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The home screen situation was grim six years ago as we waited for a Launcher Pro redesign that never materialized (any day now, I'm sure) and OEMs assaulted us with terrible, clunky stock launchers. Well, more terrible than now. Nova Launcher arrived six years ago today, and many of our home screens have never been the same.
Google launched Assistant over a year ago with the original Pixel phones, but it expanded to more devices just a few months later. However, only phones with new-ish software were included. Starting now, Assistant is coming to more phones and (finally) tablets.
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The Pixel Launcher comes pre-installed on Pixel phones, but it's also listed in the Play Store for easy updates. However, Google appears to have made an unusual change to the app listing there. It no longer shows the actual number of installs. Instead, it's locked to the smallest "1-5" group.
Google completely revamped the desktop Google Drive client this year with the move to Backup & Sync. The initial rollout was a bit of a mess with Google essentially breaking Drive for some people. It eventually worked all that out, and Backup & Sync has been running smoothly since then. There haven't been many feature additions, but there's a big one rolling out now. In the latest version, you have more control over which files are synced, and it's easier to add new folders to Drive.
Google is wild for all this machine learning and computational photography stuff lately. That's good because it has led to innovations like HDR+ and Google Photos. Google's researchers are also constantly coming up with neat little demos, some of which are packaged up as apps. Case in point, the newly launched Storyboard and Selfissimo apps in the Play Store. You can check them out right now, but don't expect a lot of functionality. Both apps are one-trick-ponies.
Despite a bumpy start, Adobe's Android version of Lightroom has become a capable and popular app for mobile photographers. It can process RAW files, apply filters, and it syncs across devices with a Creative Cloud subscription. Today, Adobe is rolling out a new version that includes neural network smarts and some features for newer builds of Android. Most features still work without a subscription, too.
Getting the fingerprint sensor inside a display has been the next logical step for years (unless you're Apple). It has proven hard to crack the code on that, though. As displays keep getting bigger, it's time for someone to take the plunge, and Synaptics says it has the technology to make it happen. Its new Clear ID in-display fingerprint sensors are coming soon in partnership with a "top 5" smartphone OEM. That's a bit cryptic.
There's a new Android-oriented Humble Bundle today, and this one comes your way courtesy of Noodlecake. For a few bucks, you can get up to 11 games. You get to pick your price, so as little as a one greenback entitles you to some DRM-free gaming fun.
Modern technology can make us more sedentary and unhealthy, but developer Six to Start has released a few games that aim to do the opposite. Games like Zombies, Run! can make exercise kind of fun, but its latest release is a bit more casual. The new game, developed in cooperation with the UK's NHS and the Department of Health, is called The Walk. To play, just start walking.
The OnePlus 5T is now landing on doorsteps across the globe, and most users will find that it has an OTA update available when they power it on. OxygenOS v4.7.4 rolled out last week, but now a system image of that version is also available for download. OnePlus even has full instructions for flashing the update.
Google spent years working on the augmented reality hardware known as Tango. There have been two consumer phones with Tango so far, neither of which has been a great experience. However, the company recently showed off augmented reality content running on Pixel phones without Tango hardware. It didn't have a timeline for making AR stickers available, but today appears to be the day. An update to AR core has appeared in the Play Store and the AR Stickers app is live.
Action Launcher updated to v32 with bug fixes and a 30% off sale, plus Adaptive Pack gets more icons
Today marks five years since Action Launcher first hit the Play Store. Those were the days of Jelly Bean, when 7-inch tablets roamed the Earth. A lot has changed since then, including the way Action Launcher upgrades work. The app hasn't seen any discounts since it switched to an in-app upgrade model in 2014, but today it's 30% off. The new version also has some small feature tweaks, and the Adaptive Pack for Action Launcher includes more icons.
Plex has long been a way to organize your digital media, but in a recent update it also gained the ability to add to your library with the help of a digital TV tuner and Plex DVR functionality. Today, Android users of Plex will get some new DVR features to make it behave more like a real DVR you'd get from the cable company. You can now control the flow of time (on your TV).
There was much celebration in the Android Police virtual HQ earlier this year when Googler Elliott Hughes revealed that the much-maligned "Check for update" button was getting an overhaul. After so many pointless presses, this button would finally do something on Pixel and Nexus devices. If there was an update available, the button would download it. However, this feature still isn't working. According to Hughes, the bug that broke this feature will be fixed in early 2018.
Android 8.1 Oreo is final just a few weeks after the second developer preview rolled out. You can get the system images and OTA files for manual installation, and OTAs are hitting phones running 8.0. That's not all—devices in the developer preview that were running DP2 are also seeing an OTA update today.
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The navigation bar on Google devices has been black since time immemorial, but that's starting to change. In both Chrome and Google Photos, the navigation bar has switched to white with black navigation buttons. It's just those apps so far (and the Chrome change is in Canary), but maybe this is only the beginning.
Most photo filters in apps like Instagram are intended to retain the general vibe of the original photo, but Prisma is different. This app processes your photos into completely new pieces of art with the power of neural networks. It's like if Google's DeepDream engine became your camera. Prisma has undergone some changes since it debuted in 2016, and today it adds something big. Specifically, big photos.
Google started contacting developers last month with a bit of an ultimatum: make sure accessibility mode is only used to help disabled users or risk being banned from the Play Store. Android's accessibility services have been used for a great many things over the years, so this change in policy caught many developers off guard. However, Google is now notifying developers that it's pausing the ban as it looks into how apps can make "responsible and innovative" use of accessibility features.
Remember how upset people were when Facebook started requiring everyone to install the separate Messenger app? Now Instagram is going down the same road, or it's at least strongly considering it. Instagram is testing a new app called Direct that replaces the messaging inbox from the main app and builds an experience around it. The new app is only available in a few countries so far, but it could be rolled out widely later.
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Android updates have never been very fast or consistent, but Google took some steps to improve the process several months ago. That's when it announced Project Treble, a feature of Android Oreo and later that makes OTAs modular. Devices that launch with Oreo will support Treble, but those updated to Oreo won't—at least mostly. OnePlus has confirmed on its forums that Treble won't be part of any current devices, including the new OnePlus 5T.