At I/O 2024, Gemini Advanced started using 1.5 Pro and Google is now upgrading the free version of Gemini with 1.5 Flash. 

After adding public transit directions earlier this year, Google Maps for Wear OS now has a redesigned Tile and two new complications.

YouTube for Android is testing a redesign of the miniplayer that serves as an in-app picture-in-picture (PiP). 

After rolling out a custom camera earlier this year, Google Messages now offer face filters. 

Last year, desktop Chrome replaced the downloads bar for a new tray UI in the top-right corner and Google is now detailing how that redesign allows for more security warnings.

Back in March, Google Lens introduced the highly-requested ability to save your Visual Search History, and it has now gotten a big UI update. 

While “Google TV” has a clear future as seen with the upcoming “Streamer,” it is losing the ability to buy television shows on all platforms and form factors.

YouTube Music for Android is rolling out a long-awaited “Sound Search” feature that lets you “Play, sing, or hum a song” to find it.

At I/O 2024, Google said Gemini Live would offer ten natural-sounding voices instead of just the one we’re currently limited to, and testing appears to be underway. 

Cash App announced today that it will soon be a “preferred alternative payment option when checking out” in the Google Play Store on Android.

After initially being limited to Google Assistant-level commands, activating Gemini on the Android lockscreen now lets you ask “general questions.”

Back in November, Google Search Labs launched a Notes experiment and it’s now coming to an end with the feature ultimately not launching.

Gemini today offers six first-party extensions and it’s now getting a seventh from Data Commons, which is a Google initiative that aims to organize “the world’s publicly available data and makes it more accessible and useful.”

In addition to announcing sound search and AI-generated conversation radio today, YouTube Music is rolling out “Mark as played” for podcasts.

YouTube Music today is making official sound search, while acknowledging that it’s testing the “AI-generated conversational radio” for US Premium subscribers.

With the “Show expressive animations” on/off setting now widely rolled out, Google Messages is rolling fullscreen Screen Effects back out.

Over the course of 2024, Google Maps for Android has been working on a redesign that drops most fullscreen UIs in favor of sheet-based layouts. This revamp is now more widely rolling out.

The Google Search app for iPhone and iPad, which basically is its own browser, now offers customizable homescreen icons. 

Last month, Google announced that ChromeOS would use “large portions of the Android stack” going forward. This is a long-term effort that will take “quite some time,” but one immediate change is Google ending development on Lacros, an experiment to update the Chrome browser independently of ChromeOS.

Google Wallet is running a fun promotion to celebrate the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Fitbit devices can check for signs of an irregular heart rhythm, or atrial fibrillation (AFib), and Google is now making it easier to share that data with your healthcare provider.