Apps and Updates

In June, a launcher from developer AmirZ popped up that mostly brought Google’s Pixel Launcher to any Android device — including the Google Search pill, Google Feed cards, and plenty more. With the recent release of Android 8.0 Oreo, AmirZ has released a new 2.0 version of the launcher that brings a lot of new features and goodies to sink your teeth into.
When searching for something on your phone, you typically want to find what you’re looking for ASAP so you can get on with the rest of your day. Today, Google is helping you do just that with the release of video previews in search results on Android.
As great as summer is for having cookouts with friends and swimming, it’s also one of the worst times of year for people that suffer with seasonal allergies. Thanks to a new update to the Google app, you can now keep tabs on the pollen count in your area to see when you’re most likely to be all sorts of stuffed up and congested (Yay!)…
Update: It turns out Android Police spotted this feature back in July, so it’s not as new as we thought.
Following a couple of in-the-works features we discovered in the Google Phone and Contacts app yesterday, our latest finding has to do with Google Maps. This recently-uncovered change in Maps is far from ground-breaking, but it’s a nice visual revamp that adds to the overall aesthetic of the app.
Following the release of Google Contacts for most Android devices earlier today, more people than ever now have access to the app. After digging into the latest version of Google Contacts, we managed to enable a couple unreleased features in the latest version that could make managing your contacts with it even easier than it already is…
With spam warnings, visual voicemail, a super clean UI, and more, Google’s Phone app has quite a lot to offer to folks rocking Pixel, Nexus, and Android One devices. We recently discovered a new feature deep in the Phone app that makes managing calls from your home screen much easier than before, and we managed to enable it in the latest version of the app so you can see it in action…
One of the highlights for Pixel and Nexus phones is having access to all of the latest and greatest services from Google. Some of these features are limited to Google’s own phones, and while the Google Contacts app was previously one of those, that’s now thankfully changing.
As good as virtual keyboards have gotten, sometimes it’s just easier to send a message or perform a search with your voice than it is to physically type something out. With the latest update to Google’s Cloud Speech API, more users can now take advantage of these features than ever before.
Google Calendar on Android has received a lot of love and updates over the past few years, but the same unfortunately can’t be said for its desktop companion. Google Calendar’s desktop site looks horribly archaic compared to most of Google’s other services, but this looks to be changing very soon..
Samsung’s mobile browser has previously been available primarily for Samsung phones (with the exception of a few other devices like the Pixel and Pixel XL) and while the main version of the app will remain this way, the beta version of the Samsung Internet Browser can now be downloaded for use on Android phone running 5.0 Lollipop or later…
Of all the messaging services that are out there, WhatsApp remains one of the most functional and feature-rich. Its Android app received picture-in-picture support a little less than three weeks ago, and a week later got access to App Shortcuts. In the latest beta version for WhatsApp’s Android app, it would appear that WhatsApp Payments will be the next feature to make an appearance.
Over the past few weeks, OnePlus has released two of its system apps onto the Google Play Store – OnePlus Weather and the OnePlus Launcher. OnePlus moving its apps to the Play Store allows for a faster and smoother update process, and it looks like the company is now pushing three more apps to the Play Store.
Last July, Twitter finally released Night Mode for its mobile app, which brings a much darker UI when scrolling through your timeline. There’s been a Chrome extension since last September that brought similar functionality to Twitter on your desktop/laptop, but it now looks like Twitter is officially testing out its Night Mode directly…
Virtual keyboards have come a long way since the industry first started to move away from physical options, and in their current state, virtual keyboards are now more feature-rich and easier to use than ever before. Samsung is one of many companies that has been regularly updating its own keyboard, and today the company has officially released the Samsung Keyboard on the Google Play Store.
Google Calendar is an awesome tool for organizing your various meetings, appointments, etc., but up until now, it hasn’t been the best for managing large events. Today, Google is updating its Calendar service to be more functional than ever when trying to organize and handle events that are considerably big and demanding.
While we wait for YouTube Music and Google Play Music to merge into a singular, more cohesive service, Google is updating the former to now allow users to save individual songs, playlists, and albums for offline use. This is a pretty basic feature that should have been included a while ago, but we’re glad to see it finally make an appearance.
Email clients are a dime a dozen, but one of the better ones is Newton Mail from CloudMagic. Newton’s polish and large feature set is what eventually made me start using the service back in March, and thanks to a new update, Newton is getting a taste of Google Inbox’s highlight feature.
Instagram for Android is today adding new functionality to its Stories feature that will allow users to reply with photos and videos. Head below to learn how to use the new feature.
In what is not exactly a common occurrence, Google just released a completely new app of its own on the Play Store. The app’s called Android Samba Client, and in Google’s own words, it “allows users to mount an SMB file share in their Downloads/Files app in Android.” I’m not sure if I could word it better than that.
Plex has today announced that its Android app is gaining the ability to play most locally stored video files on your device. The update should make the Plex app a great option for those looking for an easy way to play a wide variety of video file types…
Google has a reputation for the constantly-evolving aesthetics of its software products, despite the thankfully otherwise stabilizing influence of Material Design. The latest version of the Play Store app changes its app icon once again, ditching the shopping bag of old…
The latest version of the Google Play Store is beginning to roll out with strings that point to a new security feature that will alert users when installing apps from unknown sources. Version 7.8 also points to Instant Apps support, pre-registration rewards, and more.
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The Google Play Store app is notorious for its countless A/B tests, and today we’re seeing yet another. New “Similar apps” and related developer apps sections that some are beginning to see have been revamped to allow for easier, smoother left-to-right scrolling…
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Google Allo has received countless updates since launch, adding a variety of features — most of them involving stickers in some way. Now, we’ve managed to enable some features that Google is actively working on within Allo that haven’t yet been enabled. These include a new button for quickly capturing a selfie and the ability to add stickers as decoration on photos…