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YouTube Kids is now available in eight more countries
All the latest additions are in the Middle East and North Africa
YouTube Kids has proven to be a popular way for parents to give their children access to a limited collection of YouTube content, even if that collection occasionally includes videos depicting suicide and cannibalism (oops!). The service has slowly been expanding its global reach, and now Google has added 11 more nations to the availability list.
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.
Google Pay is rolling out more widely across Europe
Coming to Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, and Romania
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Google Pay’s tight integration with the Android OS makes it one of the most widely available and widely accepted mobile payment solutions. However, many international regions still don’t have access to this nifty tool, keeping people from the convenience of tap-and-pay on almost any Android phone. That’s changing today, at least for ten European countries where Google Pay is finally debuting.
Google, like many tech giants, gives non-profit companies access to some of its products at a discount, or even for free. To help alleviate the global impact of the coronavirus, it's expanding the number of companies (and, therefore, nonprofits) it serves with some of those programs, and it's also providing them with discounts to its business and enterprise-level G Suite services.
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.
It's been a while since we've seen any progress on the carrier billing front. Admittedly it's something of a niche feature - if you're using a smartphone there's a good chance that you also have a credit or debit card handy. But if for some reason you'd like to send your Play Store purchases to your wireless provider and pay them along with your bill at the end of the month, it's a handy option. Now it's available on a smattering of new carriers in Bulgaria, Estonia, Ireland, Lithuania, and Qatar.
Google has announced that Google News will soon be available in seven new languages - Romanian, Bahasa Indonesia, Bengali, Bulgarian, Lithuanian, and Thai.
You know those orange headphones that come pre-installed on stock Android devices? They pump tracks through a service called Play Music. It's a downright dandy offering, but it's only available in certain countries. As of now, that list has just expanded to include thirteen more.
Google Play is filled with content, but the digital goods are available on a country by country basis. Today we've seen Google add four more to the list of nations with Play Books availability. They are Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Ukraine.
Back in December, we noticed that a bunch of countries had been added to the list of supported areas for Google Maps Navigation. That list was promptly updated to remove most of them, but now it looks like they're (almost) all back and available for use right now, including Bulgaria, Lithuania, Slovakia and more.