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Google Messages wants to fill that birthday-reminder-shaped hole Facebook left in your life
Too bad you'll never actually fill out the birthdays in your contact list
Remembering your friends’ birthdays may or may not come naturally to you, but thanks to Facebook’s obsessive flood of notifications, many of us stopped trying to keep track long ago. But if you’ve left Facebook (or avoided joining in the first place), you’ll need a consistent and convenient way to know when to taunt your friends about getting older — and Google Messages is here to do just that, with a polite nudge.
Instagram might ask you for your birth date the next time you open the app. Instagram, which I'll remind you, is owned by Facebook, one of the most prolific collectors and resellers of personal data on the planet.
On the eve of big storage shake-up, Google Photos is turning 6
Young enough to throw tantrums, old enough to know it shouldn't
It's been six years, to the day, since Google Photos debuted at I/O 2015. A lot has changed since for me; I got married, I moved countries, and more importantly, the world is very different than it was back then. What hasn't changed, though, is how awesome and reliable Photos has been through it all. It has improved a lot, made some controversial changes, but it remains the smartest photo library I have ever used.
Did you know that Android has two birthdays, depending on when you count from? Of course, it was in development for years before the public ever saw it, but it was "born" on either the date of its first commercial release (September 23rd 2008) or the date of its first official introduction by Google on November 5th, 2007. Well, that last date just so happens to line up with today, so happy 13th(ish) birthday, Android.
Smile for the camera: Google Photos turns 5 today
Many iterative improvements made the excellent platform even better over the years
Five years ago today, Google separated its Photos service from Google+ and launched it as a standalone platform, complete with a redesign and a slew of new features. While the app did get a few facelifts over the years, it's become one of the most stable experiences at Google. The company never fundamentally changed the winning formula and has only ever iteratively improved Photos.
Three years ago today, Google launched Duo, the video calling app and service it teased a few months earlier during I/O 2016. Along with Allo, Duo brought about a shift in Google's messaging and communication strategy. It spelled the beginning of the end for Hangouts and the switch to a more simplistic approach that didn't pan out well for Allo. Duo, on the other hand, is still advancing. It may not have completely revolutionized video calling, like Google had hoped, but that doesn't mean it isn't a success.
Google tried for years to make a compelling TV product (remember the Nexus Q?), but in 2013 it finally hit gold with the original Chromecast. The tiny $35 dongle acted as an external screen for your phone, instead of trying to be a self-contained media center, and it turned out to be a great idea. Six years later, most of Google's hardware lineup is based on the stick, and the Cast protocol now reaches across thousands of wireless speakers, TVs, and other devices.
When Google launched photos back in 2015, it probably didn't expect it would become one of people's most favorite apps around. All of us at Android Police really enjoy using it because it makes storing, finding, and sharing pictures so much easier.
They grow up so fast, don't they? It's hard to believe, but today marks the 11th anniversary of the first Android beta. If you thought the 5th of November was only important because of Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot, think again — the first public launch of Android is what makes today special.
On today's date in 1998, a little company named Google was formally incorporated. It was the nascent, literal garage effort of two Stanford grads as they worked on a search engine for the ol' World Wide Web. Twenty years later, Google is the third most valuable brand in the world — by at least one metric — and Android Police's raison d'être.
I don't know about you, but here at AP, we're huge fans of Google Photos. Ryne routinely calls it "Google's best product to date," and everyone on the team loves using it. Of course, it's not perfect, but it's a very good product overall and it feels like it's been a lot longer than three years since Photos made its debut.
CyanogenMod was the most popular custom ROM for years, with many other major ROMs being based on CM. However, the project came to an abrupt end last year, when Cyanogen Inc shut down (it reorganized into an autonomous tech company earlier this year). Most of the CyanogenMod community, which never received much support from Cyanogen Inc in the first place, reorganized under the 'Lineage' name.
It has been over a year since Google introduced its two new messaging apps - Allo and Duo. While Allo was a standard messaging app, Duo attempted to make mobile video calling as easy as possible. And today, the app turns one year old.
Six years is a long time, especially in the technology world. When Google+ was launched on this day in 2011, the Nexus S was still pretty new, Google Reader was still around (RIP), and we were mourning the loss of Google Buzz. Here we are, six years later, and the site is still kicking - though perhaps to a lesser extent than Google initially hoped for.
There are many small things Google does to delight us all, from the hidden easter eggs in various apps and Android versions to the various Google Doodles you see each time you start Search. Speaking of these doodles, you must have seen a birthday doodle at least once. The design may have changed throughout the years, but there's always cake and/or candles to cheer you up.
Happy Birthday, Google, you're legally an adult now. According to the Google Doodle, anyway: the actual date that Google became a company is something of a point of contention. Google's own history says that it was incorporated in California on September 4th, 1998, with founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin setting up shop in a garage office in Menlo Park. A little less than two decades later it's the most dominant search engine on the planet, it develops the world's most-used operating system, it sells more advertising than a billion Times Squares, and it never turns down a chance to make its logo look weird on the home page.
Has it already been three years since the original Chromecast came out? My, how the time flies when you're streaming video. Google marked the occasion on the Google Store's Plus page with the nifty animation below, but there aren't any promotional deals. Not that you really need them - it's $35, for cryin' out loud.
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Many happy returns, Google+, you are five today. Google's home-built social network was launched on June 28th, 2011, competing with the likes of Facebook and Twitter with a unique "circle" approach to contact management and deep integration with Google services. Many predicted it wouldn't last this long (rest in peace, Google Wave), but Google+ has proven surprisingly resilient.
We've pointed out before that Android has a lot of somewhat questionable birthdays, but November 5th is arguably the birth of the platform. On this day in 2007 the Open Handset Alliance was formally announced, uniting Google, HTC, Samsung, LG, Sony, Motorola, and dozens of software companies, chip manufactures, and mobile carriers, in the cause of promoting Android. It was presented as an open-source alternative to then-dominant mobile operating systems like Microsoft's Windows Mobile, RIM's BlackBerry, Nokia's Symbian, and - at least at the time - the looming specter of the iPhone.