The other day I was manually entering upcoming events that were listed on a website into Google Calendar. Several years ago, I could just activate Google Now on Tap and have most of that information automatically filled.
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I actually like Google Discover. So much so that I tolerate the presence of ads because its recommendation algorithm is pretty good. That might be changing as Google is showing a “Quotes for you” section that I think sends Discover over the edge into pure clickbait territory.
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It’s been clear for some time now that Assistant Snapshot “does not have the same level of vision, central on-phone placement, or wide backing” as Google Now. It was never going to be game changing, but its upcoming demise officially closes the chapter on what could have been a radically different way to use smartphones.
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To the left of most Android homescreens is a feed that “actively tunes itself to a user’s interests and displays content that aligns with those interests.” This is Google Discover and something that people have many varying opinions about that are rooted in what it replaced: Google Now.
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Tomorrow will hopefully mark the beginning of the Apple Watch getting a serious competitor in the form of Samsung hardware running Google software. The wearable space is in serious need of competition, but it’s unfortunate how the two competing efforts are fundamentally the same. That similarity has deep ramifications for how we will experience technology for the foreseeable future.
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Google is constantly testing out new designs for its various services, and recently, the company has been looking to adjust Google Now’s look. A new design has been circling around the web for a few weeks, but today, it seems to be rolling out to more users.
Accelerated Mobile Pages have long appeared in Search results on the mobile web and Google app. However, they have noticeably been absent from the article-heavy Google Feed. Fortunately, it appears that AMP stories are finally appearing as Now cards on Android.
Just last week the talented developers behind Nova Launcher finally solved one of the biggest pain points of almost every third-party launcher by including native Google Now integration. The feature is clean and works great, but it does involve a bit of a workaround to activate. Now, the availability of that feature is expanding to older versions of the OS.
Getting quick access to your Google Now feed directly from the home screen can be a little tricky. Apps using the Google Now API aren’t allowed to be published in the Play Store, so some developers have had to get a little crafty with workarounds. Still, if you don’t need all of the customizable options that a launcher like Nova has to offer, why not just use the official launcher?
Custom launchers are one of the best ways that users can take full advantage of Android’s open ecosystem. Without having to modify their smartphones, users can simply install a third-party launcher and change up the look of their device. Today, Nova Launcher received an update which makes it even better with native Google Now built-in. What other launchers should have this functionality?
While an A/B test of a new transparent homescreen pane is underway, other users still don’t have access to the most recent revamp of the Google app that added tabs. In a statement, Google has now provided an explanation, as well as hinting at a future update to remedy the discrepancy.
Google Now Launcher has long been one of the only ways to access your Google Now feed directly from the home screen, thanks to a rule restricting apps on the Play Store from using the service’s API. It’s kept third-party launchers from tapping into the service (and consequently led to slow and clunky solutions like swiping gestures to launch the Google app), but not all developers can be stopped so easily.
Google Now is a powerful tool, but it only really proves its worth when it can be easily accessed. Now that Google Assistant has taken the place of Now on a long-press of the home button, having Now integrated into the launcher is your best bet. Google’s official launchers used to be the only ways to do that, but starting today one of the biggest third-party launchers is changing that…
Save for the addition of an “Upcoming” tab and Search shortcuts in the past year, Google Now’s design has remained mostly unchanged. However, it appears that a significant revamp, which features a new transparent homescreen page, is now in the works.
Google Now is an incredibly convenient service, and many have come to rely on it pretty heavily. Currently, though, there seems to be an issue with the service, rendering it useless to affected users. Thankfully, though, a temporary fix is available.
Google Assistant is available on (or rolling out to) almost any Android smartphone at this point, and despite Google’s efforts to round out the experience of using Assistant, it’s still a jarring experience when coming from Google Now on Tap. Since the rollout started, one of the biggest questions I’ve seen is how to access Google Now cards with Google Assistant, so let’s take a closer look.
With the death of the Google Now Launcher just weeks away, many are looking for alternate options. Thankfully, there are several great ones available. However, there’s not a single launcher on Google Play that can truly replicate the Google Now Launcher’s best feature – a left swipe for Google Now. So, here’s how to add a Google Now gesture to Action Launcher 3.
With the death of the Google Now Launcher just weeks away, many are looking for alternate options. Thankfully, there are several great ones available. However, there’s not a single launcher on Google Play that can truly replicate the Google Now Launcher’s best feature – a left swipe for Google Now. So, here’s how to add a Google Now gesture to Nova Launcher.
In light of Google Assistant, Google Now has undergone several changes in the past few months. The latest has been in testing since October, but is now officially rolling out. A new ‘Upcoming’ tab shows more personalized cards, while more general items will remain under ‘Feed.’
Back in August, Google Now was testing a Dashboard tab that showed cards and info from other services. As part of the latest beta version of the app, a new ‘Upcoming’ tab shows cards related to “what’s happening soon and nearby.”
We know that Google is no stranger to silent (server side switched) testing that mysteriously and unexpectedly hits random users, but while changes to relatively niche apps like Inbox seem understandable, to see the relatively granitic Search app and the Google Now stream — which have remained largely unchanged for quite a while — even just slightly tweaked has us interested and a bit surprised…
Chrome 54 is currently in the Dev channel and includes a revamped New Tab page on Android that lists recommended articles from Google Now (via Android Police). Enabled by default for most Chrome Dev users, the feature is quite useful and hopefully makes its way to other platforms.
After adding new features over the past several months, it appears that Google is testing yet another new option for Google Now. This new tab, labeled “Dashboard”, will apparently be used to pull information from other Google services such as Keep, Gmail, Google Photos, and others to bring all of that information into one central location.
Following improvements to Google Maps that surface interesting locales, Google Search is now showing restaurant reviews from top critics and what best-of lists (from various publishers on the web) a place has been mentioned in. In related updates, the latest Google app beta now shows weather and stock cards when triggering Now on Tap from the homescreen.
