voice

31 'voice' stories July 2011 - May 2013

Google announces updates to Google Play developer console: beta testing & staged rollouts, app translations, more

Jordan Kahn May 15 2013 - 9:41 am PT

Screen Shot 2013-05-15 at 9.40.03 AM

Google today announced new features coming to the Google Play Developer Console that will make it easier for developers to track and optimize apps across markets.

Perhaps one of the biggest features that will soon be available to developers is the ability to manage beta testing and staged rollouts right from within the Developers Console. The tool will allow developers to select a percentage of users for a stage rollout and easily beta test their apps among small amounts of users.

Among the new features, Google will be rolling out a new APK translation feature built into the console that allows developers to purchase translations through various providers directly through the console.

Other features headed to the developer console include optimization tips, referral tracking, and detailed revenue graphs. Check out a full gallery of the new features below:
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Google announces Google Play game services coming to Android, iOS & web today

Jordan Kahn May 15 2013 - 9:23 am PT

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Screen Shot 2013-05-15 at 12.21.22 PM

We knew from leaks in the weeks leading up to I/O that Google was planning some gaming related announcements and today the company has officially announced the service in a press release ahead of its Google I/O keynote taking place now. Not only will the service allow Android developers to build in real-time multiplayer, social features, achievements, and leaderboards while storing game saves and settings in the cloud, the SDK for Google Play game services will also be available to iOS and web developers.

Google noted a few titles for Android have already been updated with the feature including World of Goo, Super Stickman Golf 2, Beach Buggy Blitz, Kingdom Rush, Eternity Warriors 2, and Osmos.

Not surprisingly, the cross-platform gaming service will also build in Google+ integration to track high scores, achievements and more:

-Achievements that increase engagement and promote different styles of play.

-Social and public leaderboards that seamlessly use Google+ circles to track high scores across friends and across the world.

-Cloud saves that provide a simple and streamlined storage API to store game saves and settings. Now players never have to replay Level 1 again.

-Real-time multiplayer for easy addition of cooperative or competitive game play on Android devices. Using G+ Circles a game can have up to 4 simultaneous friends or auto-matched players in a game session together with support for additional players coming soon.

Google’s full press release below:
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Google+ hangouts extra brings free phone calls to the US and Canada

Jordan Kahn Dec 1 2011 - 3:05 pm PT

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A nice addition to Hangouts with extras has been made available today over at plus.google.com/hangouts/extras, bringing with it the ability to place phone calls directly from within a hangout. Much like phone calls in Gmail, which recently got an international rollout, the feature will be available for free, initially to users in the US and Canada. Also, outgoing calls will come from your Google Voice number, if applicable. If you’re interested in trying it out, here’s how to do it:

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Google Voice for Android now features group texting and offline voicemail

Jake Smith Nov 15 2011 - 4:19 pm PT

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Google has updated Google Voice for Android to version 0.4.2 — a small update — but the app now features group texting, offline voicemail, and improved text message notifications.

Offline voicemail is definitely the big feature here, letting users listen to voicemail in spotty coverage areas. Now if there could be some improvements to the iOS app and MMS available on all carriers. Download it now!

What’s in this version:

Prefetch voicemails so they can be listened to even when there is no data coverage
Allow sending text messages to multiple recipients
Improved text message notification

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Android Voice Actions go overseas

9to5 Staff Sep 16 2011 - 7:10 am PT

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsI76lrvJt4]

In addition to mapping and navigation, the ability to control your handset with voice commands is another treat that sets Android apart from the crowd, even if other phones had voice commands before Google’s software. Pity than that Android Voice Actions were introduced last year to the U.S. audience only.

Well, Android fans overseas can breathe a collective sigh of relieve because Google announced that Voice Actions are now available to users in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain. Even better, non-English speakers are able to issue Voice Actions in British English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. There are three ways to invoking Voice Commands on your Android 2.2+ smartphone or tablet:

tap the microphone button on the Google search box on your home screen,
open the Voice Search app,
or press down for a few seconds on the physical search button on your phone to activate the “Speak Now” screen

Some of the supported Voice Actions: send text to [contact] [message]; call [business]; call [contact]; go to [website]; navigate to [location/business name]; directions to [location/business name]; map of [location].

You can get a better idea about the usefulness of Voice Actions by spending less than two minutes of your time sitting through Google’s video tour embedded right above.

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Google introduces multiple calls in Gmail

Jake Smith Jul 20 2011 - 8:01 pm PT

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Google has released an update to their calling feature inside of Gmail, allowing users to make multiple calls. If you’re on a call and make another call, the current call will be put on hold and you can switch between the calls with the resume button. Even better, when getting an incoming call while on another you can put the current call on hold.

This new feature works on voice, video, and phone calls. If a call is placed to a physical phone number there can only be two calls at once. How long until you can conference calls and do everything else a phone can do? Bye bye telephone!

Google brings the spam filter to your phones

9to5 Staff Jul 12 2011 - 12:45 pm PT

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Wouldn’t it be great if you could report those pesky phone calls from marketeers as spam with a single click, just like you in Gmail? If you’re a Google Voice user, now you can because the search monster this morning flipped the switch on the new global spam filtering machine that sucks out unwanted calls before they hit your phone.

And if some go through, the new Report Spam button in the Google Voice interface is all you need to stop the pesky callers who wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer from wasting your time. You can also fine-tune the system by automatically redirecting calls, texts and voicemails from any of the numbers in Google’s database directly into their spam folders. To turn on spam filtering, tick the Global SPAM filtering box on the Calls tab of Google Voice settings.

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