Category: Android

Google Gboard, the keyboard app from the Mountain View company, has a new update rolling out that brings some improvements and new language support.  The updated build is version 7.31 for those keeping score at home and should be widely available at this point.

A few months ago, in May, Gboard gained the ability to create your own GIFs using your phone’s camera.  With this update, you can add text to your GIF.  This allows you to make them a bit more personalized.

Endlich! Google Pay ist endlich in Deutschland angekommen

Finally!  Google Pay has finally arrived in Germany!  It has taken much longer than most expected but the tap-to-pay app can now be used with four different banks for Germans.  Rumors had been floating for several weeks that Pay’s debut in Germany was going to happen but there was nothing official on it.  Now the Google Pay support page for Germany has been updated reflecting support for the country.

As for the banks supported, you have four available:  Comdirect, Commerzbank, N26, and Wirecard.  If you bank with one of these institutions in Germany, you can now add your cards to Pay to use them where ever terminals allow you to tap to pay.

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.

Google has added a new Love Story auto movie creation feature in the latest update to Google Photos.  Like the other auto created movies, the Love Story feature is driven by Google Assistant which is deeply integrated into Photos.  The update to bring this new feature is a combination of an app update, to version 3.23.0.200631752 for those keeping score at home, and a cloud-side update that is pushed to this updated app version.

To get to the new Love Story feature, open up Google Photos then use the overflow menu (three vertical dots) to create a new movie.  There you will see all of the different auto generated movie options along with the new Love Story.

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.

Last week the new Westworld game landed for both Android and iOS.  I, like everyone who posted an announcement about the game, noted how similar it looked and played to Bethesda Softworks’ Fallout Shelter.  Well, it seems that Bethesda thinks so too and has filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros and Behaviour Interactive who held develop the game.

In a lawsuit filed on Friday, Bethesda claims that the game blatantly copies Fallout Shelter, down to the bugs in the game.  The key in all of this is Behaviour Interactive who was under contract with Bethesda back in 2014 to help produce Fallout Shelter, which was released in 2015.  The lawsuit claims that they used code and other information to create the Westworld game.