Gboard today is available on Android, iOS, Google/Android TV, and is now coming to Wear OS. The company touts this as bringing “faster and easier messaging” to your wearable.

Using Smart Displays and speakers as an intercom system is one of Google Assistant’s most popular capabilities. Google is now updating Assistant Broadcasts so that they appear on both Android and iOS phones. 

With every major OS release, Android has continued to iterate on privacy and security features. Google announced today that the Play Store is adding a “safety section” that all Android applications must fill out to “help people understand the data an app collects or shares.”

Last year, Adobe released a Gmail Add-on for Creative Cloud for quick access and saving. An update to the Creative Cloud Add-on for Google Workspace today extends that functionality to Google Docs and Slides.

Version 2.37 of the Google Home app is rolling out today with a small tweak that makes users more likely to use the Nest Wifi’s notification capabilities, while faster Smart Display and speaker setup is also coming.

Google Pay support is much more common and familiar on mobile than the web, but adoption is increasingly growing. To further that, a new and “improved” Google Pay button is working to increase click-through rates.

While recent weeks have seen a flurry of developments in the podcasting industry, Google has remained relatively quiet about its offering. That said, Google Podcasts has just redesigned the Now Playing screen on iOS and has widely rolled out the ability to block recommendations.

Starting on Android 12, Google is rolling out the next big redesign of Discover. This visual revamp of the feed was first introduced on iOS and is now coming to Android.

Preventing “unintentional data loss” is a big concern for companies, and Gmail is now adding an “External” badge on email conversations that include recipients outside your Google Workspace organization.

Google today announced new policies and guidelines for how Android apps can present themselves in the Play Store. This is meant to ensure that end users are not misled by app listings.

Google is rolling out a rather sizable April update to the Chromecast with Google TV that brings several fixes and a handful of new features.

Back in August, Google announced that it would turn your Android phone into a seismometer to form the “world’s largest earthquake detection network.” The Android Earthquake Alerts System will now start sending warning notifications in Greece and New Zealand.

With the underlying concept popularized by Stadia and other game services, Mighty wants to stream an entire Chromium browser from the cloud. The effort emerged this week after two years of development with a tagline of “Make Chrome Faster.”

On iPhone and iPad, the Google app is how users access Lens, Search, and Discover. For the two latter experiences, Google has already built out a rich web experience, but the iOS Search app is now becoming even more browser-like with a grid of “Tabs.” 

Back in October, Google and Parallels let enterprise users run Windows on Chromebooks for the first time. A big update is now rolling out to Parallels Desktop for Chrome OS that adds a slew of new features.

Besides being sold on the Google Store and talks of some Nest Hub sleep data integration, it’s still early days for that acquisition. One upcoming change will see Facebook no longer supported for logging on to the Fitbit website. 

When taking screenshots in Android 11+, a preview appears in the bottom-left corner for quick sharing or editing. A translate suggestion from Google Lens now also appears here on applicable screen captures. 

Over the past several years, Google has been working to make Android apps smaller in size by optimizing what code and resources are downloaded to devices. The latest initiative on this front is “App install optimization” in Google Play.

With the launch of the Pixel 5 and 4a 5G last year, Google also rolled out a redesigned Photos editor on Android. The video experience has since been similarly revamped, while Google Photos is now rolling out new “Sharpen” and “Denoise” tools.

The clipboard manager in Gboard is a really solid addition, but it might level up soon as a scrolling suggestion bar looks to be in testing with some users.

In addition to a big web update set for next month, Google Meet is picking up a new “limit data usage” setting on Android and iOS. It allows users to further optimize video call quality for their current device and network conditions.

Google’s push for AMP-powered Web Stories saw a boost with the launch of a WordPress plugin in September. A recent update makes it easy to embed Web Stories into sites, while there are now WordPress themes that natively display carousels of AMP content.

As we first spotted last month, Google Podcasts is letting users customize and fine-tune recommendations as they’re listening to episodes. This feature is currently in beta on Android.

Google is in the process of rolling out a new Gmail client online for free users that incorporates Chat and Rooms. As part of that, there were a number of small design tweaks, and the latest sees Gmail on the web get a new compose button.

Following the desktop update last week, Chrome OS 90 is beginning to roll out today. There are a handful of usability enhancements in this release, which will be available over the coming days.

With hybrid work expected to become the norm, Google Workspace today announced a slew of upcoming features for its video conferencing service. Google Meet will see a new, “richer” laptop and desktop UI next month, while a number of AI features are coming soon. 

Following Android users worldwide experiencing repeated app crashes last month, Google today released an explanation behind what went wrong and how future WebView problems will be remedied.

At the start of last month, Google started to release new iOS versions of the YouTube family of applications following a long, unspecified pause. Gmail, Google Calendar, Docs, and other apps were updated today in a seeming return to normal for iPhone and iPad owners. 

Last year, Google let users control what information appears in the Assistant Snapshot feed. A new “Favorites” section for Google Assistant Snapshot now lets you pin important cards to the top, with this capability being especially handy for important reminders.

For the past few months, Google has been slowly rolling out its eventual replacement for the phone-based Android Auto experience. The early preview of Assistant Driving Mode is now getting an international launch.

A small tweak to Google.com on desktops now lets you quickly “jump to the search box” with a convenient keyboard shortcut. It’s particularly useful for refining your original query. 

Last year, Chrome introduced the ability to link to a highlight on web pages. The creation process involved downloading a separate first-party extension, but Google is now directly integrating this feature in Chrome. 

In 2016, Google introduced a Timelapse feature to track how any location on Earth has changed over the past few decades. Google Earth is now directly integrating Timelapse for an “interactive 4D experience.” 

Following version 89’s release on Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux, the next release of Google’s browser is rolling out. Chrome 90 is here with a handful of tweaks and underlying additions.

Google is making a tweak to Search on desktop web that sees the results page adopt a more responsive design. Still in testing, it follows the homepage abiding by the same principle.

Google today announced a handful of new Assistant features, while making others more widely available. The biggest lets iPhone owners find misplaced devices using Google Smart Displays and speakers as Assistant Routines availability expands.

In February, Google said its streaming service would add “even more” playlist creation features and increase discoverability of those user-generated collections. That has so far been the only app roadmap provided by the company this year. YouTube Music is now implementing those plans in search by distinguishing between Featured and Community playlists.

Last year, Google introduced presence sensing to power Home & Away Routines. The Google Home app is now using location for an “only ring when home” feature so that Smart Displays and speakers don’t sound for incoming calls when you’re out of the house and cannot answer.