Category: App Update

Google Gboard, the keyboard app that is now native on a wide range of Android phones, has a big update rolling out this morning.  The update is version 6.8 for those keeping score but given the number of improvements and changes, this really feels like a major “dot oh” release.

The headline new feature for the app is Handwriting input support.  Now you can use a stylus or your finger to write instead of typing on the QWERTY keyboard.  Previously, to use handwriting input, you had to have a separate app.  If you are wanting to have this new input method in your install of Gboard, you will need to make sure you enable it.

To enable, open up the Gboard app settings and then tap on the Languages section.  At the bottom, tap the “Add Keyboard” button then tap on English (US).  The first option you see should be a Handwriting keyboard.  Select it then tap the Add button.  This will now make it an option on the keyboard.

Now to an app where you would type and you should see a globe icon on the keyboard next to the space button.  Tap that icon and you should alternate between your normal keyboard and the handwriting panel.

Google Translate, the app that allows you to translate between 103 different languages, has a small but important update rolling out in the Play Store today.  The update is version 5.15.0.RC08 for those keeping score at home and should be hitting everyone’s devices via an OTA update this week.

The new version brings offline translation support to seven new languages from English.  These translations also include the instant camera translations.  If you aren’t familiar with the instant camera feature of the app, this is where you can point your phone’s camera at a sign in a foreign language and it will be translated into your native tongue. The new offline translation languages supported are:

• Bengali
• Gujarati
• Kannada
• Marathi
• Tamil
• Telugu
• Urdu

In order for the offline translations to work, you will need to make sure you download these languages as well as others to your phone.  Most of the translation packs are less than 50MB in size.

Google PhotoScan, the app for scanning older photos to save digitally, has a new update rolling out that brings several improvements.  The new build is version 1.5 for those keeping score at home and is rolling out into the Play Store today.

The first change that users of PhotoScan will likely appreciate the most is the automatic saving of scanned photos to your Google Photos account.  Previously, when you scanned a photo, it was saved to its own library on your phone and you had to then manually sync that library with Photos.  Now when you scan a photo, it is automatically saved to your Google Photos library, eliminating the manual step.

Google+ has a new update rolling out for the community network on both Android and iOS.  The update brings a new advanced search function to the apps, much like the search functionality of Google Search itself.  In this new update, you will be able to use search operators to do specific searches within Google+

Google has already built a guide for these new search functions on the support site which will outline in detail how they can be used.  Some of these new functions include:

• From:  To identify a post from a G+ users
• Has:  Has an attachment such as an image or Google Doc file
• Before:  Before a specific date
• After:  After a specific date
• Commenter:  Search for a specific commenter on a specific post

As you can see, you can get quite specific in your searching to pinpoint a specific post or person.

Microsoft has quietly rolled out a new feature on their personal assistant Cortana that Android users will appreciate.  Now in Microsoft Cortana, you can set up the assistant to have access to your Google account, allowing it to access both your Google calendar as well as your contacts.  Previously calendars and contacts were limited to Office 365 accounts or to an Outlook.com account.

The addition of Google services means that users of Cortana on their Android phone, PC or their Harman Kardon Invoke, will be able to ask Cortana about events on their Google Calendar or make a call to a Google Contact, a likely scenario for Android users.

As you would expect, this new integration requires that you connect your Google account to Cortana and authorize it.  This is done via Connected Services which can be found in your Cortana Notebook section of the app or on your PC.

Microsoft has released another update to their popular Microsoft Launcher for Android.  The launcher formerly known as Arrow Launcher, has been updated to version 4.3 and it comes with a lot of improvements and a few new features.  A lot of the improvements in this update are aimed at making the user experience better or giving users more control.

On the Home page, you can now have an icon grid of up to 12 columns and 12 rows and can have apps or widgets at the half-grid cell.  That means that if you have a large screen device (5.5″ or larger), you can really cram a lot of icons on your home page.

Probably the single biggest improvement with this update to Microsoft Launcher is the ability to import your home screen layout from your previous launcher to it.  Before, you could only import from a previous backup of the Microsoft launcher, which you can still do.  But, if you like how your Home page is laid out in the Pixel Launcher, Action Launcher or Nova Launcher, you can have it copied over to the Microsoft app as you setup the launcher for the first time.