As holidays are approaching, Google has shared six new features for Android that would help users this holiday season. The tech giant announced the release of these features through a blog post on Thursday. The company said that these features offer a few more ways that will make your phone more helpful over time, even outside of major OS updates. Here’s how these six new features will help you.
1. Mix More of Your Favorite Emojis Into Stickers
Earlier this year, Google launched Emoji Kitchen on Gboard that lets users mix their favorite emoji into customized stickers. Now, the company has brought hundreds of unique design combinations that now reach up to 14,000 and more. The mix makes it easier for users to express themselves as the feature now lets you simply tap two emoji and quickly see suggested combinations. You can also double-tap on one emoji to reveal some intense emotions during this holiday season.
2. Listen to More Stories on Audiobooks
You can make use of this holiday season as the perfect time to read some books, and audiobooks help you to immerse yourself in a story. Now, Google has announced that it is working with publishers in the US and the UK to produce autogenerated narrators. This will narrate books without audio versions and hence more stories you can listen to. This feature is currently in beta, and the company plans to roll it out in early 2021.
3. Navigate Your Device With Voice Access
Using machine learning technology, Google has now updated the Voice Access app to let users control their phones with their voice. For example, users can say “open Photos”, “tap Search”, “tap You Map” to see a map of all their photos. This makes it easier for users to navigate their phone hands-free, using just their voice.
4. Use Go Tab to Get Around on Maps
The new Go Tab in Google Maps lets users easily navigate to frequently-visited places with just a single tap. Users can pin their favorite driving destinations, like a school or a grocery store to quickly see live traffic trends, directions, and ETA — without typing the address of the place. The Go Tab will start rolling out on both Android and iOS in the coming weeks.
5. Android Auto Comes to More Countries
Google has said that it will expand Android Auto to new countries over the next few months. It lets you talk to Google to do things like playing music, sending messages, getting directions, and more. This is helpful to keep focus on the road while driving and still do things without touching your phone.
6. Use Nearby Share to Share Your Favorite Apps
The tech giant is working on an update for Nearby Share that will let users share apps directly from Playstore with people around them. Users can do this even without connecting to the internet. To share apps with a nearby Android phone, open the Google Play app, then go to the “Share Apps” menu in “My Apps & Games”. The update that brings this feature will roll out in the coming weeks.
