but more importantly a familiar interface and experience.
CES didn’t bring us a ton of new Android Wear tech, but one of the more interesting options was the RunIQ from New Balance. Designed with runners in mind, this fitness-first smartwatch looks pretty promising, and now the company is confirming Android Wear 2.0 for this coming week.
LastPass is my password manager of choice and I love the way it works with Android to automatically fill in passwords and usernames in apps I download. In Android O, however, apps like LastPass are about to get a whole lot better, and now the company has given us a peek at what users can expect in future updates.
Starting on April 10th, Google Assistant’s shopping list will no longer save items to Keep. Following a notice that users have seen in recent days, the list functionality will be moved into Google Home and Express to better integrate with the former device’s ordering and delivery feature.
Hinted at in previous teardowns, screenshot editing tools in the Google app are beginning to go live for some users. Once enabled, screenshots can be usefully cropped and drawn on before being shared.
YouTube today announced notable changes to its Partner Program. Users looking to make money on uploaded videos will now be subject to expanded safeguards. Applications to the monetization program now requires 10,000 lifetime views before being accepted.
Material Design is adding more guidance on color systems and usability, with a new tool to easily design palettes when creating interfaces. The April 2017 guideline update also adds new recommendations for text fields and designing right-to-left icons.
A couple of weeks ago, Google told us on its blog about some new features Allo would soon be getting. Today, Google Allo’s head of product has confirmed to us on Twitter that one of those features, the new button for quick access to Assistant, is now rolling out for everyone.
If you like to keep up to date with Twitter but are tight on storage space or want to reduce data usage, the company has a new option as of today. Twitter Lite is what’s known as a Progressive Web App. Running in Chrome and other mobile browsers, it’s a client-side JavaScript application that takes up less than 1MB of storage space.
Twitter says that the service also minimizes data usage and is resilient on unreliable and congested mobile networks, also supporting an offline mode. You also have the option of further reducing data usage by only downloading low-res previews of images and videos …
The latest beta of Gboard for Android is rolling out now with several new features and minor aesthetic tweaks. Key borders are now rounded in version 6.2, while there is a new ‘pop-out’ mode to drag the keyboard freely around the screen.