COVID-19

With schools out in many locations around the United States, teachers and parents alike are looking for alternative ways to keep students occupied. Now, the coronavirus pandemic has boosted Google Classroom to 50 million downloads on Android and to the #1 education app on both Android and iOS.

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Alphabet’s response to the coronavirus over the last several weeks has been multifaceted, but largely product-focused. Google’s latest initiative commits $800 million to aid COVID-19 relief efforts through ad grants, donations, credits, and by helping manufacturers.

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Misinformation is spreading like wildfire in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, and one source of that has been the highly controversial Alex Jones and his Infowars outlet. Today, Google has finally taken action against the Infowars Android app, removing it from the Play Store.

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Google on Thursday had a brief outage that some assumed was due to the surge of COVID-19 calls, video, and browsing. The company immediately explained that it was an unrelated router failure, but is taking the opportunity to assure Google users and customers that it can “handle the load” of traffic from the coronavirus disrupting normal behavior.

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As we all work together to practice safe social distancing, we’re finding and adapting ways to replace that personal connection between friends, family, and co-workers, especially through video calling. To help more of us stay connected, Google Duo is expanding its group calling capabilities to allow up to 12 people into a single group call.

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As we face this pandemic together and do our part to stay home and contain the spread, many of Google’s various projects are being forced to change their timelines, with Chrome being the prime example. The latest Google project to share revised plans in response to the COVID-19 crisis is the Go programming language (or Golang).

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Last Sunday, Alphabet’s life sciences division launched a Baseline COVID-19 Pilot Program in California. It’s expanded to more sites since then, and Verily today released a video explaining what drive-thru COVID-19 testing participants can expect.

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Many businesses depend on Google Maps and Search to drive customers to their locations, but during the coronavirus outbreak, many businesses have had to shut down temporarily. Now, Google Maps is adding a “temporarily closed” option for these businesses.

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The entire travel industry is facing a downturn due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Given an uptick in searches about travel advisories and trip cancellation policies, Google’s travel offerings are directly integrating coronavirus-related information.

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On Friday, Google’s video service announced that it would reduce video quality in Europe to allay network capacity fears. YouTube will now default to SD quality around the world over the coming days.

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Big data provides a wellspring of insight, and there are already examples of that amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Tech companies have signaled a willingness to aid relief efforts by providing such information to researchers. One such survey effort might be underway with Google Opinion Rewards today asking people if they have symptoms related to the coronavirus.

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As the novel coronavirus has spread globally, it’s vital that the right information to be made available to everyone. In its continued efforts, today Google has added a new “coronavirus tips” shortcut to Assistant, as well as another shortcut for finding the latest news on the subject.

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Last week, it was announced that Google would be pausing its standard update schedule for Chrome and Chrome OS, instead keeping version 80 running well with bug and security fixes. Now we’re learning that, due to these delays, there won’t even be a version 82 of Chrome or Chrome OS.

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After much confusion and a brief delay, Google late on Friday launched its COVID-19 Information & Resources website. This dedicated experience is focused on providing education, prevention, and local resources.

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Google earlier this month announced that it was not hosting a physical developer conference in light of coronavirus. I/O 2020 is now entirely cancelled and will not be taking place “in any capacity this year.”

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Chrome 81 for desktops and Android was supposed to start rolling out on Tuesday as part of the normal six-week update cadence. Google announced today that it’s “pausing upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS releases.”

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