APK Insight

In the US, people rely on SMS and RCS messaging for everything from connecting with friends to account security. To help make your text message inbox less of a cluttered mess, Google Messages is preparing a new “Message Organization” feature, which we were able to get hands-on with.

Ahead of the Launch Night In event where Google is expected to take the wraps off their next Chromecast, the Stadia app has received an update to version 2.36 that includes work on adding your voice to captures, benefits for the referral program, and more details of how family sharing will work.

Google Home 2.28 adds support for OnHub routers and lets you better control notifications. It also reveals “Nest Audio” as the possible name of Made by Google’s next speaker and work on Home/Away Assistant Routines.

Since last year’s Material Theme revamp and dark theme, the Play Store for Android has remained relatively unchanged. Google Play is now working to redesign the “My apps” list, which will soon be called “Manage apps & device,” while we also activated a more integrated P2P sharing experience today.

Back in June, our colleagues at 9to5Mac discovered in the iOS 13.5 beta that Apple was planning to bundle their services into a single subscription. With the latest update to the Apple Music app for Android, we can now confirm that a unified “Apple One” subscription should be coming soon.

It would be an understatement to say that some dislike the upcoming gradual shutdown of Google Play Music in favor of YouTube Music. Ahead of that shutdown, Google appears to be addressing one of the many complaints with YouTube Music by preparing to let you cast uploaded music to smart speakers for free.

Following the Home app last month, one of the last first-party apps that needs a dark mode is Google Maps. Fortunately, the latest version of the Android client finally reveals that work is underway.

One long-running critique of Google Assistant is how it doesn’t play well with work accounts, specifically Calendar events. While there is an Assistant for G Suite beta, it requires users to actively switch accounts. Google might soon let Assistant access data from multiple accounts alongside your primary one.

For a few months now, we’ve been watching as the Google Stadia app prepares to add messaging capabilities. With the release of Stadia 2.32, Google seems to have put the finishing touches in place for messaging to officially launch, as well as UPlay+, a better recruitment system, and more.

Slowly but surely, Google Stadia has been picking up new features, shaping it into a proper gaming platform. Version 2.29 of the Stadia app for Android has arrived in the Google Play Store, bringing with it signs of pre-ordering games, text messaging, and more.

Google last year made speech transcription on Pixel devices work on-device and in real-time. Gboard is now working on “hands free” voice typing that is more than just speech-to-text and builds on the new Google Assistant.

Late this evening, an update to version 7.5 of the Google Camera app arrived for some on the Android 11 Beta. Within the update, we’ve found that Google is getting new Camera features ready and preparing for their upcoming generation of Pixels phones.

With Android 11, Google is going all-in with Bubbles, a way to “let users easily multi-task from anywhere on their device.” They are primarily used for messaging notifications and quick access to conversation threads, but the latest Google app beta today reveals work on an “Assistant Chat Head.”

We’re just a few weeks away from the August 5th Galaxy Unpacked event and details have been steadily leaking out about Samsung’s latest lineup of five devices. Today, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 had its official app arrive in the Play Store, revealing new features including gestures to manage calls and take photos.

One of the awkward things about Google Stadia since launch is that the web, Chromecast, and Android versions don’t all support the same features. Among other work found in Stadia version 2.26, Google is working on one feature missing from Stadia for Android — voice chat support.

For those on the Android 11 Beta, the latest Gboard 9.6 beta on Tuesday started surfacing the new Emoji 13.0 characters. This release also reveals a new dark theme that can be automatically set, as well as Google Lens integration.

Back in April, we reported how Google was readying Chat and Meet functionality directly inside Gmail. Video conferencing was announced for the Android and iOS apps last month, and Google Chat now looks to be following.

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While there was no I/O this year, Google still launched a number of new features for its visual search tool in May. Google is now working on a Lens redesign for Android that adds several new capabilities.

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Earthquake early warning systems (EEW) can quickly detect tremors and provide a warning before shaking arrives. ShakeAlert is the system funded by the United States Geological Survey and other partners for the West Coast. Google now looks to be building earthquake alerts from that system into Android as part of Play Services.

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One of the strictest limitations of Google Stadia is that you can currently only play while on a Wi-Fi connection. According to the latest version of Stadia for Android, Google is preparing to allow players to experiment with playing on a 4G mobile data connection.

While Drive for Android gained a dark theme last April, Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides have been notable holdouts. Night-friendly modes for these apps are coming and will likely also apply to the document view.

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