A newly uncovered animation of Android’s Tap to Transfer could offer visual hints of the upcoming Nest Hub dockable tablet, or it could be showing nothing at all.
Expand Expanding Close
While Apple in no way invented Bluetooth trackers, AirTags undoubtedly popularized the category this past year. There are ongoing concerns about these readily available devices being used to track people, and tag makers have taken steps to counter that. Google might soon add a Bluetooth tracker detection capability directly into Android.
Expand Expanding Close
Recent reporting suggested that Google Duo would soon be gaining a handful of features to match Google Meet, but our research suggests otherwise.
Expand Expanding Close
Evidence within the Fitbit app suggests that Google’s acquisition has multiple fitness wearables on the horizon, none of which appear to run Wear OS.
Expand Expanding Close
Google’s upcoming “Switch to Android” app for iOS may be able to import data from your iCloud directly into Google Photos.
Expand Expanding Close
Following new widgets for YouTube Music and Google Photos in December, Digital Wellbeing will soon get a screen time widget that shows how much you’ve been on your phone and the top Android apps being used.
Expand Expanding Close
The latest update to the Stadia app for Android points to Google’s game streaming service gaining motion controls, a revamped touch gamepad, and more.
Expand Expanding Close
Google rolled out a Material You redesign for the Play Store in October, but it really only applied to the homescreen. The Play Store will soon get new Material You buttons throughout the app.
Expand Expanding Close
Google Messages is preparing a new setting that will keep you from accidentally zooming and increasing the size of your text.
Update: This option is now rolling out to those in the Google Messages beta.
Expand Expanding Close
As Google starts rolling out iMessage reaction translations, Messages is readying a navigation drawer that surprisingly bucks the company’s recent design trend. Meanwhile, we have more details on how Google Photos media uploads will work.
Expand Expanding Close
The recently launched YouTube Music app for Wear OS is set to gain a home screen Tile to help you jump back into your favorite playlist.
Expand Expanding Close
The latest update to Stadia for Android, version 3.44, is rolling out now via the Play Store and includes early work on a revamped search feature, livestream spectating, and more.
Expand Expanding Close
With the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, Now Playing gained a manual lookup capability that appears as a search button on the homescreen. The next Pixel update to Now Playing will introduce the ability to favorite songs and a bottom bar redesign.
Expand Expanding Close
With the Pixel 6, Google announced a big upgrade for At a Glance that it’s been teasing since the Material You reel shared at I/O in May. At a Glance is now set to get even more features that justify the new design that spans the entire width of the Pixel Launcher.
Expand Expanding Close
In July of last year, we spotted development of an “Assistant Chat Head” that never ended up launching. Google is now working on a more useful “Search bubble” chat head that provides quick access to text and voice lookup.
Expand Expanding Close
The latest update to the Stadia app for Android offers our first hints at Dolby surround sound coming soon to the streaming service.
Expand Expanding Close
Stadia 3.38 has begun rolling out to Android devices via the Play Store, and in it, we’ve found “playability tips” to help improve your connection, along with a hint at deeper support for the Stadia Controller in the Android TV app.
Expand Expanding Close
Each year, Pixel phones gain a set of live wallpapers that try to stay in-theme with what the device is trying to accomplish. The only new live wallpapers for the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are a set of “Bloom” floral backgrounds that should look familiar.
Expand Expanding Close
Last month, we detailed Google’s work on a feature that lets you skip Assistant’s hotword for select commands. On phones, Assistant “Quick phrases” work differently and in a somewhat more limited manner.
Expand Expanding Close
The latest addition to Google’s rapidly growing catalog of Android homescreen widgets is a handy search widget for Google Maps.
Expand Expanding Close
New Pixel phones released in the fall usually launch with exclusive software features that later become available on older Google phones. The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro will be the first to feature Material You weather widgets powered by the Google app.
Expand Expanding Close
The latest version of Stadia for Android includes continued work toward adding voice chat, “Instant Trials” for Stadia store games, and more.
Expand Expanding Close
After redesigning the Weather app, Google’s next step is introducing Android 12 homescreen widgets. We enabled the first one last week, and the second Google widget coming is straight from the Pixel 6’s Material You advertising.
Expand Expanding Close
The latest update to the Google TV app, in many areas still known as Play Movies & TV, gives us our best look yet at the upcoming phone-based remote for Android TV devices.
Update: As of version 4.28, we’re now able to preview the Quick Settings tile for the Google TV app’s upcoming remote.
Expand Expanding Close