Google released its Android 11 Beta to the public on June 10th, and one among its major updates was a change where all conversations from messaging apps were grouped into a dedicated space in the Notifications screen. Google has now announced collaborations with Facebook and Twitter to help integrate Messenger and Twitter DMs respectively with Android 11’s Conversations API.
Continue reading “Android 11 Conversations and Bubbles on Facebook and Twitter previewed”
Back in April, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Google announced that they were making their video conferencing service “Meet”, free and available to everyone via Gmail. It was initially available for Gmail on the web, and now they are bringing it to Gmail on Android and iOS.
Continue reading “Google Meet now available in Gmail on iOS and Android”
According to a rumour, Google is working on launching a new smart speaker sometime later this year that is codenamed “Prince”. The speaker will likely replace the original Google Home smart speaker, and have a familiar design that is similar to the Nest Mini, Nest Hub, Google Home Max.
Continue reading “Google rumoured to launch Nest branded smart speaker codenamed “Prince””
Voice Match is quite a useful feature offered by the Google Assistant, specially for household with multiple users. In an APK teardown of the Google Search app v4.2 for Android TV, deeper integration of the Google assistant was spotted, including the Voice Match feature.
Continue reading “Google Assistant Voice Match feature may come to future Android TV versions”
Google has already rolled out a bunch of updates to help their users find COVID-19 related resources easily. Collaborating with ICMR and MyGov, Google will now add new functionality to Search, Assistant and Maps that will help people find local COVID-19 testing centers.
Continue reading “Finding COVID-19 testing labs in India now easier on Google Search, Google Maps”
Google has announced that they are expanding Google Assistant features to nearly all smart devices globally. These features include Voice match support, the ability to adjust hotword sensitivity and the ability to set any smart device as the default when playing music.
Continue reading “Google Assistant Voice Match, Hotword sensitivity and more rolling out globally”
Around the world lockdowns restrictions are beginning to being lifted and in many countries, people have started to go back to work. To help people stay safe during transit, Google Maps is rolling out new features and tools that will provide them with more information and alerts during their transit.
In recent weeks, some apps went viral on the Google Play Store in India and soon they were taken down by Google which received particular attention here. While the exact reason for taking down was not mentioned then, now Google India has issued an official clarification for the same. Continue reading “Google India issues clarification on recent app removals from the Play Store”
An important security feature in Google’s Advanced Protection Program is the ability to security keys for an external authentication method. Google has announced that they will natively support the W3C WebAuthn implementation for Google Accounts in iOS 13.3 and above. This improves the user experience by enabling more security keys to be used as authentication.
Another day and yet another lawsuit against Google for breaking privacy laws in the USA. Google’s parent company, Alphabet is being sued for nearly $5 billion in the San Jose Federal Court, California for collecting data from users. Google has denied the claims and has stated that they will vigorously defend themselves in court.
Continue reading “$5 Billion lawsuit filed against Google for violating user privacy”
It looks like the Chromecast Ultra is due for an update and Google is working towards finishing the development of its successor, that will be launched during a hardware event later this year. The new dongle, codenamed “Sabrina” will come be pre-loaded with Android TV, along with a remote control, instead of just relying on a smartphone.
Continue reading “Google’s upcoming Android TV dongle device renders, remote and UI surface”
In the last two months, Google has noticed a spike in searches related to “insomnia” and “can’t sleep” and this has prompted them to introduce a few tools to help users better use their smartphones to improve sleeping habits. These tools include a Bedtime feature for Digital Wellbeing, a Bedtime tab for the Clock app, reminders in YouTube and more.
Google continues to add new features to their Pixel devices through their recently started program called Pixel Feature Drop. In the newest one, Google has improved their Adaptive Battery feature, integrated Google Assistant and Google docs into their Recorder app, added the Bedtime feature to the Clock app and more.
Google just confirmed that it is postponing its Android 11 Beta Launch event and the first Android 11 beta release that was scheduled for June 3rd. In a tweet from Android Developers account it just said that it will be back with more on Android 11 soon without giving any reason for the cancellation or when we can expect it. Continue reading “Google postpones next week’s Android 11 Beta launch event and Beta release”
YouTube has finally added a very important feature for both creators and viewers called Video Chapters. Creators will now be able to add timestamps to their video’s description, creating clickable chapters in the progress bar, with which viewers can skip and scrub through videos quickly.
Continue reading “YouTube adds Video Chapters feature in progress bar”
