Yesterday, Google dropped a bunch of new features already on their Pixel smartphones but will now make its way to other Android phones. They vary from accessibility, convenience, privacy, productivity, & more. Some features will have already arrived while others will come at a later date/time. Let’s break it all down, shall we?
Accessibility Features
Focused to better assist those w/ motor + speech disabilities, you got new accessibility features. You got Camera Switches that will allow you to use your selfie camera to navigate your phone with your face. Then you got Project Activate which will let you use your facial gestures + eye movements to send texts, play audio, etc. And you got Lookout that uses your camera to help folks w/ low vision or blindness to read out handwritten/printed text. Currently only during Latin-based languages but will add Euro + Indian Rupee within Currency mode.
Android Auto
Android Auto already got the app dissolved and is now powered by Google Assistant. Now it’s getting even more abilities to further expand its feature set. We now got Waze on Android Auto & now in the forefront, personalized music/news/podcast recommendations via Google Assistant, Google work profiles support, Google Pay + Android Auto will soon allow you to pay for gas at 32,500 gas stations in the US via your voice, and the ability to play games when parked.
Gboard
Google’s fan-favorite Gboard adds new copy/paste features. You’ll be able to copy/paste multiple pieces of info like phone numbers, emails, websites & more and can separate them when pasting. It’s also getting 1,500 new Emoji Kitchen stickers later in the fall, and Smart Compose is coming to phones running Android 11 & higher.
Google Assistant Reminders Hub
The new Reminders hub gives you one place to handle all of your Reminders. You can access them w/ ease by saying ‘Hey Google, open my reminders’ and viola.
Google Photos Locked Folder
For those of you looking to hide your pics in Google Photos, you can now do that on non-Pixel phones thanks to Locked Folders. These are password-protected so you can hide photos/videos to hide your content within your feed.
Google TV Remote
Unveiled back at I/O this year, they bring forth the built-in remote for Google TV to all. This will allow you to power your TV, navigate your shows, & utilize your phone’s keyboard to log in to TV apps. This will be a part of the new Quick Settings tile as this will come to 14 more countries.
Nearby Share Visibility
Google’s take on AirDrop, Nearby Share, to send files to Android users nearby is coming to all recent things Android. The update is adding improved visibility settings so you can choose if you want to be visible to everyone or not.
Heads Up
We got a new addition to the Digital Wellbeing is Heads Up which will keep you from walking into traffic while on your phone. It will remind you to look up if you’re walking down the street looking at your phone so you won’t walk into traffic.
