Google

When Apple Music first launched in 2015, playing it on anything other than an Apple device was impossible. Thankfully though, over the years Apple has made its streaming service available to access through third-party devices and speakers, including Amazon Echo and Google-owned speakers. This article focuses on Google devices. If you have a Google Home mini or a newer Nest-branded smart...

Google includes a Live Captions transcription feature in version 89 of its Chrome browser for desktop. Live Captions uses machine learning to create a real-time transcription for videos or audio played through the browser, which can make online media more accessible for members of the Deaf community and other people with hearing loss. Once enabled, Live Captions appear in a box in the bottom ...

If you buy a new iPhone to replace your existing one and you use the Google Authenticator app to access online accounts protected by two-factor authentication (2FA), you should transfer those accounts to your new phone as soon as possible, because without the 2FA codes close at hand, you could find yourself locked out of your online accounts. 2FA adds an extra layer of security to your...

Google Lens can now recognize over a billion items in the world around us, the search engine giant announced this week. That's four times as many things that the AI-powered feature could identify when it was first launched last year, thanks partly to a huge number of Google Shopping products which have been added to its knowledge base. While its optical character recognition engine has...

In Chrome 66, rolling out now for Mac and iOS, Google has added a password export option to the web browser so that you can easily migrate your login details to another browser via a third-party password manager app. In this article, we'll show you how to export your passwords from Chrome on Mac and iOS. At the end of the process, you'll be left with a CSV file containing all your login...

Google this week announced that it is shutting down its messaging app Google Allo [iOS Direct Link], and incorporating many of its features into the Messages app on Android smartphones. Google Allo is an expanded messaging app that lets users send GIFs, text from their desktops, and use Smart Reply. Now, Google says to continue Messages' momentum it has decided to "stop supporting Allo to...

Google today announced a major expansion of its Project Fi smartphone plan, which has previously been available on select Android devices. As of today, iPhone and iPad users are also able to take advantage of Fi, with a new a new iOS app available with setup steps. Project Fi, which is being renamed "Google Fi" alongside the expansion of the service, is designed to provide hassle-free...

Google has updated its Assistant app for iOS to support Siri Shortcuts, enabling users to invoke Google's virtual assistant using Apple's virtual assistant, without even having to launch the app. Once the update has been installed, Assistant users are presented with an "Add to Siri" button that lets them record a phrase of their choosing to be used after saying the "Hey, Siri" command. As...

A new feature rolling out for Google Maps will allow iOS and Android users to message local businesses with their queries without having to leave the GPS-based navigation app. The feature is an extension of Google's real-time business-to-customer messaging service that the company introduced in select countries last year. Businesses that signed up to the service include a Message button on ...

At a media event in New York City earlier this month, Google previewed a new low-light camera feature called "Night Sight" that uses machine learning to choose the right colors based on the content of the image. The result is much brighter photos in low-light conditions, without having to use flash. Google showed a side-by-side comparison of two unedited photos shot in low light with an iPhone ...

Google this week announced that it will now automatically upgrade all previously purchased films from participating Hollywood studios to 4K, even if those movies were originally bought in SD or HD. The company is also reducing the price of new 4K movies on its Google Play store to match SD/HD prices of $19.99 and below. Previously, 4K films on Google Play rose to as much as $30. These new...

Google Chrome now enables picture-in-picture as a default setting on Mac, Windows, and Linux computers as of Chrome 70. If you are up-to-date and watching a compatible video in the Chrome web browser, you can minimize it and continue browsing the web in other tabs, while the video keeps playing in a new miniature screen (via Android Police). The feature works similarly to Safari's...

Google's newest flagship smartphones, the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, are officially launching later this week. With their high-quality cameras, fast processors, and other improvements, the new devices are direct competitors to Apple's newly released iPhone XS models. We were able to get our hands on the new Pixel 3 and Pixel 3XL ahead of their debut, and in our latest YouTube video, we compared...

Following yesterday's Google event, the company is rolling out an update for Google Photos that introduces a new feature called Live Albums. Powered by Google's facial recognition algorithms, Live Albums allow users to create albums that are automatically updated with pictures from their library of a specific person or pet. Once an album has been tagged as a Live Album, it can be shared...

Google today held its annual "Made by Google" fall event, unveiling a new line of products that included the all-new Google Pixel 3 smartphone, a screen-based smart speaker, and a new tablet. Notably, Google pointed out at the beginning of its presentation that 2018 marks the 20 year anniversary of the search giant. The central announcement at the event was the 5.5-inch Google Pixel 3 and...

The Google+ social network that Google introduced back in 2011 suffered from a major bug that Google opted not to disclose to the public, reports The Wall Street Journal. A Google+ software glitch provided outside developers with the ability to access private Google+ profile data from 2015 to March 2018. In the spring of this year, internal investigators discovered the issue and fixed it....

Google today announced a new group planning feature for Google Maps on iOS and Android, which aims to make it easier for a group of friends to decide on a place to eat. To use the feature, open Google Maps and tap "Restaurants" on the Explore tab. Then long press on any location to add it to a shortlist, shown in a small floating bubble on the lower right side of the screen. Once you add a...

Google says it is willing to make changes to its new Chrome auto-login feature, following heavy criticism from privacy-conscious users. In previous versions of the browser, it was left up to the user whether they wanted to log in to Chrome while they used the app. However in Chrome 69, released earlier this month, if you sign in to a Google site like Google Search, Gmail, or YouTube, you...

Just over two months after Google updated the "Inbox by Gmail" app for iOS to support iPhone X, the company this week announced that it will discontinue the service at the end of March 2019. Inbox by Gmail was an experimental email app, offering users features like snoozing emails to check later, Smart Reply, high-priority notifications, and more. The company says that in the four years of...

Google today sent out invitations to members of the media for a "Made by Google" event that's set to be held in New York City on Tuesday, October 9. At the event, Google is likely to unveil its Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL smartphones, which will be competing with the trio of new iPhones that Apple is set to unveil next week. It's official, Google sends out invites for its annual event http ...

Idle Android devices typically send data ten times more often to Google than iOS devices do to Apple's servers, according to new research shared by trade association Digital Content Next. In a paper titled "Google Data Collection," Douglas C. Schmidt, a computer science professor at Vanderbilt University, arrives at some stark conclusions regarding how much Google is collecting about...

Google today updated its Wear OS iPhone app [Direct Link] and Google Fit Android app with a new redesign that emphasizes closing a set of rings, similar to Apple's Activity app. Every day, Google Fit will task users to close one ring based on "move minutes" and another ring based on "heart points" (via The Verge). "Move minutes" is a metric that is intended to be better than measuring daily...

Google entered the smart speaker market in 2016 with the introduction of Google Home, allowing users to speak to Google Assistant and control various smart home products, listen to music, get the news, and more. Eventually, Google added the Home Mini and Home Max to the lineup, introducing products that were direct competitors to the Amazon Echo Dot and Apple HomePod, respectively. Looking...

Google today launched its new cloud storage pricing scheme under the moniker Google One, which replaces all paid storage plans under the Google Drive brand. The new plans include 100GB storage for $1.99 a month, 200GB for $2.99 a month, and 2TB for $9.99 a month (down from $19.99). The free 15GB for non-paying users remains. There's also a new family option for divvying up a single storage...

Some Google apps on iOS and Android devices continue to store location history even with the setting disabled, according to a new AP report citing data collected by computer science researchers at Princeton. Location History, a feature available in Google apps like Google Maps, is an option that allows the app to display the locations that you've visited in a timeline. Princeton researcher...