Earlier this week, Google had announced its latest Pixel feature drop, today it announced that it will be bringing in some new features for the Android platform. These features will not be limited to Pixel devices but to all Android devices.
This is a first for Google, collating a bunch of upcoming features into a single post. Google will be rolling out the Android Earthquake Alerts System globally. How it works is, it will be sending alerts to the individuals who are in and around the affected areas, moments before the actual earthquake. Google has made this feature available in New Zealand and Greece but now it will be available in Turkey, the Philippines, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.
Google’s goal this year is to prioritize the launch of this feature in earthquake-prone countries, it will be rolled out to other countries over the duration of the year.
The next feature that will be available is, the users can now star a message in the messages app so that they can find it easier later. The user will have to tap and hold onto the message and then pick the star. They are also introducing a new starred category where all these messages will be available.
Google Assistant will now be able to take you into specific places inside apps, for instance, the user can tell “hey Google, pay my resume my run on Strava” and it will jump right into the app and do that task. In order to find out a full list of all the possibilities, say “Hey Google, shortcuts”.
Contextual Emoji Kitchen suggestions now available in Gboard beta will reach the stable version of the keyboard app this summer for messages written in English, Spanish, and Portuguese on Devices running Android 6 and above. What these suggestions do is, they will help you find the perfect emoji combination once you finish typing a message according to the context.
The Android Auto experience will now be more customizable. You will be able to personalize your launcher screen from your phone and manually enable dark mode. It will now be much easier to browse through content too, with new tabs in media apps, there is a “back to top” option and an A to Z button in the scroll bar. If it is your first time setting up Android Auto for the first time, that process will now be faster.
Finally, Voice Access which currently has gaze detection in beta, so you will be able to expect the feature to work only when you are looking at the screen. Voice access gives you quick and efficient phone and app navigation with just your voice. It also has enhanced password input as well. When it recognizes a password field, it lets you input letters, numbers, and symbols.
The EV charging, parking, and navigation apps will now be available to use in Android Auto as well. The messaging experience has been improved so you can get to your favorite messaging apps from the launcher screen. You will be able to read and send new messages directly from WhatsApp and Messages, globally. The Android Auto features are available on phones featuring Android 6 and above when connected to a compatible car.
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