Following the leak earlier this week, the native Pixel Weather app is available for manual sideload. 

Work on bringing the Gemini assistant to more form factors beyond the web and phones continues with a new mention of “Gemini on earbuds.” 

One of the key points of appeal for Android Auto and CarPlay is the ability to control media from music and podcast apps, but both platforms currently ignore the car’s built-in radio. Soon, though, that may change.

The Find My Device network’s offline capabilities work with Android phones and tablets, as well as trackers, today, with Wear OS — and Pixel Watch — support in the works.

The Google app is working on new Weather homescreen widgets. They look to overhaul/replace the existing set of widgets that are currently exclusive to Pixel, and will hopefully be available for all Android devices.

With less than a month until Made by Google 2024, the latest leak suggests that the Pixel 9 Pro will come with 1-year of Gemini Advanced.

After rolling out direct notifications back in June, the Google Wallet app is adding its own Quick Settings Tile, which might finally bring the shortcut to Samsung devices.

“Live” will let you have a two-way conversation with Gemini when it arrives this summer. Shown as a fullscreen experience at I/O 2024, Gemini Live might also work in the background, including on your lockscreen.

Google Contacts just updated the Individual contact widget with the ability to display notifications, and it’s now readying a “Besties Widget.”

Android 15 Beta 3 makes some tweaks to the screenshot preview UI, while revealing work on Pixel-exclusive generative AI stickers. 

As teased in October of 2023 and spotted at I/O 2024, the Google Home app on Android is getting ready to add a homescreen widget called “Favorites.”

The latest Gboard 14.2 beta is rolling out with a particularly eye-catching change to the “Fix it” Proofread feature on Pixel.

As desired by more than a few users, Google Messages is getting ready to add a “Show expressive animations” setting to presumably turn off Reaction and Screen Effects.

Google Keep is super useful as a notes app, but it also features the ability to create reminders too. Soon, it appears that Google Tasks and Calendar will be able to show reminders from Keep.

Late last year, Messages introduced a redesign of the compose box that introduced a shortcuts bar. A new Google Messages design is now being readied that reverses the signature trait and consolidates the text field into a single line.

Ahead of Android 15, Google Messages is continuing work on supporting satellite connectivity, with the latest revealing more about how it might work.

Last year, Google Contacts introduced new Material You widgets and is now planning to let you “See messages on your widget.” 

Back in October, we saw the Home app tease an “All-in-one subscription from Google” that included Nest Aware and Google One. New strings today provide more details about this upcoming addition.

For last week’s Gemini launch, Google focused on the smartphone form factor. It left Assistant in place on Smart Displays, speakers, TVs, cars, and Wear OS, though the “Gemini mobile app is coming to headphones.” 

Following the wide rollout of Photomoji a few weeks ago, Google Messages is readying a small change wherein you double tap to react. 

We spotted two weeks ago that Google might rebrand “Assistant with Bard” to just “Bard.” The company might not have decided on a new Assistant with Bard name yet as the latest version of the Google app introduces “Gemini” as a candidate.

Instead of having to manually initiate voice typing every time, Gboard is working on a more “seamless” option on Android.

Bard is coming to Google Messages to “help you write messages, translate languages, identify images, and explore interests.”

During the Pixel 8 event, “Assistant with Bard” was announced for 2024. Before it launches on Android, Google might be dropping the “Assistant” moniker and rebrand to just “Bard.”