Tag: Android

Over the course of the past couple of years it has been clear that Microsoft’s mobile strategy is developing apps for Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.  This isn’t a bad strategy overall and it is clear from presentations this week at Build, Microsoft’s developer conference, that they are continuing that strategy.

One of the more exciting announcements on the first day of the conference is Windows 10’s new Timeline feature making it to both Android and iOS.  For Android users, access to Timeline will come via Microsoft Launcher while iOS users will have access to via Microsoft Edge.

After an update to their own app last week, Southwest Airlines will now let you save your boarding passes for flights to Google Pay.  It means that you will have one place to go for your boarding passes, purchasing and money transfers on your Android phone.  Southwest is the first airline to support this feature, which has been rumored to be coming down the pike for weeks.  It follows light rail transit tickets in Las Vegas and Portland being supported in the tap-to-pay app last month.

If you have upcoming flights on Southwest, you can view your boarding pass in their app and you will see the option to add the boarding pass to Google Pay.  Tap that button and your boarding pass will now appear in the Rewards & Gift Cards section of the app.

Late last week a change happened with Google Now Launcher, Google’s first proper attempt at a launcher for Android.  It basically became incompatible with virtually every Android phone out there.  The change was unannounced and it is preventing anyone from going to the Play Store and downloading the launcher.

Up until last week, you could use Google Now Launcher as your launcher on any Android phone running Android Jelly Bean 4.1 or higher.  Now, when you go to the launcher’s page in the Play Store, you get a warning that the app isn’t compatible with your device.

The Microsoft OneDrive for Android app has been updated with a feature that has long been requested by users:  The ability to install the app on a SD card.  To this point, if you have an Android phone with a SD Card, OneDrive would not allow itself to be installed on that external storage.  It is something that long time users of the cloud storage app have requested of Microsoft as it can save space, especially if you are syncing a lot of content offline from your OneDrive account, on your phone.

With version 5.9 which is now available in the Play Store, that changes.  You now have the option to install the app on your SD Card.  Further, if you already have the app installed, you can move the app to your card via the Settings in the app.

Microsoft has released a new update to Outlook for Android that brings a much improved search experience in the email, calendar and contacts app.  Version 2.2.147 landed in the Google Play Store on Friday and by now should be out to most reader’s accounts and available to for update.

The biggest change in the app is the improved navigation bar.  It is much more simple in this release, providing one-tap access to mail, calendars and to the improved search feature.  The navigation bar remains at the bottom of the display has it has for some time now but looks cleaner.

Good news today for those of you who use Fandango to get your movie tickets.  You can now use Google Assistant on your phone to find movie times near you and order your tickets all with voice commands.   You can continue to use the Fandango app of course but now you have a voice enabled option.  Sweet!

The feature only works on Assistant on your phone and while you can ask your Google Home for details, it is going to move the process over to your phone to complete it.  Hopefully it’ll get fully enabled on home at some point but as you can see after the break, the interaction with Assistant on your phone is pretty visual instead of just blurting out a bunch of movie times.