As part of Google’s latest Android Feature Drop, the company has announced 7 new features for phones, tablets, and Wear OS smartwatches. These features aren’t limited to Pixel devices, either! Here’s what’s new!
Quick summary: New widgets for Google TV, Finance, and News; reading practice; new emoji kitchen stickers; updates to the Spotify, Wallet, and Keep apps for Wear OS; and expansion of dark web reports in Google One.
1) Google TV’s new widget lets you quickly find personalized movie & TV show suggestions. The Google Finance widget helps you track selected stocks. Finally, Google News has a revamped widget to show curated headlines.
2) Reading practice helps kids improve their vocabulary & comprehension. It’s available on thousands of children’s ebooks marked with a “Practice” badge on Play Books. They’ll hear the pronunciation of unknown words, practice mispronounced words & receive feedback in real time.
3) Emoji Kitchen now has new aquatic-themed emoji (🦈🐬🐋) combinations you can turn into stickers via Gboard.
4) Spotify for Wear OS is adding new tiles (podcasts, heavy rotation, and DJ). The “AI DJ” delivers a personalized lineup of music and podcasts.
5) Google Wallet for Wear OS now lets commuters in D.C. and the San Francisco Bay Area import SmarTrip and Clipper cards.
6) Meanwhile, Google Keep for Wear OS now lets you add a tile for a single note or to-do list.
7) Dark web reports in Google One are now available for everyone in the U.S. with a consumer Google Account and will expand to 20 more countries in the coming months. However, only paying subscribers get automatic monitoring & monitoring for more personal info like SSNs.
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Availability:
– Widgets for Google TV, Finance, and News: Globally on Android 6+
– Reading practice: U.S. only in English on Android 8+
– Emoji Kitchen stickers – Summer edition: Globally on Android 6+
– Spotify DJ for Wear OS: U.S., Canada, U.K., and Ireland in English for Spotify Premium users on Wear OS 2+
– Wallet on Wear OS: Washington, D.C. and San Francisco Bay Area in all languages on Wear OS 2+
– Keep for Wear OS: Globally on Wear OS 3+
Here’s Google’s blog post on these announcements; their YouTube video teasing the announcement; and finally, the page highlighting these features.
One interesting thing I noticed from this announcement is the navigation bar in the reading practice assets: It’s totally different than the regular nav bar! In fact, it matches the “kids mode” navigation bar I discovered in Android 13.
CHUCKYSCARNAGE 