Google is in the process of aggressively monetizing its Photos service, asking users to pay for storage starting in June and hiding a few editing tools behind a paywall right now already. But there are also some free perks everyone gets to enjoy, like a revamped video editor Google teased back in February that's now finally starting to roll out to everyone using a recent version of Photos.
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Last year, YouTube shed its lifeless, gray in-app icons for more visually distinct line-art ones. It seems like sister app YouTube Music might not be too far from getting the same treatment — the new icons are already being tested.
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Everyone would prefer if they could always watch videos in the highest possible resolution, but technical limitations often stop us — a slow connection, a low-res display, DRM, paywalled subscriptions, or even a restriction put in place by the app to stop a certain platform's users from streaming in high res. For instance, Google used to limit YouTube videos to 1440p on Android, even if they were uploaded in 4K or more. That's no longer the case now.
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Contextual suggestions in Google Messages aren't new. The app can already offer up stickers, Assistant recommendations, smart replies, and some actions while you're talking to your contacts, and it's that latter ability that seems to be expanding. Among the new actions, Messages can now propose adding a calendar event when you bring up a specific time and date during a chat.
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Google Home and Assistant routines have improved quite a bit since their launch in 2018. We started with six preset routines then got customization and scheduling, workday organization, home/away presence sensing, and just yesterday discovered sunrise and sunset routines. Turns out that functionality is part of a huge routines overhaul that brings the look of the feature more in line with Google's recent design language. Functionally, though, I'm sad to say not much has changed besides the new sunrise/sunset options.
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More than a year ago, Google announced that the Assistant Driving Mode was supposed to replace the Android Auto interface on phones. It looks like the company ran into significant problems with the software because it took it many months to make good on its promise. The new Driving Mode is only now starting to roll out to more people in the US as an early preview.
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About a year ago, Google started rolling out a more graphical interface for the Play Store on Android TV with focus on content discovery, larger thumbnails, interactive backgrounds, and a modern design. Now, with the new Chromecast having launched with a new Google TV UI, that Play Store is starting to look slightly dated. To keep it fresh, Google is rolling out a minor revamp with a new toolbar, new icons, and some shuffled screens.
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I can spend a day listing all the missing features from Google Home and Assistant routines, but there's one that seems to be the most obvious and easy to implement: homescreen shortcuts. How simple would it be to tap a button on your phone to trigger your morning or bedtime routine, instead of talking to your phone or fumbling three levels deep in the Home app to find the option? Very simple. Still, it took more than thirty months after the launch of routines and these shortcuts are finally available... well, for some users at least.
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Checking upcoming events and meetings is one of the benefits of owning a smart speaker or display; instead of fumbling with your phone to find your calendar, you just ask a question and get all the information you need... as long as you're only using one Google account. If you have several accounts, say one for work and one personal, you have to share calendars between them to be able to check your entire schedule with Assistant. That was the case until now. Google is fixing this limitation by rolling out a new beta feature that lets you simultaneously access Calendar and Meet events in Assistant from all accounts.
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YouTube is testing a bunch of comment section design tweaksKeep going, Google, you'll get there in the end
The YouTube app introduced an easily accessible comment section revamp in April 2020, but it looks like the company isn't happy with the current design anymore. YouTube is testing a few new looks for the collapsed comment section in the Android app, and some variations even allow you to post your thoughts without having to enter the comment section first.
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