Google Play Newsstand has just received a major revamp that adopts Material Design’s latest guidelines and is focussed on delivering personalized reading recommendations. Version 4.0 swithces to a bottom navigation bar and has a new personalized “For you” seciton as the main feed.
Facebook has been attempting to beat Snapchat at its own game for a while, but it’s never been all that successful. Back in 2014 the company launched Slingshot, but removed it from app stores just over a year later. Now Facebook is giving it another shot with Flash, a Snapchat competitor designed specifically for emerging markets (via Recode).
Earlier this week we caught word that some Chromebooks with Play Store access were being blocked from downloading Microsoft’s Office apps, specifically on the ASUS Flip. Obviously, this caused some controversy among Chrome OS fans. Thankfully, it seems Microsoft isn’t doing that after all…
With Google’s virtual reality headset available tomorrow, the Daydream app has just been published to the Play Store, along with a number of other first and third-party experiences. Additionally, the Android Compatibility Definition Document now lists the hardware requirements to be a Daydream-ready phone.
Android 7.1 has been off to an odd start. While the OS is already running on Google’s Pixel smartphones, it’s only available as a developer preview for supported Nexus devices. However, that’s not stopping the team at CyanogenMod from putting together a new ROM based on Google’s latest OS.
Over the past year, Google has expanded what Safe Browsing warns and protects against, as well as the type of devices the protection is available on. The security feature will now label sites that only temporarily clean up harmful activity as “Repeat Offenders.”
With every major release of Android, Google releases an Android Compatibility Definition Document which lays out Google’s rules for Android OEMs in order for those devices to be approved to ship with Google’s services, including the Play Store. With Android Nougat the company waited a couple of months to release that document and today, it’s finally here. The 85-page document spells out Google’s plans for Android OEMs, and while most of the document is relatively unimportant for most people, there are some points worth talking about…
Niantic has today released a new update for Pokémon Go on both iOS and Android, bringing with it a handful of new features and capabilities. On Android the update brings the app to version 0.450, while the iOS update bumps it to 1.15.0…
It’s the first Monday of the month, and that means it’s time for Google’s monthly slew of security patches. This month is also the first with the Pixel smartphones included. Updates are available now for both Nexus and Pixel owners running 7.0 and 7.1.
We’ve known for a while now that YouTube has been planning to add support for HDR (high dynamic range) video and now, ahead of the release of the Chromecast Ultra, Google has just made it official. Creators can start uploading HDR content, and users can start viewing HDR content on support devices effective today…
Ahead of Daydream View’s launch later this week, some pre-orders have already begun to ship. However, early owners are unable to enter VR due to several missing apps. Google VR Services has just hit the Play Store and is one part closer to enabling the complete Daydream experience.
If you’re using Google’s latest software, Android 7.1, you may have noticed that Google removed the button to check for new system updates. However, that button is coming back with the latest update to Google Play Services.
One of the big advantages of the Google Play Store on Chrome OS is the hundreds of thousands of extra apps that it brings to the OS. Among those apps is Microsoft’s Office suite. Office has long been a downside for many users for Chromebooks, but this addition takes that cause for concern away, or at least it did…
The Google Play Store commonly gets slight UI tweaks here or there, and sometimes a major update. We’ve had the current UI for about a year, but now it looks like Google is testing another minor update for the app, and it’s already appearing on some user’s devices.
After laying the groundwork and garnering support from carriers worldwide, Google is finally launching RCS messaging. Android devices on Sprint will be the first to send and receive enhanced SMS messages that feature read receipts, better group chat, high-res photo sharing, and more.
At a developer event in San Francisco today, Google announced that apps in the Play Store will soon be able to offer limited-time subscription promos. With subscriptions being the fastest growing business model on Play, Google hopes that this will help developers attract more customers.
A year after launch, YouTube is struggling to get subscribers for its Red subscription service. According to The Verge, paying subscribers only total 1.5 million as of late summer, despite having a billion monthly users of the broader service…
Rather than using a wide widget that goes across the entire display, the Google “pill” was introduced with the Pixel phones. The round design on the new widget looks interesting and unique, but the standard Google Search widget didn’t match up. Now, Google appears to be testing a new look for that widget which adopts a similar look (via Android Police)…
Android Nougat has a lot of useful features, but one of my personal favorites is Quick Settings tiles. We’ve had these in Android since KitKat, but in Nougat Google introduced the ability for developers to add their own Quick Settings tiles into that menu.
It’s been a couple months since Nougat debuted and while adoption is pretty slow, developers are still working on adding new features to their applications. We’ve seen a handful of apps include support for Quick Settings tiles so far, so let’s go over a few of them.
Chrome OS is great for getting simple tasks done, but sometimes users have to turn to apps to get even some basic things done that, well, you would expect any OS to be able to handle.
After going on sale about a month ago, Acer’s new 13-inch R13 Chromebook is now starting to ship to customers, but it doesn’t come out of the box with Android apps. Luckily, the functionality is right around the corner…
With many of Google’s apps already updated to support the newest Android 7.1 features, Hangouts is the latest to add app shortcuts. Version 14 sees shortcuts for starting new voice, video, and text chats, but still lacks support for image keyboards and sending GIFs.
Following the addition of group plans earlier this month, Project Fi’s companion app now features improved real-time data usage updates. In the past, the Fi app was somewhat delayed listing how much data was used and in notifying users when they surpassed set usage amounts.
After Apple dealt with a high-profile case of fradulent reviews in its App Store earlier this month, Google is announcing its own new measures to fight manipulation in the Play Store. An improved detection and filtering systems for fraud and spam installs is going live today.