Apps and Updates
Inbox by Gmail adds ‘Smart Reply’ suggestions for web users
Google announced today that it’s bringing the “Smart Reply” feature previously only available to mobile users to Inbox by Gmail on the web.
Google updates Material Design spec with animated bottom bars for navigation
Both Google+ and Google Photos have been updated with a bottom bar in the past few months. Google is now officially embracing bottom navigation with an update to the Material Design spec.
Android gaming gets a boost w/ streaming game demos, indie apps collection, & gameplay recording/streaming
Google is announcing several big Android gaming updates at this year’s Game Developers Conference. A majority of them will be user facing, like app streaming and more social features in Play Games, while others will help developers market and add new features to their games.
LG now has an IFTTT channel for smartphones, V10 is the first compatible device
With very little effort, anyone can use IFTTT to program services to trigger actions based on other events. LG has now opened up their smartphones to serve as triggers and allow other services to initiate hardware and software features on the device.
Screen-dimming app f.lux is now availble for beta testing on Android
Update: f.lux is now available in the Play Store.
There are many apps that change the color temperature of a screen throughout the day. Many of these apps claim to help users sleep by limiting exposure to blue light at night that can distort the natural circadian rhythm. One of the first and most well-known entrants to this market is f.lux. They have finally released a beta for Android and it is available for testing.
Google+ update makes Circles more prominent, new Create program highlights top creators
When Google+ launched in 2011, one of its marquee features was grouping people into circles. There was a nifty drag-and-drop interface and the ability to limit posts to specific circles. Last year’s Google+ redesign hid the feature, but an update to the Android app now resurfaces it. The social network is also launching Google+ Create to recognize top content creators and give them access to early features.
Google Docs adds ‘outline tool’ for easier document navigation on Android & web
Google is rolling out a new feature for Google Docs on Android and the web today that will make navigating through long documents much easier. The new “outline tool” adds a new pane on the left of the page adds quickly links to the document’s headers so you can quickly jump to that section without having to scroll through the whole document to get there.
Displayed in a pane to the left of the page, the outline features headers for each section of your document, making it simple to quickly jump from section to section. If you haven’t manually applied headers, no worries—we’ll do it for you, intelligently detecting the logical divisions within your work. You can then edit or remove these headers as necessary.
And there’s also a second component to it that lets users scroll through documents easier with a new “navigation handle” that will appear once you start to scroll. “Touching that handle will display the entire document’s structure, allowing you quickly skip from section to section, instead of slowly swiping up and down.”
Here’s a look at the feature in action:
Look out for the feature in Google Docs on Android and the web starting today.
Latest Google app beta adds OCR image recognition to Now on Tap
For all the features the Google app has added, it still does not have any image recognition capabilities. Google Goggles from 2010 could recognize book covers, landmarks, and even solve Sudoku, but was ultimately discontinued due to a lack of use. However, Now on Tap has gained some of those features in a recent update.
Google Photos for iOS adds Live Photos + Split View & iPad Pro support
Google Photos already lets users backup and view an unlimited number of high-resolution photos and videos for free, and Google recently added a button that lets users manually purge downloaded content to make room for more free storage. There’s a new update awaiting Google Photos users today that adds support for the latest software and hardware features on iPhones and iPads.
Facebook Messenger update featuring Material Design is coming out today
After many months of A/B testing, Facebook is finally releasing an update for Messenger featuring Material Design to all users today. The final version that is coming out to phones today features a blue top bar and a floating action button, along with other visual tweaks.
Inbox by Gmail adds a much-needed fullscreen compose window
Since its launch two years ago, Inbox has gotten more powerful and added legacy features from Gmail while remaining simple and smart. A minor update today adds the much-needed ability to expand the compose window on the web.
Google Photos adds a bottom bar, removes ability to swipe between screens
Following this morning’s update that added more editing tools to Google Photos website, the Android app has received a slight redesign. Besides the new design and performance enhancements, editing tools and other functionality remains the same.
Chrome 49 released to stable channel, smooth scrolling now enabled by default
Chrome 49 is rolling out now to Mac, Windows, and Linux. The latest version of the browser contains the usual bug and security fixes, but this update adds more developer APIs than user facing features. However, the next version of Chrome should bring a new Material Design interface.
Google Docs, Sheets, & Slides get new templates on web & mobile
Google is today adding new templates to the initial selection it first rolled out to Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides back in September of last year.
Google announces pilot of Hands Free payment system in San Francisco
Quietly announced at last year’s I/O, Google is launching a pilot of its Hands Free payment system in the South Bay area of San Francisco. In the past, Square also experimented with a similar type of payment model that required limited user interaction. While Square’s attempt ultimately failed, Google’s scale and previous work with Android Pay might help.
WhatsApp rolling out new document uploader in Android app
WhatsApp has started rolling out a new document uploading feature to its Android app users. This new attachment option has been showing up for a number of WhatsApp users (including myself) and allows you to upload PDFs. It’d be surprising if this wasn’t expanded to include other document formats in the future.
Nova Launcher Prime for Android drops to $0.99 (reg. $4.99)
Nova Launcher is one of the best launchers available for Android on the Play Store. It lets you customize virtually every part of your smartphone user interface. While the free version is great, the premium ‘Prime’ version offers far more fine-tuning capabilities and normally costs $5. For a limited time, Nova Launcher is now available for just $0.99.
Nova Launcher Prime
Unlock the following extras by purchasing Nova Launcher Prime
• Gestures – Swipe, pinch, double tap and more on the home screen to open your favorite apps
• Unread Counts – Never miss a message. Unread count badges for Hangouts, SMS, Gmail and more using the TeslaUnread plugin
• Custom Drawer Groups – Create new tabs or folders in the app drawer
• Hide Apps – Keep a clean app drawer by hiding never used apps
• Icon Swipes – Set custom actions for swiping on app shortcuts or folders
• More scroll effects – Such as Wipe, Accordion, and Throw
It’s worth noting that Nova Launcher Prime isn’t an app download in itself, rather, it acts as a license to unlock the listed features in the free Nova Launcher app. What that means in simple terms, is that you need to download and install the free version before you can head to the Play Store and pay for the Prime version.
Google Photos on the web gets some much-needed new editing tools
Spinning off Photos in to its own app and service is arguably one of the best decisions Google has ever made. It’s a fantastic tool for storing your photos, it’s easily searchable and sometimes makes its own automatic moments of magic. It’s safe to say, I don’t love any of its services as much as I love Photos. But now it’s getting better.
New video capture and upload interface rolling out to the YouTube Android app
An update rolling out to the YouTube Android app revamps the upload workflow on mobile and makes it much more convenient to add a video to the service. The most immediate visual change is the video icon that replaces the generic file upload icon on the FAB in the Home tab.
Sky Map receives first update since 2012, but it’s still wildly outdated
During the early days of smartphones, one of the coolest apps you could show off was an augmented reality-like stargazing app. At the time, Google made a free version called Sky Map. The app is showing signs of life again and received its first update in four years.
SoundHound’s Hound voice assistant gets its first public release with version 1.4
We told you about SoundHound’s “Hound” voice assistant when it was first released in beta in June of last year, and now the company has pushed version 1.4 — its first public release…
Facebook adds video support to photo-sharing app Moments, but w/o face-recognition
Facebook’s Moments app, launched last summer, makes it easier to share photos with your friends by using both location data and face-recognition to identify which friends were with you when the photos were taken. The latest version of the app now lets you include videos too – but it can’t yet recognize faces in those, so you’ll have to add them manually.
GoPro acquires Replay and Splice video editing apps, Android versions coming later this year
GoPro has been having a rough time as its stock price has stumbled over the last few months. Its signature action camera is a niche product and competitors are releasing cheaper clones that replicate most of the same functionality. Now, GoPro has has acquired two mobile video apps to offer a complete capture and editing solution for its users.
Waze announces updated Android app with complete UI refresh and new features
Update: The updated app, version 4.0, is now available on Google Play.
Waze has officially announced a new version of their Android app that completely refreshes the user interface and adds numerous new features. The Android version of the Google-owned service that allows drivers to create a real-time map has long been due for an overhaul.