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After slow rolling out to a few accounts over the past week, the Material Design makeover of Google Maps is now broadly rolling out.  The updated look and feel of the app brings a fresh new look to one of the most widely used apps from Google and also brings it in line with the Material Design makeovers the company has been doing on their apps in general.

The update is a combination of an app update and a cloud side update.  First, make sure you have the latest Google Maps version on your phone.  That is version 9.80.2 and it was released a few days ago.  Chances are you likely have it but double-check.  Assuming you have that version, then it is just a matter of when Google does the cloud-side push to your account to enable the new look.

After trickling out over the course of the past week or so, Android Messages for web has now fully been deployed according to Google’s Justin Uberti.  The Principle Engineer for Google took to Twitter early this morning to make the announcement.

Android Messages for Web is now fully deployed – make sure you have the latest Messages client, and then head over to https://t.co/diVFeAffVS to try it out!

— Justin Uberti (@juberti) June 26, 2018

Now that it is fully deployed, everyone using Messages should be able to send text messages from their browser on their PC, Mac, or Chromebook without having to actually touch their phones.

A new update to the Google Camera app is making its way out in the wild today, bringing integration with Google Lens to Google Nexus and Pixel phones.  The updated version is 5.2.025 for those keeping score at home.

At Google I/O, the Mountain View company indicated that devices that were compatible with the Google camera app would be getting Google Lens integration in the app.  To date, that has rolled out for several manufactures like Sony, Motorola and OnePlus but not on Google’s own devices.

Microsoft Edge for Android, the Redmond company’s browser for the platform, has hit a significant milestone in the Google Play Store.  It has now been downloaded over 5 million times according to the app’s store listing.  Given how new Edge for Android is – just 8 months old – hitting the 5 million download threshold is something to note indeed.

While Microsoft Edge is mainly aimed at Windows 10 users who want to have a continuous browser experience on their phone, it is actually a powerful browser alternative for Android users that has continued to evolve rapidly as Microsoft continually tweaks on it, much like they do the rest of their Android portfolio.