News and notes on the latest from Google.
It’s the first week of March, and right on cue, Google’s monthly security updates are here. Head over to Settings > System > Advanced > System update to update your Pixel devices.
After adding support for Android Auto and Android tablets late last year, signs indicate that Apple Music will soon support the Google Assistant and Google Home speakers for music playback.
Continue reading “Apple Music will soon support Google Assistant and Google Home”
Sparked by Apple’s endeavors with the iPhone X, Google took the wraps off its own version of navigation gestures with Android Pie. However, unlike OnePlus and Apple’s implementations, Google kept the bottom nav bar to accommodate a pill-shaped button in the center and a dedicated back button on the left, effectively doing away with the overview button.
A lot of people were quick to bash Google’s decision to keep the nav bar and the back button. However, Google stubbornly stuck to its guns and released the Pixel 3 phones without the option to revert back to the classic back, home and overview buttons, which was quite controversial. While that seems to suggest confidence, the latest leaked build of Android Q seems to suggest otherwise.
Continue reading “Google’s navigation gestures overhaul revealed, no back button in sight”
Although YouTube Music aims to be the new, first-party music streaming service from Google, many features have been missing from the time it was revamped in the spring of last year. Most notable was Android Auto support, which even Apple Music beat YouTube to adding. However, with version 3.03, Android Auto support has finally arrived.
Continue reading “YouTube Music v3.03 finally adds Android Auto support”
Ever since the iPhone X was announced back in 2017, marking the iPhone’s 10th anniversary in typical fashion, people have been raving about the all-new navigation gestures that Apple employed. Truth be told, there was undeniably a learning curve for most new users, if not all of them. However, it is fair to say the ice broke quite quickly.
Continue reading “App Reviews: Fluid Navigation Gestures — gesture nav for everyone”
February is here and so are Google’s monthly security updates. Head over to Settings > System > Advanced > System update to update your Pixel devices.
Continue reading “February patches for Pixel devices now out and available to download”
Last year, Gmail for the web got a complete makeover, and while Google has been bringing Material Theme to nearly all of its apps and services, Gmail on mobile has been left behind—until now. And it’s pretty bright.
Continue reading “Gmail app v9.1 rolling out now with Material Theme”
Android Q isn’t even out in beta form yet, but XDA-Developers has managed to get their hands on an early build of it. Found inside was a dark mode, an app permissions revamp, a possible Samsung DeX equivalent, and many other smaller features.
Continue reading “Early Android Q leak has a system-wide dark mode, permissions revamp, and more”
The At A Glance widget on Pixel phones and as a widget through the Google app is a nifty and minimal tool that displays the date, your current location’s weather, and (sometimes) notifies you of traffic updates. However, since about last Friday, I and many other users on the beta for the Google app noticed that the weather part went missing.
Continue reading “It’s not just you—the latest Google app beta broke the At A Glance weather widget”
After more than two years since Google announced RCS support in its native messaging app for Android, support for the SMS/MMS replacement has finally come to its MVNO carrier, Google Fi.
Continue reading “Google Fi picks up RCS support with faster international coverage on the way”
