Created by a single developer, Weather Timeline is one of the best examples of Material Design on Android. Packing the same attention to design, Sam Ruston’s next app is a highly customizable Twitter client. Everything from the look of Flamingo to how the interface functions can be personalized to your liking…
AnyPixel.js is great example of a Google experiment becoming an actual product. The open source software and hardware library — available on GitHub — allows anyone to use the web to build “big, unusual, interactive displays” with any component.
At this year’s I/O, the Play Store gained the ability to let users easily participate in an app beta without having to first join a Group. Google Maps for Android now has a beta channel (via Android Police) that users can easily sign-up for here.
Think With Google, the company’s arm that provides marketers with insights, has released a tool that tests how well a site works across mobile and desktop devices. The free service even provides an in-depth report on how to fix encountered problems.
Introduced in Android N, Direct Reply allows users to respond to messaging apps right from the notification shade without needing to first jump into an app. Following Google Messenger and Hangouts, Facebook is testing the convenient feature in a beta version of Messenger.
Hangouts is always quite slow to adopt the latest Android features. Eight months after Marshmallow’s release, Hangouts 10.0 is finally adding support for a Direct Share feature that provides quick access to frequent contacts.
The last major update to Google Keep in April added a Chrome extension to easily save and add notes to links. An update today adds link previews, duplication prevention, and autocomplete when adding list items. The Keep site is also getting a significant refresh that matches Google’s other web apps.
Those lucky enough to live in a city with Google Fiber will soon receive an update that essentially turns their current TV Box into a Chromecast. As the TV Box is already hooked up to a television, users will be able to stream music, video, and apps without making changes to their current setup.
Update: In a blog post, Google details new features currently available in English and rolling out soon to other languages. Now on Tap now officially works in the camera app and for images. For instance, users can open the camera app and initiate Now on Tap to identify landmarks. It can also be used in apps like Pinterest to identify artwork.
Rolled out last night to all users, Now on Tap has a new interface and the ability to manually select text from anything in a screenshot to perform a search. Due to a number of factors, Now on Tap has yet to become a hit feature and today’s update is a meaningful change to the product.
A year ago Google simplified security and privacy settings with a redesigned My Account page. On its one year anniversary, Google has announced that over a billion people have used the site and that several new features, like how to find a lost phone including Android and iOS, are being added.
Faster load and search times are the highlight feature of an update to the Google app on iOS. Like on the mobile web and Android, AMP articles will now show up in search results. Other improvements include sport video highlights on Now cards and more keyboard shortcuts for iPad users.
Chrome 51 is rolling out now to Mac, Windows, and soon Linux. The latest version of Google’s browser contains the usual bug and security fixes, but also features a new Credential Management API that improves the website login experience.
After a lengthy A/B test, YouTube for Android is rolling out a new video settings menu and a slight tweak to the player window. Settings are no longer overlaid on a video, but rather slide up from the bottom of the screen.
Especially geared towards pictures taken by a regular camera that did not have the correct time zone set, the latest Google Photos web update adds a very useful feature that allows users to easily adjust the date and time of multiple images…
The last update to Google Text-to-speech on Android added male and female voices for multiple languages. With version 3.9.6 from the Android N Developer Preview 3 (via Android Police), users on Marshmallow and above can highlight any piece of text and have it read aloud to them.
While the Android N Developer Preview 3 removed a system-level dark mode, apps can still automatically switch between day and night modes. Introduced as part of the Android Support Library 23.2 in February, developers can now easily add a night mode that switches based on the time of day and location. Twitter appears to be A/B testing a night mode in the alpha version of its app.
At an I/O session this evening, the inaugural winners of the Google Play Awards were announced. With 10 categories, winners were selected by the Google Play team based on launching or having a major update in the past 12 months, app quality, and innovation.
The Play Store is adding a few features for both developers and users. Betas are now easier to find and join from the Play Store with Google even highlighting beta apps in a new Early Access section. The store also has new smart collections for tasks that require a combination of apps.
Back in April at Microsoft’s Build conference it was revealed that Cortana for Android users would soon be able to have their smartphone notifications show up on a Windows 10 PC. Now it seems that feature is rolling out, at least to some beta testers/Insiders.
Following the announcement of Allo this morning, many assumed that Hangouts would be replaced. However, Google has confirmed to numerous publications that Hangouts will remain a separate product and continue to live — for now at least.
Update: Allo’s Play Store listing offers the ability to preregister to get notified when the app is available for download.
Next up at I/O this year are two new communication apps that integration Google’s services and AI. The first is called Allo and has the Google Assistant built-in right into the app. In addition to integrating Google’s services, it also secure and private…
In addition to releasing a new iOS update, Yahoo today has also released a new version of Yahoo Mail for Android. The update greatly improves the ability to keep track of all of your contacts thanks to improved syncing capabilities and a new complete directory view.
Belkin’s “Wemo” lineup of app-controlled smart home accessories is getting support for the Works with Nest program, which means you can now interface the smart thermostat with Belkin’s Wemo products in various ways.
