Category: App Update

Yesterday, Google announced that Google Pay was being officially launched with new branding and app updates.  The update to the old Android Pay app is now rolling out and it brings not only a name change, but a substantial user experience update.  The first public version of Google Pay for Android is 1.53 and it will replace your Android Pay app on your phone when you get the OTA update.

When you first open the app, you will immediately see the improvements in the app.  It has a light theme to it and has a two-tab bottom navigation.  The Home screen has a carousel of all of your cards and payment options at the top.  Simply slide to the card you want to use while you are paying at a terminal to use that card.  If you want to make it your default card, just long press it.

The beta version of the Google app for Android has a new update rolling out that brings a handy screenshot editing feature – but it only works within the Google app itself.  The new feature has arrived in version 7.21 for those keeping score at home and, given it is in beta, it will likely hit the stable channel for everyone over the course of the next couple of weeks.

The new screenshot editor allows you to take a screenshot of something in your Google app feed, search results, or pages viewed within Chrome custom tabs in the app.  Once you snap the screenshot, by pressing the Power+Volume Down button on virtually all Android phones, you will get a lower notification for you to edit or share the screenshot.

The Google Phone app is being updated in the Google Play Store, bringing a new chat head feature and improved persistent notification shade.  The new build is version 17.0.184919600 and will come to compatible devices (Google Nexus & Pixel phones, Android One phones, etc) over the next few days.

The main new feature is a chat head feature.  Now, when you are in a call and move away from the Google Phone app, you will have a chat head, similar to Facebook Messenger, appear on your Home screen.  Tapping that head will allow you to control the call:  Return to the call, mute the call, move the call to speaker or hang up.  There is nothing you have to do to enable this feature and you can move the chat head around your Home screen to a convenient place.

Microsoft Edge for Android, the Redmond, Washington company’s mobile variant of their Windows 10 browser, has a new update that brings some improvements for personalization.  The new build is version 1.0.0.1656 for those keeping score at home.

With this update, you can now more personalize the Newsfeed on the New Tab in Microsoft Edge.  Support has been added for the language and geographical area for news feeds.  By default, this will be set to the language and region you are in but by going to Settings>New Tab Page, you can have the news feed in different regions and languages.

It has taken seemingly forever but a new update to the Google Calendar app for Android finally, finally lets you duplicate events in one calendar and copy events between calendars.  The updated build of the app is version 5.8.18 for those keeping score at home.  It was released late last week but it is just now rolling out to everyone.

The update to Google Calendar brings two big improvements.  First, you can now duplicate an event on your calendar.  Now, instead of having to create it completely from scratch, you can duplicate a current event on your calendar and use it as a template of sorts.

Microsoft Launcher, the popular launcher app for Android, has a new and big update rolling out.  The new build is version 4.6 for those keeping score at home and it brings a full integration of Microsoft Cortana to the launcher.

Until now, Launcher and Cortana were two separate downloads and apps with basically no interaction between the two.  Now with the integration done, the behavior of Cortana in Microsoft Launcher is similar to the standalone app.  You can make calls, schedule meetings, change wallpaper and continue a browsing activity from your phone to your PC (assuming you are using Microsoft Edge in both places).