Gboard is constantly under construction as Google keeps finding ways to improve one of the most used tools on our phones. The latest experiment looks extremely similar to an earlier test that added GIF and sticker suggestions for emoji last year. This time, the company is experimenting with stickers that put one emoji's emotion on another emoji's shape, and the results can be hilarious.
For those of us here in the 'states, (or the UK, France, and Mexico), this doesn't really matter. Google officially rolled out RCS/chat support via Messages, so we're all first-class citizens in the future of digital messaging. But this change will leave those that used the hack in unsupported markets out of luck.
Aww...
Google just released a new browser tool for developers that enjoy mucking about with AOSP test builds. It's called the Android Flash Tool, and it works almost entirely inside your browser, allowing you to quickly and easily pull down AOSP images and flash them to your phone.
Google's new proposal is comprised of two parts. First, it wants to 'freeze' the user agent string, [...]
The second component is a replacement API, currently named 'User-Agent Client Hints.'
Le géant du Web souhaite supprimer ces traceurs utilisés par des sites tiers pour permettre de cibler les publicités en fonction de la navigation des utilisateurs.
Google has announced the alternative search engines it will show to new Android users in the EU, with DuckDuckGo the most frequently offered choice and Bing tied for last place.
It can be hard to keep up with all the features packed into Google Assistant, especially because a lot of the recent additions are underwhelming and don't get much use. Google's latest Assistant rollout is different. The new assignable reminders sound like a fun and useful feature, and they're coming your way soon. Well, in select markets.
Neat
Huawei has been stockpiling chips to prepare for this eventuality
A dramatic escalation in the US war on Chinese tech firms
The Google Drive suite has been a capable competitor to Microsoft's Office apps for a long time. It offers a complete package right inside the browser and can serve as a prime example of how far web technologies have come. Now, Google has announced new features for Sheets, which is now capable of removing duplicate data and trimming white spaces. The web app also receives some new keyboard shortcuts that you might know from other spreadsheets.
One of the more tricky parts to integrating Android apps with Chrome OS has been networking. It took a while for VPNs running on Chrome OS to apply to Android apps, and even longer for the opposite to work. Thankfully, VPN support for applications running in a Linux container has now arrived.
In the wake of the $5 billion antitrust fine it received from the European Commission last year, Google laid out plans to prompt Android users in Europe to choose a different default search or browser app. In a new blog post, Product Management Director Paul Gennai introduces the changes that will come as part of an imminent Google Play Store update.
Microsoft just released preview versions of its Chromium-powered Edge browser today. If you’ve downloaded it to test it, you’ve probably noticed it’s very stable and performs surprisingly well. It even performs better than Google’s own Chrome browser on Windows 10, despite being built on the same Chromium open-source project. While it’s early days for Microsoft’s new Edge, the company has revealed all of the Google services it has replaced or removed from its new Chromium-powered browser to optimize performance.
One of the little annoyances of my online life is the inability to quickly launch Google Drive files by just typing their name in the Chrome omnibox. I always start doing that then remember that this is reliant on my browsing history and bookmarks, so I go to Drive instead, find the file, and bookmark it if I think I'll need frequent access to it. Turns out things are a little easier for G Suite users, and they're about to become even better. Color me jealous.
Google’s starting a revolution just to keep things as they are
As with most of Google's products, Assistant is an incredibly powerful tool in the United States, but its functionality is limited in other countries. This is understandable, since there are dozens of other major languages worldwide with countless dialects, and speech recognition for each variation can take a while to develop. At Mobile World Congress, Google announced a massive expansion for Assistant's language support.
The past couple of years in Google design can be summarized as this evolution: adding colors, then making things whiter, then offering a black option. Chrome on the desktop has always been white, so what it lacked where the colors and black, but thanks to a dozen new themes, you can now paint your browser with many new shades, including a Just Black option.
Demonstrating you’re not a robot is getting harder and harder