Category: Android

A couple of days ago, Google announced Visual Snapshots were coming to Google Assistant for both Android and iOS users.  Those began broadly rolling out yesterday and provide you snippets of information about your day and other things by going into Assistant and tapping the what was known as the Explore icon.

Now it seems that Google has begun quietly rolling this out to the Google app itself.  If you open up the Google app on your phone and tap what was known as the Explore icon, you will be brought to the new visual snapshots and not the old card-style view of the past.

OnePlus has released a new build of the Android P Developer Preview for owners of the OnePlus 6 registered in the beta testing program.  The update is based on Google’s own Developer Preview 4 (Beta 3) which OnePlus has taken and added their special touches that make up their variant, OxygenOS.  The update is broadly rolling out now and should be to everyone over the course of the next few days.

As you may recall, when Google announced Android P back at Google I/O, it came with the opportunity for the first time for select devices from select OEMs to participate in the beta program.  OnePlus with the OnePlus 6 is one of those.  Developer Preview 4 was released for Pixel devices a few weeks back and given that OnePlus has to layer in their own elements that make up OxygenOS, they’ve done a good job of getting it out in a timely manner.

YouTube Music, the newest music streaming service from Google, has for a long time been an option for US users to have as their default music option.  This was true of the old version of the service as well as the new one.  Now those of you in the UK have the same option to make YouTube Music your default music choice.

The update to enable the feature is a cloud-side update and will appear as an option in your music settings within Google Assistant.  Once enabled, you can say, “Hey Google, play Rush from YouTube Music” and it will play music from Canadian band on your Google Home device.

A new update to the Uber app for Android and iOS, along with a cloud-side update, has brought a new spotlight feature to the app.  Designed to help your driver locate you in a dark area or a crowded area, the update gives you the ability to hold up your phone and have your screen be a solid color that uniquely identifies you to your driver.

In addition, the car sharing service is now guaranteeing pickup times if you schedule a ride.  For example, if you schedule a ride for the afternoon to take you to the airport, you are given a guarantee time of when your driver will arrive.  If they don’t arrive by that time, you are credited $10 towards your next ride.

Google has quietly rolled out an update to the Google Phone app for Android, the dialer app for the Nexus and Pixel lineup and a few other phones out there that can run it.  The update brings the ability to send recognized spam calls straight to your voicemail and won’t even notify you of the call.  That way you don’t even face the distraction of a notification.

The feature only works on on calls that are recognized as spam calls from Google so it may be a bit hit-and-miss at times.  But when it does hit, it will be a great way be distraction free from these types of calls.

Microsoft is one of the best developers when it comes to frequent and meaningful updates to their swath of Android apps in the Play Store.  The Redmond, Washington company has released several updates to some of their apps as part of the normal monthly Office 365 updates.  All of these updates are now in the Play Store so you should be able to check for the update now or, if you have auto updates enabled, you likely have already been updated.

Outlook for Android has a great new feature that frankly I wish Gmail had:  Do Not Disturb.  It’s no mystery on what it does.  It prevents email notifications from showing up on your phone.  It works just like the DND feature in Android itself, meaning you can set it up for a specific amount of time or until you manually turn it back off.  Also, in Outlook, you can now delete contacts directly in the app.