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Every week, I examine somewhere in the neighborhood of a hundred app updates while looking for changes. The most interesting things turn into APK Teardowns or Download posts. Many of the remaining updates are unremarkable, amounting to a few bug fixes, routine updates to libraries, or even just pixel-level adjustments to layouts and images. However, there are usually a few updates that land somewhere in between. I don't want to spam readers with dozens of short posts, but I hate to ignore things that people might want to know about, so I'm going to wrap up the leftovers for a little weekend reading and call it Update Notes.
The latest Gboard update landed a couple of days ago with "Minis" sticker packs, a feature developed originally for the Allo messenger. However, as the story often goes with Gboard, there's still more to be seen with a teardown. There are the first hints about clipboard integration and some kind of hotkey support for Chrome OS. Follow-ups are also here for a previously spotted floating keyboard and the morse code input introduced earlier this year.
A big new set of services began rolling out to Firebase users today. Google's mainstream service for push messaging and other app services just announced an assortment of new capabilities. The big addition in this update is a new in-app messaging feature that enables quick announcements and offers to users, and can be tied to certain user behaviors. There are also big revisions to the management console and statistics tracking views, upgrades to the Crashlytics services, a new history view for Remote Config, and more.
The Play Games app is riding high with a series of recent changes and still a few more things to come. The latest update doesn't bring any revolutionary changes, but it does change the icons adorning the built-in games so they can all share a uniform style. Buried within the APK are also signs that a new easter egg is in the works that will probably launch another new mini-game.
A new version of Duo is making the rounds with some interesting changes both on the surface and behind the scenes. There are some visual tweaks that bring a slightly updated look to Duo, and an option was removed from settings. Sadly, it looks like screen sharing may be dead for the foreseeable future. And if you're interested in scoring some rewards in trade for signing friends up to Duo, you'll have something to look forward to.
Were you personally wounded when Google declared that Inbox would no longer include 'Someday' among its list of Snooze options? It's likely you weren't alone. The latest update to Inbox doesn't appear to bring back the recently removed feature, but a couple lines from a teardown suggest it might be coming back.
An update to the Google app landed early Saturday morning, but as is standard, there aren't any recognizable changes. The teardown reveals about a dozen minor tweaks to text, but only a little bit of it actually has anything to do with upcoming features and changes.
Every week, I examine somewhere in the neighborhood of a hundred app updates while looking for changes. The most interesting things turn into APK Teardowns or Download posts. Many of the remaining updates are unremarkable, amounting to a few bug fixes, routine updates to libraries, or even just pixel-level adjustments to layouts and images. However, there are usually a few updates that land somewhere in between. I don't want to spam readers with dozens of short posts, but I hate to ignore things that people might want to know about, so I'm going to wrap up the leftovers for a little weekend reading and call it Update Notes.
Following the update to the Google Contacts app, a matching update to its Phone app was also shipped for Pixels and other Google-supported handsets. The story is the same, though the visual changes look less severe since the old versions were already less colorful and contact photos were a bit more dominant. There aren't any live functional changes for the general public, but there is one notable change to the Favorites tab in the works.
Google is rolling out plenty of updates today, including a new version of Photos. This update probably won't change much for most users, but if you're preparing a photo book, you'll now have the option to add captions to your shots. A teardown also reveals plans to support editing of stereoscopic images and there are a couple new types of suggestions that may pop up on some of your photos.
It's Friday afternoon and that means there's probably going to be a Google app update. The latest version doesn't appear to change much on the surface, so we'll be looking to the teardown for more information. Details are a bit thin with this update as most of the topics are little more than breadcrumbs, but we'll take a look at a new feature called the Memory Aid Locker, the first substantial pieces of a Top Apps view, and a cut-and-dry implementation of Google Translate for smart displays.
Every month or so, an update to ARCore rolls out to add the augmented reality framework to a whole new set of phones, tablets... and now Chromebooks? Yes, the first Chrome OS device has been found among the list of profiles included in the ARCore APK, and that is the recently released Acer Chromebook Tab 10. Also joining the list are the codenames associated with the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, blueline and crosshatch, which are due out this Fall.
It's Friday evening, you're working a bit after closing time and you've got to send out one last email to a contact at another company. There's no chance anybody is still at the office, nor will anybody be in before Monday. You can live with waiting that long, but you know that sending the email right now means it will surely get buried behind everything else that comes in over the weekend, and if the backlog is too long, your message may not even be read until later in the week. The obvious answer is that you should just schedule your email to be sent early Monday morning... And that's when you realize Gmail doesn't actually offer scheduling. Well, it doesn't yet, but Google will be changing that soon.
A new version of the Google app made a late-night appearance on the beta channel. As is common, there aren't many new things to see after installing it, but there are plenty of topics to discuss from doing a teardown. The latest additions include text revealing an upcoming Pixel Stand charging dock, settings for a YouTube TV content filtering option, and what looks like enhanced voice-controlled features for use in the car based on work Google has done with Assistant-enabled headphones.
After a tumult of controversies over inappropriate videos being served to children through the YouTube Kids app, it seems like things have settled down with the advent of curated collections, a feature that allows trusted organizations to create pre-selected groups of channels that are generally safe for consumption. With the big feature out of the way, YouTube is now working on adding granular controls so parents will have options to eliminate select channels or videos from otherwise trustworthy collections.
Listening to any spoken format, whether it's podcasts or audiobooks, is bound to come with some pauses. If you're bothered by that sort of thing and want to keep things running as smoothly as possible, the latest Play Books update will help you with that. There's a new option that will do some basic audio magic to detect longer moments of silence and cut them down so you won't have to sit through any long gaps in sound.
Google set loose a beta update to its namesake app this weekend, but like most versions, there's not much to see after updating. The most interesting things are only visible through the lens of a teardown, although they're mostly minor notes about topics we already know about or expect to be coming. Nevertheless, we can look forward to a new app shortcut to launch Assistant, car-specific Assistant settings, a couple of name changes, and more.
A new version of Android Messages began rolling out late last night. Beyond a few small cosmetic tweaks, this update appears to be almost entirely focused on preparing upcoming features. There's activity related to pairing with Chromebooks, further developments in dark mode, and forward progress on fighting spam.
While you can run apps on Wear OS, the main reason for it to exist is to serve notifications. But for as much as notifications are useful, too many can be counterproductive. If you're finding that one or more of your apps is getting too noisy, but you're not quite ready to shut down notifications altogether, one good solution is to block those notifications from reaching your watch. Soon, you'll be able to access the settings screen to configure blocked apps by using a launcher shortcut.
Updates to the Google app have been rolling out at a faster rate for a little while now, and each brings fewer and fewer overall changes. The latest update has remarkably few changes or additions, but it has shed a lot of old and unused text, which isn't a bad thing. However, one of the additions speaks to one other thing that might be going away soon: the Google Feed widget.