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Android Auto rolls out to 6 more European countries
Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Sweden, since you asked
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Although a bunch of cars now come with advanced navigation systems, these can rarely beat the simplicity and expansibility of Android Auto. Sadly, though, Google's in-car service isn't globally available, leaving many users unable to properly use their favorite services from their ride's dashboard. Thankfully, Android Auto is expanding to 36 more countries, making it seamless to get directions, play music, and interact with Assistant, thanks to native integration with your car's infotainment system.
Samsung's watches now support ECG monitoring in 32 more countries
It still requires a paired Samsung phone
Samsung's Galaxy Watch3 and Watch Active2 both have hardware support for ECG monitoring, but it is taking a long time to show up for everyone, since the feature has to be approved by each country's health agencies. It was exclusive to South Korea until September of last year, when it was enabled for use in the United States, and now it's coming to 32 more countries.
Play Store accepting gambling apps in US and 14 other countries starting March 1
Non-gambling contests get a boost in new policies
Up to now, Google has only Android users in the U.K., Ireland, France, and Brazil to download apps from the Play Store to partake in real money gambling. But starting from this spring, the company will enact a policy update to expand their availability to 15 countries including the United States.
Google Pay adds support for 24 new banks in 23 countries
Forget your wallet, grab your phone — you've got Google Pay
Google Pay continues to expand its support to additional international banks. To help you keep track of which financial institutions have added their credit and debit cards to the service, we've compiled a list of recent additions. Since we last looked in July, Google's added 24 new banks in 23 countries.
Disney has announced that it's continuing Disney+'s international expansion in Europe. Starting today, the service will come to eight more European countries. This follows March's launch in the UK and other Western European markets. The platform also arrived in India shortly after.
Google Pay gains support for 29 new banks and financial institutions in 22 countries (Update: 11 more banks)
Because carrying a wallet is so over
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Google Pay is compatible with a wide range of cards from various institutions around the world. Sadly, there are still a bunch of them that don't work with the contactless payment service. Thankfully, it is constantly gaining support for new banks and financial institutions, including the below 29, spread across 22 countries.
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- OnePlus has posted a more complete statement to its forums, indicating that the layoffs aren't quite as extensive as rumored. According to the company, a total of 20 total employees are affected by the company's restructuring in Europe:
OnePlus has reportedly made severe staffing cuts in its European operations. While the tech brand has experienced massive growth in other markets over the past few years, it has also faced major headwinds across the continent in the same time which have led to previous rounds of layoffs.
Along a slew of announcements today, Google glanced over the fact that its Nest displays will be expanding their availability and launching in new countries. The Hub is coming to three new countries, for a total of 15, and the Hub Max is doubling its presence from three to six countries.
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- According to DH.be, Google had a press conference today in Brussels and announced Assistant for Belgium. That includes not only understanding local questions, but also integrations with third-parties like SNCB, Telenet, Proximus, ING, bpost, and IRM through Actions on Google. The rollout is starting today. Thanks, Zouz!
A couple of weeks ago, we told you Google Assistant works in 30 languages in over 80 countries, but none of those were Belgium. The country wasn't shown as supported in Google's map, but things appear to be changing now. Belgian variants of four languages were just added to Google Assistant's official pages, and they seem to be working on phones... sort of.
Nintendo's Belgium arm tweeted an announced early this morning that the company will be pulling its mobile games Fire Emblem Heroes and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp from the Belgian market on August 27th. Back in April of 2018, Belgium declared that loot boxes are gambling and thus illegal in the country, so it would seem Nintendo has seen the writing on the wall and decided to pull any offending games.
Despite Google Pay already supporting around 2,000 banks and credit unions in the US and not nearly as many internationally, US support continues to grow at a pace greater than all other countries combined. Since we last posted about international Google Pay additions last month, nine banks in ten countries are now on the supported list.
There are many digital ways to consume our photos and memories these days — browsing on our phones, casting to a large TV, showcasing on a Smart Display like the Google Home Hub — but if you want physical copies of your pics to flip through and enjoy, you will need to print them. Google Photos offers a photo book service in several countries, and now it's expanding to 14 more in Europe.
If there's any constant in the Android Police tips inbox I can rely on, it's that our Dutch readers are the most enthusiastic of the bunch. Any new feature launches in the country and we're bound to get inundated with emails, but this time, it's not just The Netherlands that should be happy, three other countries in Europe are getting YouTube Premium as well.
Usually, when massive companies tell you "your opinion matters," it is a transparent way to placate people who complain. With Google Opinion Rewards, your opinion gets you pocket change, which is probably a fair bit more than you would get anywhere else. Digital pocket change, in the form of Google Play credits. All the better, as it doesn't run the risk of scratching your screen. Opinion Rewards has been available in the United States and several other countries for some time, though Belgium and New Zealand are joining the club this month.
[Update: Maestro cards and more banks] Belgium is the tenth country to get the Android Pay treatment
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- Mastercard yesterday announced the support of Maestro debit cards in Belgium with 2 banks: BNP Paribas Fortis Hello Bank, Fintro; and KBC/CBC/KBC-Brussels. That's great news for anyone in Belgium since, as our tipsters tell us, debit cards are a lot more popular and used than credit cards. The Android Pay support page for Belgium has been updated too to show all the currently compatible and unsupported cards. Thanks, Damien, Ambroos Vaes, Sandro Barilla!
Belgium is next up in Google's ongoing, slow-moving initiative to bring Android Pay to more countries. Starting today, Belgians can use the contactless payments service at over 85,000 locations including places like McDonald's, H&M, and Carrefour.
Last month, Nest announced that it would be starting to sell its products in Austria, Germany, Italy, and Spain. But at the time, the retail outlets where these products could be bought ranged from Amazon to Media Markt, ePrice, El Corte Ingles, and a couple more. They were all third-party retailers and not official Nest or Google entities.
Remember that sweet 25% discount on the Pixel C tablet for "developers?" (Don't worry, you don't actually have to be a developer.) Originally it was only available to buyers in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, but as of today it's been updated to apply to a handful of new counties. Customers in Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland can now take 25% off of the local currency price.
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- Sprint too. No fees through March 31st, and it applies to Virgin and Boost as well.
Most mobile plans these days let you call just anywhere in your home country without incurring extra fees, and a few even have some international calling included. Phoning Europe from the US is usually spendy, though. For the next few days, a couple carriers have waved all fees associated with calls or texts from the US to Belgium in the wake of Tuesday's terrorist attacks.
When Nest announced its new Cam last month, it made it available on Amazon and the Google Store, but the latter was limited to the US and Canada. But it looks like Nest is now ready to take its security cam across the pond to Belgium, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
The magazine rack may not be the most crowded part of the Play Store, but that doesn't mean plenty of users haven't been waiting for the most Google-y of periodical reading methods to come to their Android devices. Sure, the free stuff is available worldwide, but subscriptions are available on a country by country basis, and there are still plenty of folks around the globe who don't have access to the service.