Android 12 Beta 3 signifies a milestone as the stable OS builds inch ever closer to a full launch later this year. We’ve already done a deeper dive into the “top” new features and functions, but we’ve unpacked a few more that you might have missed but should definitely still know.
It feels like with each Beta release, certain gripes and complaints are being addressed as soon as Google is…
Google replacing classic Hangouts with Chat for more Workspace users ahead of enterprise shutdown
July 20, 2021
Google has a multi-stage plan to shut down classic Hangouts and move enterprise Workspace customers to Chat. This latest step in advancing Google Chat adoption takes place next month.
For the past year, your Workspace administrator has been able to keep both classic…
Since February, Google has been introducing new “Curated Culture” backgrounds every month. For July, the company is marking International Friendship Day with a new trio of Pixel wallpapers.
The International Day of Friendship was proclaimed in 2011 by the UN General…
Downtime among Google’s largest services is typically rare, but it does occur from time to time. Google is now updating the Workspace Status Dashboard and other tools that admins can use to keep track of outages.
The Google Workspace Status Dashboard is getting a brand new design that is already available for Cloud products and the Maps Platform. The previous UI very much dated back to early…
After initially being spotted in testing, the latest Twitter beta update for Android now lets you log in using a connected Google Account.
Google Account integration with Twitter is definitely long overdue, with the social media platform similarly working on Apple Account…
Android 12 is the biggest update visually to the platform that we’ve seen in years, and alongside bigger overhauls like Material You, there are also a bunch of new animations. One new animation that’s not immediately obvious, though, is an updated charging animation when…
2nd-gen Pixel Buds ‘out of stock’ in the US and Canadian Google Stores [Update: Delisted]
July 20, 2021
Pixel Buds A-Series officially launched in the US and Canada last week after being announced at the start of June. The 2nd-gen Pixel Buds are now completely “out of stock” in those two countries in a possible sign that Google has discontinued the headphones.
Update 7/19: While the 2nd-generation Pixel Buds have been out of stock in the US and Canada since last month, Google is only now…
Apple TV app gets an Android TV update, hopefully to squash widespread HDR, crashing issues
July 20, 2021
As its subscription-based streaming service pushes forward, Apple brought its Apple TV app to Android TV earlier this year, with support for originals and your iTunes library. As great as that was, though, the Apple TV app on Android has been plagued by a list of issues that…
Google is alerting Pixel 4 XL owners that it’s running an extended repair program for the 2019 flagship phone. It’s specifically limited to four countries and applies only to “certain power-related issues.”
This one-year repair program covers Pixel 4 XL devices…
Google’s next Android homescreen widget is a dedicated shortcut to Chrome’s Dino Run game, matching the iOS widget.
In the last few months, Google has been putting a new emphasis on Android homescreen widgets, no doubt in response to widgets being a hallmark feature of iOS 14. In fact, Google themselves offered some widgets on iOS that were not available on Android, and the Android apps have…