Category: Android

For those of you who use Google Weather on your Android phone, there is a small but nice update that has happened behind-the-scenes for the feature.  In addition to the hourly temperature forecasts, you also now get a wind and precipitation forecast in the information card.  If you aren’t familiar with what I’m referring to as Google Weather, it is something that is found on phones by simply doing a search for weather on your phone.  When you do that, your phone will pull up the local weather information in an applet that launches in Google Search.  While there is nothing to install, you can have the applet store your weather information for other cities too.

Google Fit, Google’s fitness tracking app, has received a major update that brings an all-new user experience.  For all intents and purposes, the whole app looks completely new with far more detail on the main page of the app along with more granular historical data.  Gone is the large circular indicator of steps and exercise and replacing it is a cleaner UI with your active minutes, distance, calories burned and steps across the top of the page while more detailed information is found in sections below.  This information not only shows you which days of the week you hit your step count goal, but also your activity goal and a clean, easy-to-read graph of your weight with a trend line.

After an online naming suggesting site and countless rumors, we now know the name for the next version of Android.  The Android team tweeted this morning that Android Nougat is the name for the “N” release, ending speculation and probably making more than one person say “I told you so” this morning.

Introducing #AndroidNougat. Thank you, world, for all your sweet name ideas! #AndroidNReveal pic.twitter.com/7lIfDBwyBE

— Android (@Android) June 30, 2016

While many thought that this would be the official name, until now we were not 100% sure.  Many had hoped that Nutella would be the name and teasing by Google suggested that was in the running.  But Nougat was one of the first names to be thrown out there and it seems to have stuck.

It has been rolling around in, erm, beta for a while now but the new Beta channel in the Google Play Store is now available to everyone.  The update on the back end and a recent update to the Play Store app on Android will now show you the beta apps that are available to you for the apps installed on your phone or tablet.  Generally it is only going to show you the beta programs you are involved in so don’t look for beta programs to join here.  Rather, it is simply a way for you to easily see which apps you are running beta code.

Google has rolled out a behind-the-scenes update that enabled comment notifications in Chrome and on Android for Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides.  Previously, when someone made a comment on a shared file, you would receive an email notification that the comment had been made on the document.  Now you will get a standard notification on your Android devices or in Chrome when these comments have been made on the file.

Microsoft has rolled out a sizable update to their launcher app, Arrow Launcher, that brings some much needed support and improvements.  The update, version 2.0 for those keeping score at home, brings native Office 365 support.  This means that users of the launcher will be able to view files from their Office 365 account without actually having to launch the Office app on their phone. Further, for documents on your phone, you can upload them from the phone to your Office 365 account (OneDrive).  It is a really nice update and while the lack of Outlook support for the calendar in Arrow remains an issue, this is a huge step towards fully “Microsofting” your Android phone.