Over the past few months, Google has rolled out several new features powered by machine learning. Announced at an enterprise event today, Google Springboard allows users to search through Google Apps and acts as a day-to-day work assistant, providing “useful and actionable information and recommendations.” The company also announced a major revamp to Google Sites.
In this week’s top stories: We breakdown the best Android phones you can buy right now, get a closer look at upcoming Android devices including the OnePlus 3, Galaxy Note, and Project Tango devices, and give you the latest app news and updates alongside our picks for the best 5 Android apps you should download this month.
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There are nearly 1.5 million applications currently on Google Play and with so many to choose from, finding interesting new experiences can be a hassle. That’s why today we’re kicking off a new series here at 9to5Google highlighting 5 different Android apps each month that are worth checking out.
So without further ado, let’s take a look at our picks for the month.
With Chrome 51 rolled out to browsers, mobile, and Chromebooks, version 52 is now in the beta channel. The release adds many developer focused features that should improve the overall performance of the browser.
Offline video is one of the main benefits of a YouTube Red subscription. In developing countries, downloads are actually available for free as a means to work around connectivity issues. Now YouTube is rolling out a new Smart Offline feature in India that downloads videos during late night hours when carriers offer discounted data.
It wasn’t that long ago when creating 360-degree photos that you could share with others online required special camera kit, and you had to post them on websites that supported the feature. It’s since got much easier, and as of the latest update to the Android Facebook app, you don’t need anything more than a Samsung Galaxy phone and the stock camera app.
Simply take a panorama with your phone […] and then post it on Facebook as you would a normal photo. From there, we’ll convert it to an immersive 360 photo that people can explore, similar to how people experience 360 videos on Facebook …
Messaging apps are among the most important — and indeed most used — by millions and millions of users every day, so it is only logical for them to implement new features as they evolve.
WhatsApp, despite being used by over a billion users, has remained a fairly simplistic chat app over the years, but things seem to be changing…
One of Google’s approaches to the Internet of Things involves placing low-energy Bluetooth beacons that can communicate with devices. Google is announcing new partners today who have updated Android apps that can talk to beacons placed in stores, museums, and airports.
One day after announcing availability of its Vive VR headset for consumers following a few delays, HTC today announced an enterprise edition of the product.
Street View is now a feature we take for granted in all our mapping services, but in 2007 it was a very ambitious effort by Google to photograph the world. The feature on the latest version of Google Maps on Android received a slight revamp to make navigation on mobile easier.
Fears that terrorists may be planning attacks in Paris during the Euro 2016 football tournament have led the French government to create an app that sends location-based terrorism alerts to users, helping them steer clear of affected areas.
Google’s latest photography app — following behind others such as Google Photos and Snapseed — stabilizes iOS Live Photos and turns them into shareable GIFs and short movie clips. The app can create still images by freezing the background of a Live Photo and makes short videos that feature sweeping cinematic pans. The free Motion Stills app comes to us from Google Research and is only available on iOS…
Despite being announced over a year ago, the revamped Google Contacts web app remains in preview and is still lacking some legacy features. A new feature rolling out today, however, will list verified business information from Google Maps directly in a contact.
With Microsoft almost out of the consumer phones business, it’s working harder to find a new home for its intelligent assistant, Cortana. After initially making it available to Android users six months ago, it has now updated its health app so that you can access Cortana through the Band 2 fitness wearable.
With Cortana on your Band, you can access your personal assistant for instant notifications of important events, communications, and voice-active info without reaching for your phone. Speak into the mic on your Band to Cortana to take actions for you …
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.
