Tag: Android

The start to 2018 has been busy for the Google Pay team and today is another example of it.  61 new financial institutions have added support for the tap-to-pay service, bringing to total number of banks and credit unions supporting it to just shy of 1200 (1193 to be exact).

As has become the norm over the past several months, these new institutions are smaller, regional ones.  At this point, it is more of a question of which banks are not supporting Google Pay as that number would be significantly smaller.

Making good on its promise at Mobile World Congress, Google has rolled out Hindi language support in Google Assistant.  The announcement came from the Google Blog in India with support initially rolling out to Android devices running Marshmallow (6.0) or higher.  Support for Lollipop (5.0) will be coming shortly.

The BBC estimates that some 425 million people speak Hindi as their first language with an addition 125 million as their second language.  That is a significant number of people who will now be able to use Google Assistant to help them with tasks for gather information.

A new update to Pocket for Android is rolling out in the Play Store and it brings a long requested feature to the read it later app.  Now when you look at your list of articles you have saved, you will see an estimated reading or viewing time for that article.

For those who aren’t familiar with Pocket, it is an app that allows you to save content to read later.  It is aimed to simplified your life by having one repository for your content so you are not having to create a bunch of bookmarks.

After finding indicators in the latest beta of Google Play Services, it looks like the branding of Android Wear has officially moved to Wear OS.  Google launched a new site this morning for the platform, removing the Android Wear name in favor of the new one.

Wear OS by Google Site

As indicated before, this rebranding makes a lot of sense.  Google has been slowly separating things from the Android name, instead making them Google branded or generic.  The best example of this is the recent change from Android Pay to Google Pay.  For Android Wear, this makes sense because Wear devices have long been compatible with iPhones thanks to the Wear app.

Because we live in the future and we also love coffee and donuts, Google Assistant once again makes your life easier.  Dunkin Donuts has enabled the ability to place orders at your local store through Google Assistant.  Everyone say donuts in your Homer Simpson voice.

How it works is similar to other Actions within Google Assistant.  First, you will need to have linked your Dunkin Donuts Perks account to Google Assistant, which you will be prompted to do the first time you say, “Hey Google, talk to Dunkin Donuts”.  After your card is linked, you can choose your pick up location and you can select something from your recent orders.  Once done, you can confirm the order and then go pick it up at your local Dunkin location.

This is a feature that a lot of Google Home users have been wanting.  Location aware reminders has now rolled out to Google Home, meaning that if you set a reminder on your Home device, a reminder will be sent to you on your phone when you arrive at that location.  It is pretty slick and most certainly handy.

Yup, we’ve all been there. Try saying, “Hey Google, set a reminder to pick up more coffee at the grocery store” and your Google Assistant will remind you on your phone. pic.twitter.com/IkLjV4I2zd

— Made by Google (@madebygoogle) March 14, 2018

How it works is straightforward.  If you are at home and say, “Hey Google, remind me to buy milk when I’m at the grocery store”, the reminder will be set as any other reminder on Google Home.  But, when you leave the house and you arrive at the grocery store, you will get a notification on your phone with the reminder.