Category: App Update

Google Sheets for Android has a small update rolling out to users that brings more advanced editing features to the mobile app.  The update will bring the ability to apply and to edit alternating row colors to your spreadsheets.  This is a feature that the web-based version of Sheets has had for some time and is just the latest feature to be added to the mobile app in Google’s effort to bring parity to the web and mobile device.  This new formatting features if found in the Formatting menu of the app.

The last several updates to Google Sheets, as well as their other productivity apps, have been focused on the parity between the desktop and mobile versions of the app.  The company continues to enable more functionality on mobile so as to limit the requirement of having laptop to get things done.  It is all in the name of productivity and meeting users where they are – likely on their mobile phone.

Google Trips has seen its second update this week, bringing two new features that users will appreciate.  First, you now have the ability to manually add hotel and airline reservations to a trip.  Previously, there was no way to do this and the only way to get reservations into a trip was by having it automatically added via Gmail.  Now when you go into a trip within the app, you will see a FAB (Floating Action Button) which will now let you add flight and hotel information.

The other big change in this update is that Google Trips will now watch your Gmail for bus and train travel and add those automatically to your trips.  This expands the apps ability in searching Gmail as previously only hotel and airline information was automatically added.

Google News & Weather has been updated with a new feature that basically allows you to infinitely scroll news headlines.  The new feature, named More Headlines, brings you 200 headlines to stories that you can scroll through and read.  The articles offered up are based on the settings you have in the app but also an algorithm to keep articles clustered together and to present you more relevant information.  It is a nice update to an app that has taking a little bit of a backseat to the recently revamped Google News app.

The new More Headlines feature is enabled by default once you have the latest version of the app.  That is version 3.1.4 for those keeping score at home.  You will get your normal weather card and headlines from categories that you have selected in the settings of the app.  Once you’ve gone past those sections, you will see the new More Headlines section.  Then just keep scrolling!

Evernote has begun rolling out a healthy update to their Android app that brings several improvements on editing of notes.  The update, version 7.9.9 for phones for those keeping score, adds the ability for strikethrough, subscript and superscript text in notes.  These text styles were available on the Mac or PC version of the Evernote app, and were visible in the mobile versions, but you couldn’t actually add them in the Android app.  Now you can just like you can on your laptop.

Improvements have also been made to the camera function of the app.  Now it can automatically detect and capture business cards, documents, whiteboards, Post-it® Notes and receipts.  Just enable the camera function in the app, point it at what you need to capture and it will do the rest for you.

Pocket Casts, one of the most popular podcasts apps for Android, has had a series of small updates over the past couple of weeks.  The latest update, version 6.2.3rd for those keeping score at home, brings a wide range of bug fixes to the app.  The developer, Shifty Jelly, has fixed an issue with the widget for the app on the OnePlus 2, fixed the lock screen skip buttons on Android 4.4 phones and addressed an issue with the podcast artwork flashing.  If you use Pocket Casts and have been impacted by one or more of these issues, this is the update you need to get from the Play Store.

Another issue that was addressed was double Chromecasting notifications.  They have attempted to address this issue but in the release notes, Shifty Jelly indicates that it is still possible you will get the default Android notification.  If you do, you can disable that in the settings on your phone or tablet.

SwiftKey, one of the more popular keyboard apps for Android, has received a sizable update that brings improved Flow typing predictions to your phone.  The Microsoft owned SwiftKey will now give you three predictions as you type or use Flow, the swiping across the keyboard to spell words.  As you type, the center word is highlighted and will be automatically inserted as you begin typing the next word.  If, however, that word is not correct, you can tap the left or right word next to it for it to be inserted.  Previously it would only insert whatever word it though you were typing which caused users to have to backspace to type in the correct word.

Along with new predictive typing model, this update also fixes a big where the brackets in right-t0-left languages are no longer flipped incorrectly and has added four keypress sound profiles to the

SwiftKey for Android

app.  If you want to have sound with keypresses, you can now choose from Modern, Android, Traditional or Blip.  Previously only Traditional was available.

While Google’s GBoard has been getting the lion share of attention these past few months, rightfully so, SwiftKey has been doing a lot of what GBoard does for a long time.  It also has some 250 million users globally which shows its stamina.  If you haven’t tried it out, it is free and available in the Play Store.