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The Google Phone app is being updated in the Google Play Store, bringing a new chat head feature and improved persistent notification shade.  The new build is version 17.0.184919600 and will come to compatible devices (Google Nexus & Pixel phones, Android One phones, etc) over the next few days.

The main new feature is a chat head feature.  Now, when you are in a call and move away from the Google Phone app, you will have a chat head, similar to Facebook Messenger, appear on your Home screen.  Tapping that head will allow you to control the call:  Return to the call, mute the call, move the call to speaker or hang up.  There is nothing you have to do to enable this feature and you can move the chat head around your Home screen to a convenient place.

YouTube TV has announced that several new channels are coming to the streaming television service as well as growth into over 100 markets in the United States.  TNT, Adult Swim, TBS, CNN, Cartoon Network, truTV, and Turner Classic Movies are the highlight channels that are added with future additions of NBA League Pass and MLB.tv coming soon.

As part of the announcement, the streaming service will increase their price for new subscribers to $40/month starting March 13th.  If you are a current subscriber, your price will remain $35/month.  And, as an incentive, if you sign up before March 13th, you will get the $35/month price too.

Starting today, the Chrome browser for Windows, MacOS and Linux will start blocking intrusive adverts on sites to give a better user experience.  Google had announced that these types of ads would be blocked back in December starting today after announcing their agreement with the Coalition for Better Ads last summer.

If you don’t remember, for desktops, ads that do the following risk being blocked:

• pop-up ads
• auto-play video ads with sound
• prestitial ads with countdown
• large sticky ads

For those who have the ad blocker enabled in Chrome on their desktop, you will no longer see these ads.

Microsoft Edge for Android, the Redmond, Washington company’s mobile variant of their Windows 10 browser, has a new update that brings some improvements for personalization.  The new build is version 1.0.0.1656 for those keeping score at home.

With this update, you can now more personalize the Newsfeed on the New Tab in Microsoft Edge.  Support has been added for the language and geographical area for news feeds.  By default, this will be set to the language and region you are in but by going to Settings>New Tab Page, you can have the news feed in different regions and languages.