Category: App Update

Google Calendar for Android has been updated with a great new feature that is aimed at keeping you on track in various aspects of your life.  The new Goals feature allows you to setup specific goals and have them scheduled in your calendar to help you stay focused and to make sure that you have time to complete them.  The updated version of Google Calendar is in the Google Play Store now and should be rolling out via an OTA update to users over the course of the next few days.

There is an updated version of Google Drive that has hit the Google Play Store which brings an often requested feature to the app:  The ability to upload files directly to a folder.  The update was announced yesterday by the Google Apps team and it significantly changes the behavior of the app when you are uploading files to the cloud storage service.  Before, when you uploaded a file from your phone, it went to Uploads, a folder that served somewhat as a catch-all.  What this meant was you had to go back into Drive at some point and sort the uploads to your folders in which you wanted to store them.

Several months ago, Google outlined a change that was going to be happening for Google Play Games.  That change mostly circled around the removal of the Google+ account requirement for sign-in and the establishment of Gamer IDs, ala Microsoft Xbox.  The update to the Play Games app for Android that supports this change is now rolling out in the Play Store, giving users the opportunity to setup their Gamer ID and take advantage of the automatic sign-in process for games.

Google Contacts is a great contacts management app that has been available for Android 5.1 and higher users despite being a stand alone app for some time now.  That is changing a bit now and it is a good change.  The latest build of the app, version 1.4.9 for those keeping score at home, lowers the minimum Android version to Lollipop 5.0.  This may seem like a small thing but it actually opens up the app to a huge number of potential users.

If you are a frequent visitor to Starbucks, you will need to make sure you get the new app for your Android phone today.  The updated app has been released in conjunction with the revamped star rewards scheme that the company has to reward frequent shoppers.  The updated app reflects this update to the scheme along with some general improvements to the user experience in the app.  While you can still use the old version of the app – at least for now – you may not get the correct star rewards totals with it.  Upgrading is highly recommended.

In what has become a pretty regular trend, Google has released an updated version of a standard app that is now standalone.  Google Calculator is hitting the Google Play Store today as an independent-of-the-OS app, following apps such as Google Messenger and Google Calendar as apps who have made the same migration.  The news, for users, is great because it means that you can get updates for the app without having to wait for general Android updates.  I wrote about this in detail back in July of last year and how moving apps from embedded to standalone is a benefit not only to users but to Google themselves and manufactures.