Tag: google

Android Apps

Google Play at I/O 2024 highlights better security and user app experiences

What you need to know

  • During I/O 2024, Google highlighted several new features for the Play Store that developers can begin experimenting with.
  • Such features include better app searching, discoverability for specific devices, payment features, and security.
  • Google states users and developers can expect more to come in the weeks ahead.

It’s I/O day and Google is highlighting several new tools arriving for the Play Store that developers can use to better the user experience.

Google stated in a press release that the Play Store’s app categories are in for a tune-up. To do this, the company states developers can extend their app’s reach to users outside of the store with the new “Engage SDK.” Google adds that this new “surface” should help app developers highlight the “most important” piece of content in a user’s app and launch “immersive, full-screen” experiences.

Such experiences would be fueled by a user’s recommendations alongside any promotions the developers wish to show.

Google then reiterated its recent updates to Play Games on PC, Play Points, and more, which it discussed during its Developer Summit in March.

Custom store listings are set to arrive, giving unique details based on the keywords users have searched. Google states the Play Console will give developers tailor-made suggestions that could help their app reach a new target audience. “Cross-device discovery” is also on its way. This will help users interested in using an app on multiple devices.

The post states that an app’s details will display screenshots, ratings, and reviews for different devices like phones, tablets, etc. Search filters will also benefit from this, as users can discover an app for whichever device they desire. Deep linking is said to help developers improve a user’s app experience by sending them to a “relevant” page within the app

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Android Apps

Google infusing AI into Android with Gemini and on-device Nano

Google wants to reimagine Android with AI in two distinct ways that both leverage Gemini. At I/O 2024, Google is splitting the OS news into two days, with AI up first and more on Android 15 coming tomorrow. 

Following the launch in February, the Gemini app on Android is “getting even better at understanding the context of what’s on your screen and what app you’re using.” Google says that context and integration makes Android the best place to use Gemini.

For starters, Gemini will soon exist as an overlay panel even when delivering results. Previously, anything after your initial command would open in a fullscreen UI. In addition to preserving context, it will allow you to drag-and-drop an image Gemini generated into a conversation. 

The other big integration is how activating Gemini for Android in YouTube will show an “Ask this video” button. Gemini can answer your questions about this video. It will work for billions of videos, with things like captions being used. Meanwhile, those subscribed to Gemini Advanced, with its long context window, will get an “Ask this PDF” button to do the same. This update is rolling out “over the next few months” to hundreds of millions of Android devices. 

Meanwhile, Google shared today that Circle to Search is now available on over 100 million devices with plans to double that by year’s end. Google is adding a homework helper to it powered by LearnLM, a “new family of models fine-tuned for learning.” Like Google Lens, you can circle a math or physics world problem to get step-by-step instructions. An upcoming update will let CTS solve symbolic formulas, diagrams, graphs, and other more complex problems. 

In the future, activating Gemini will show Dynamic Suggestions. This will use Gemini Nano to understand what’s on your screen. For example,

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Android Google

Apple and Google deliver support for unwanted tracking alerts in iOS and Android

Apple and Google have worked together to create an industry specification — Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers — for Bluetooth tracking devices that makes it possible to alert users across both iOS and Android if such a device is unknowingly being used to track them. This will help mitigate the misuse of devices designed to help keep track of belongings. Today Apple is implementing this capability in iOS 17.5, and Google is now launching this capability on Android 6.0+ devices.

With this new capability, users will now get an “[Item] Found Moving With You” alert on their device if an unknown Bluetooth tracking device is seen moving with them over time, regardless of the platform the device is paired with.

If a user gets such an alert on their iOS device, it means that someone else’s AirTag, Find My accessory, or other industry specification-compatible Bluetooth tracker is moving with them. It’s possible the tracker is attached to an item the user is borrowing, but if not, iPhone can view the tracker’s identifier, have the tracker play a sound to help locate it, and access instructions to disable it. Bluetooth tag manufacturers including Chipolo, eufy, Jio, Motorola, and Pebblebee have committed that future tags will be compatible.

AirTag and third-party Find My network accessories were designed from the beginning with industry-first privacy and safety protections, and Apple has remained committed to innovating and supplementing these protections to keep consumers safe. This cross-platform collaboration — also an industry first, involving community and industry input — offers instructions and best practices for manufacturers, should they choose to build unwanted tracking alert capabilities into their products. Apple and Google will continue to work with the Internet Engineering Task Force via the Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers working group to develop the official standard for this technology.
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Android Google

Google Messages notifications will show names of unknown people who contact you

Google Messages logo on smartphone laying on table (2)

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

TL;DR

  • Names of unknown people who contact you could start showing in Google Messages notifications.
  • For this feature to work, those people will need to have profile discovery enabled and have the number linked to their Google account.
  • Google is working on allowing users to enable or disable profile discovery within Messages.

Wish you could know who that unknown sender who just contacted you out of the blue is? Google appears to be working on a feature for Messages that will tell you that person’s name in the text message notification you receive.

An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.

While looking through the latest beta version of Google Messages (messages.android_20240506_01_RC00.phone_samsung_openbeta_dynamic), we discovered a change to the notification you receive whenever you get a new message. If you get a text from a number that’s not saved in your contacts list and they have profile discovery enabled, that notification will include the sender’s name. You can see an example in the picture below.

Google Messages notification names

Ryan McNeal / Android Authority

Unfortunately, this function only works if that person has profile discovery on. To enable or disable profile discovery, you need to go to your Google account via the web. There’s a support page that explains how to do it in Google Messages, but those steps don’t work yet as the company is still working on adding the setting. That setting is available in the latest beta, but it’s hidden by default, and enabling it by modifying the APK doesn’t work.

It’s important to note that seeing a name with an unknown number isn’t necessarily new. A number of beta

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Android Google

New Google Messages update notification is really annoying

Google Messages Prompt To Update

C. Scott Brown / Android Authority

TL;DR

  • Google is rolling out a new way to conduct Google Messages updates.
  • The update notification takes up your entire display and opens every time you start the app.
  • It’s a not-so-subtle way for Google to encourage you to keep Messages up to date.

Keeping your Android apps up to date is important. Not only do updates bring new features, but they also sometimes incorporate new security protocols to keep you and your device safe. However, it looks like Google is now going to take updates very seriously — so seriously that it might just be a huge annoyance.

Let’s take Google Messages updates, for example. For a long time now, if there’s been an update for Messages, you would get a notification about it when you open the app. The notification would take up about half the screen and could be easily closed. Once you close it, that’s it — you wouldn’t get notified about it again until there’s another update.

Today, though, we are seeing a new system. In Messages, the update takes up the entire display, as you can see in the image at the top of this article. Furthermore, if you close the update prompt without downloading the new version, you’ll see the same full-page notification about updating the next time you open the app. This will repeat forever until you update (or until the app auto-updates in the background).

Check out the video clip below to see how relentlessly annoying this is:

Google actually warned us that this would eventually happen. Back in January, the Android Developers Blog posted about this change. However, this is the first time we’re seeing it in action, and it’s…a lot.

Granted, keeping your apps up to date is important, and this new system

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Android Google

Google officially brings Gemini to Android, iOS in Canada

Google is expanding some Gemini features in Canada and other regions, including officially making the generative AI-powered assistant available on Android and iOS.

The search giant announced that Canadians can now download the Gemini app on Android or opt to use Gemini through Google Assistant. Canadians using iOS can access Gemini through the Google app as well, though the rollout will take place over the “next couple of weeks.”

Notably, Canadian Android users have been able to access the Gemini app for months via sideloading. Back in February, we detailed how to access the Gemini app in Canada since it wasn’t available through the Play Store. I sideloaded Gemini and have been using it in place of Google Assistant ever since.

Still, official availability should make Gemini more accessible since people no longer need to jump through various hoops to sideload the chatbot.

Alongside the official availability of Gemini on mobile in Canada, Google announced it was expanding Gemini Extensions to “all languages and countries Gemini currently supports.”

That means Canadians now have access to Gemenini Extensions in French. In all, Extensions are now available in over 40 new languages, including Arabic, German, Hindi, Spanish and more.

Extensions allow Gemini to hook into other Google apps and services to pull real-time information from those sources. That includes services like Gmail, Docs, YouTube and Google Maps.

If you haven’t already sideloaded Gemini, you can download the app from the Play Store here. iOS users can download the Google app here.

GIFs credit: Google

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