Category: Google

As previously announced, Google+ has begun enabling Events in the community app.  It is still in the process of rolling out but for many, Events are now showing up both on the web and the Android app.  You will know if you have received the behind-the-scenes update if you go to Google+ on your phone and tap the menu.  If it has come to your account, you will see events.

As the name suggests, Events allows you to create events either at a location or on Hangouts to your circles or public on Google+.  You can create the event, add dates and times and select who you want to invite and it will show up as an event to attend.  If you invite a select circle, they will be notified via the app while the public will have it appear in the timeline of the community feed.

Google+ has a new feature rolling out that allows you to quickly see how posts you have made are being received.  Called Your Influence, it is found on your Google+ profile next to the About button.  There you will find an overflow menu (the three vertical dots) which you can tap and then see your stats.  The stats can be viewed for the last 7 days or the last 30 days and give you a lot of information about how many new followers you have, how many new collection followers you have for your collections and the influence of your posts.

The feature is rolling out now so it make take a few more hours for everyone to see it.

After five years of virtually no updates or improvements, the all new Google Voice experience launched today.  The new 5.0 build of the app brings a Material Design look and feel to the Android app as well as an improved Web and iOS interface.  Functionally, there isn’t much new as far as what you get with Voice.  The apps however are a big improvement.

The new Google Voice apps has the more contemporary three-tab navigation with a FAB (Floating Action Button) for various activities in the app.  The app’s tabs are for messages, Calls and visual voicemail.  The new web interface has a similar design with the different tabs being accessible on the left side of the screen.  It is a vast improvement over the clunky KitKat-style previous build.

The Project Fi app for Android and Fi members has an update rolling out that allows some management features of Group Plans.  Referred to as the “M” update, users who upgrade and have group plans enabled will be able to manage some elements of that plan including being able to limit a users data allocation.  However, in order to create a group plan, add or delete a member of the plan, you will still need to go through the Fi website.

Group Plans have been in Fi for a few months now and had been one of the most requested features of the MVNO service from Google.  Like other carriers, group plans allow you to share a pool of data with up to 5 members.  It is great for families or even small businesses.

It looks like we could see the budget friendly Android One phone here in the United States by mid year.  A report in The Information suggests that Google is planning on launching the phone at a $200-300 price range that will give branding recognition to Android in addition to giving uses a true Google Android experience.  Further, like the Nexus and Pixel phones,they would get updates and security patches for two years meaning they would more-or-less be the most up to date.

For those who may not know what Android One is, it was a low budget phone that was launched in India back in 2014.  The idea was to give a Google Android experience at a $100 price range.  It didn’t do well as it didn’t get the marketing support it needed and the phones were under powered and under featured compared to similar phones in India at the time.

A great new feature is rolling out to Google Search for Android that will help you be more productive when you are offline.  Now when you do a search and you do not have a data connection (LTE or Wi-Fi), Google Search will queue your search queries and will provide the results back to you when a connection is established.  The idea is that you don’t have to remember to do that search later.  You can do it at the moment, it will queue, and you will get the results once you are back online.

Here is a scenario for you.  Let’s say you are on a flight with no Wi-Fi (I know, animalistic but go with me on this) and you are working on a research project.  You can do a search while you are in airplane mode and Search will queue it up.  You land, take your phone out of airplane mode and you get a notification that your search query has been answer.  It saves you time and you don’t have to try to remember to do the search later.  Do it at the moment and get the results back when you are back online.