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Google's new family website will help you keep your kids safe online
A website filled to the brim with online safety and wellbeing resources
Google has launched a new website for parents on families.google today. But if you were hoping for a whole slew of new and improved parental controls for Android, Chromebooks, and Google Accounts all collected in one central place on the web, you might be disappointed. The website is merely a resource that gives parents an overview of which tools there are for safeguarding their kids online and what they need to look out for.
Microsoft's Family Safety is now available on Android and iOS
Keep track of family members, no matter what platform they're using
Microsoft announced last month that its new Microsoft 365 subscription service (formerly Office 365) would offer some family-oriented features, like a new 'Family Safety' app that combines screen time data across multiple platforms and provides tracking information. Following two months of a public beta program, Microsoft has today shared that the app is going stable.
6 years after launch, Android TV still lacks multiple user profiles
It remains inadequate for many households
A basic requirement of the living room TV experience is making sure the interface and content are tailored for multiple users and people of all ages and tastes. Nearly six years after its launch, Android TV is still trudging along and lacking that essential feature even though a few of its competitors, like Apple TV, have already implemented it. Without it, the platform remains ill-suited for families and multi-user households.
Office 365 is now Microsoft 365, new Outlook features and screen time app coming to Android
The screen time app will combine data across Windows, Android, and Xbox
Microsoft introduced Office 365 in 2011 as a new subscription model for the company's popular suite of office applications, but it has gradually expanded in scope since then. Today it was announced that Office 365 is being renamed to Microsoft 365, and there are new features for both consumers and large organizations alike.
Many of you are visiting family for the holidays, which means you're sharing meals, telling stories, and exchanging gifts. In fact, quite a few of you may be giving phones or tablets to family members this year. If you're a regular around here, you're probably also known as the resident gadget expert, an honor that is both a compliment and a curse — you know what I'm talking about. While you might be trying to avoid impromptu tech support work, we would like to encourage taking a few minutes to do something for the greater good: Clean the trash apps from your family members' devices.
Google announced the deprecation of Chrome Supervised Users at the start of 2018. The tool let a Chrome user to allow, block, or manage access to sites for supervised users designated under their account. Now we know that v70 of the browser, slated for an October 2018 release, will mark the official end for the feature.
Many mobile carriers — like Verizon and Project Fi — offer ways of monitoring kids' mobile activity. Today, the "Un-Carrier" announced its take on the concept, which it's calling FamilyMode. T-Mobile's approach is novel, though, in that it includes an optional piece of hardware that extends the service's functionality to your home Wi-Fi network.
Verizon has long had a parental control service called FamilyBase, but today that is going away. In its place, Verizon is rolling out Smart Family. It works on both iOS and Android to allow parents to track device location, filter content, and more. The service comes with a monthly fee, but it does look quite comprehensive.
Google Family Link debuted last year as a way for parents to create Google accounts for kids 13 and younger and keep tabs on their usage of Android devices. According to a new Google For Families Help support page, though, the service is now available on Chromebooks as well. That's good news, since Chrome's Supervised Users feature that previously allowed parents to limit their children's access to certain features of Chrome OS was killed off in January.
For the first thirty years of my life, I was a lone wolf both offline and online. Then a funny Tinder conversation (of all places, gosh do I know!) with a stranger turned into a dinner, and we were pretty much inseparable since. Suddenly, most of the "me" decisions became "we," and as much as I like to think that choosing between Google Drive and Dropbox isn't a life or death situation, I do rely a lot on the services I use daily. They have to enable me to do things efficiently and smoothly, not stand in the way. My online choices were never a matter of flipping a coin but a thoughtful process that became doubly so when I knew I had to collaborate and share part of my data with someone else who might have different tastes and requirements than mine.
It baffles me that something as important as parental controls isn't built into Android and that Google's solution for the problem, Family Link, was only officially released last year and is still limited to countries you can count on one hand: US, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and now Canada is joining the fold. There must be a legal or technical limitation why this isn't enabled worldwide, but I can't for the life of me guess what it is.
Google revealed a lot of products at its San Francisco event on October 4th, namely the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2XL, the Home Mini, and the Home Max. There were also software features announced for Google Assistant and Home products, but there were so many that they're hard to keep track of. So if you ever need to dig up that one specific Assistant feature from the event, you can find it here.
Back in March, Google announced an interesting new app allowing parents to set up accounts on Android devices for kids under 13. Unlike setting them up with a standard account, Family Link gives you power over what they can do with their phone or tablet. The app was available as part of an invitation-only test in the US, but now it's getting a widespread public launch.
Last month, Google consolidated all of its family-sharing products under the new Family groups feature. From the new Family page, you can easily manage who has access to YouTube TV, Keep notes, content from Google Play, and more. Another component of Family groups, a shared calendar, is going now live for some users.
Google has added a number of family-oriented features in recent years, and now it's bringing it all together under "family groups." This feature plugs into family sharing for YouTube TV, Google Play Family Library, and adds easy family sharing to a few other Google services. Setting up a family group is easy, but there are a few restrictions.
We knew it was coming eventually, but just before the Google I/O keynote began, Google updated its developer documentation with more details about Family Library. Most important, we have a launch date of sorts: July 2nd. That date marks when app purchases will be shared in the Family Library by default unless the developer opts out.
It's Valentine's Day. We at Android Police won't belabor that particular point, but the family-focused social network provider Life360 will, because they've made a serendipitous purchase that just happens to coincide with this weekend. The company has purchased Couple, another targeted social app that goes after, well, couples. The announcement was made on Friday, but it's surprisingly lacking in any mention of a price, because huge denominations of money that aren't attached to large vehicles or small carbon concentrations aren't very romantic.
Kids nowadays! They want their smartphones, their own Google accounts, and a way to purchase music and movies and books (well, hopefully) and magical coins for their new game because they can't try that stupid hard level again, they just want to skip it. If you're a parent, then you probably know the struggle between giving a child their financial independence to teach them how to manage their money, and keeping a close eye on their spendings to stop them from buying useless stuff or going over-budget.
Seven days ago Google offered a game from Cartoon Network as its free family app of the week. Monsters At My Birthday Cake was a Zelda-inspired adventure game that, while skewing young, some of us could still find amusing for an hour or two.