Tag: App Update

Chrome for Android has a new update rolling out that brings a lot of improvements to the offline functionality of the browser.  The ability to view downloaded content offline in Chrome isn’t something new but this update goes a long way in making it easier to download that content and to get back to it later.  First, there is a new Download Link feature.  When you are viewing a page and run across a link, long press it and in the dialog box you will see an option to download the link.  This will download the content of the link which you can view while you are offline.

Next is a new download page later feature.  If you using Chrome and go offline, you will see the 8-bit dinosaur.  You will now also see a Download Page Later link.  Tap it and when you get back online, Chrome will automatically download the page for you so you can read it.

The Google Wallpapers app for Android has been updated with several new wallpapers in most of the existing categories within the app.  The update, version 1.1.153125266 for those keeping score at home, adds wallpaper options in the Earth, Landscapes, Life, Textures, and Cityscapes sections of the app, giving you the option for more personalization of your devices.

Wallpapers is an app that is native to the Pixel lineup but shortly after the release of the phones, Google released the app (officially – it has been available as a side-load APK for months prior) for Android devices running 4.1 or higher.  It allows users to select a wallpaper for their Home page as well as the lock screen on their devices, both of which can be different wallpapers.

Google TalkBack for Android has a new update rolling out that brings some new services and features to the accessibility app.  For those who may not know what TalkBack is, it is designed for the blind or visually impaired to be able to use their Android device as the content on the screen is read back to them.  This new update brings a new Speech Verbosity feature that allows users to choose just how much feedback is spoken to them.  Before this update, TalkBack read everything on the screen.  Now you can be a bit more selective with it which should speed things up a bit.

Another improvement is the ability to hear feedback when screen magnification is turned on as well as hearing character count in password fields.  This feature requires that you have at least Chrome 56 on your device to work.

A new update to Google’s Gboard is rolling out in the Play Store that brings a big jump in support of Indic languages.  With this update, 22 new languages are supported and through the use of Machine Learning and working with natural speakers of the languages throughout India, transliteration and keyboard layouts are included for all of the languages.  The update now brings the total number of languages supported up to 185.

The new languages supported include: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo (Devanagari, Bengali), Dogri (Devanagari, Arabic), Gujarati, Hindi (Devanagari, Hinglish), Kannada, Kashmiri (Devanagari, Arabic), Konkani (Devanagari, Latin), Maithili (Devanagari), Malayalam, Manipuri (Bengali), Marathi (Devanagari), Nepali (Devanagari), Odia, Punjabi (Gurmukhi, Arabic), Sanskrit (Devanagari), Santali (Ol chiki, Latin), Sindhi (Devanagari, Arabic), Tamil, Telugu, Urdu (Arabic).

For those who have one of these as their mother language, this update will make it much easier to communicate with others, especially with the transliteration feature.

Microsoft has rolled out a pretty significant update to their enterprise chat & messaging client, Microsoft Teams.  The update, version 1.0.0.201742301 for those keeping score at home and who like to play version Bingo, and it brings some features that make it much more productive and useful.  First, you can now add and remove team members, something that was only available on the Teams site.  You can also create new channels in the app.  This was also something that was web-only when Teams launched and frankly, was a bit of a handicap for the app.  The ability to quickly create channels while on the go is a critical feature for this type of app, especially if Microsoft is positioning it as a Slack competitor.

Other improvements around chats include the ability to rename group chats and add members to existing chats.

Google has begun rolling out an update to their text messaging client, Android Messages.  The update, version 2.2 for those keeping score at home, has a few minor UI tweaks but the big news is around group messaging.  With this new update, when you are in a conversation with someone via SMS, you can add another person quickly and easily to the conversation.  To do this, while you are in a conversation, go to the overflow menu (the three vertical dots) then tap on People & Options.  At the bottom of this page there is a button which you can tap to open up your contacts and add them to the conversation.  This is a big improvement over the previous build which essentially required you to start an entirely new conversation for group messaging.

This update also has added the ability to create a group message from the FAB (Floating Action Button) from which you can add your contacts to the conversation.  Both of these improvements lower the number of taps required to start a group MMS.