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Smartphones are personal objects. We carry them around all day and use them to manage the minutiae of our lives via calendars, contacts, and social media. Even if you buy a new phone every year, you at least arrange your apps or use a unique background, but why stop there? Why not change the font as well?
Google updates its classic Roboto font with super-customizable Flex edition
The same Roboto we know and love, but now tweakable to the smallest detail
Roboto has been a key part of Google's visual identity for years. It has perdured through time, even preceding the concept of Material Design — it was actually first introduced in 2011 with Android 4.0's Holo design language. As the company's visual identity matured, so has the typeface as it has adapted to a breadth of formats including bolder variants, a monospace variant, and even a serif variant. Its latest iteration, Roboto Flex, is meant to do exactly what its name suggests — to be flexible and work for everyone.
Google’s Roboto Serif is a beautiful new font that you can download and use for free right now
Minimal, with just a whisper of Serif
The World Wide Web first started out with a measly collection of just 11 core fonts meant to make things as legible as possible on those low-res screens of yesteryears, but these days, virtually all websites and brands can choose whatever font they want to and that they feel is the best for both legibility and identity, with some even creating new typefaces of their own. As such, Google has just introduced a brand-new font to its family — meet Roboto Serif (via 9to5Google).
Android 12 is dropping manual font and icon customization in favor of Material You
It's dynamic themes from here on out
The wait for Android 12 grows shorter by the day, and thanks to monthly beta updates, we have a pretty good idea of what to expect this fall. Google's introducing a whole new look with Material You, complete with automatic customization options based on your wallpaper. Unfortunately, it seems like some of the tools available in Android 11 won't be making the jump to the latest version.
Google Assistant has come a long way since its earliest days on Android. New advancements like Continued Conversations have made it possible to issue multiple commands without repeating context or wake words, with answers appearing in a single thread. A new update to the Google app on Android makes it easier to read Assistant's replies in the app without squinting at tiny text.
Chrome 86 was a fairly massive update, with support for the Native File System API, various interface improvements, and new experiments to try out. Almost exactly one month later, Chrome 87 is starting to roll out to desktop and mobile platforms. There are more than a few exciting changes in store, so let's dive in!
eBay's dark mode is official, rolling out to everyone through July
There have also been refinements to iconography and fonts
Phones are only slowly getting updated to Android 10, which is the first iteration of the OS that introduced a proper system-wide dark theme. That's why developers are only slowly adding the eye-soothing mode to their applications, but now a popular sales platform is finally on board with a new color variation: eBay. The e-commerce giant has announced that it's launching a dark mode for its Android (and iOS) app.
Today Google has announced that Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides have access to a small pile of new "Lexend" family of fonts meant to make reading a bit easier. Based on a bit of research which claims that character size, spacing, and stretch can enhance understanding if customized to reading speed, the new fonts come in eight different widths from "Zetta" to "Deca."
When the folks at XDA developers caught a look at an Android Q image early, one of the things they spotted was a pile of new options for theming the look of the operating system. At the time, we thought it might have merely been a test demonstrating easier OEM-level customization, but theming has persisted into the Android Q Beta 1.
There's nothing more frustrating (hyperbole) than scrolling through YouTube, finding a video that seems interesting, except the title is cut off and all you see is "March 20..." Is it 2000? 2019? Any other year in between? You have to click to find out. But that will happen less frequently now, as the video service's Android app is rolling a small redesign to its video titles, using a bolder and smaller font.
Take this with the proverbial grain of salt, given the pre-release nature of the software being examined, but the folks at XDA Developers have discovered what appear to be extra customization options hidden in the leaked Android Q build they've been tearing through. Although the settings aren't user-facing, a few new so-called "overlay" packages were found in the image which allow for changing between a handful of pre-installed fonts, icon shapes, and accent colors.
Read update
Google's new UI font, the aptly-named 'Google Sans,' has been appearing in many of the company's apps and sites lately. The next target for Google Sans seems to be Chrome OS, according to a new code commit on the Chromium Gerrit.
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- It looks like 4.5.7 had some problems and got pulled. But, 4.5.8 has all these same fixes and features, but presumably without whatever problems halted deployment. This new update should be rolling out soon. If you want to download it early, the same process described above should work.
One of the bigger drawbacks reviewers noticed with the OnePlus 5 was the lack of image stabilization when recording video in 4K. Well, as of today that's one problem the OnePlus 5 doesn't have anymore. Right now a staged rollout is progressing for OxygenOS 4.5.7, which brings with it EIS for 4K recording (which looks amazing), as well as a handful of bug fixes, optimizations, security patch updates, and a new font.
We're used to covering the big and the small WhatsApp features here, but there are two changes that we haven't mentioned yet that we keep getting tips about so we thought we'd let you know about them, in case you hadn't noticed them before. One is relatively old, the other is fairly new but has been on WhatsApp Web for a while, but both are equally handy improvements. Without further ado, let's check them out.
Google has definitely been focusing on space-saving and performance improvements with Android O, such as faster boot times and the leaner Android Go operating system. Fonts aren't quite as exciting, unless you like to spice up your reports and presentations with obscure typefaces. Regardless, Android O has a few improvements in store for developers wanting to use custom fonts in their applications.
We're all looking forward to Google I/O. Some of us frequently check the official website to count the days until registrations are open, so we are familiar with the cool font and animations used for the event's hashtag and countdown. They're all about Material Design — layers, colors, shadows, FABs, and all the design elements that have populated our conscious and subconscious dreams for the past months.
We always talk about the customizability of Android, but most of us never really put it to the test. Sure, we might change the theme on our keyboards or replace some homescreen icons, but when is the last time you changed your system font? If you're running CyanogenMod and feel like trying something a little different, treat your eyes to any of the six brand new fonts that have been packaged up for use in the CM Theme Engine.
A couple of weeks ago, we were very excited to find a new, revised version of the Roboto family hiding in a leaked Android 4.3 build. Since then, I've been keeping an eye out for any more Roboto goings on.
Yesterday, we reported on an alleged Android 4.3 Jelly Bean ROM originally posted by SamMobile. Since then, we have – in usual style – been digging away, looking for goodies. In the midst of that search, Ron noticed something – the Roboto files in the ROM were up to 30% bigger than the versions found in 4.2.2.