What’s new in Android

Quite regularly, Google introduces news for Android, and they concern a large number of smartphone owners. Google unveiled Android and Wear OS news at MWC in Barcelona. Other well-known mobile brands unveiled hardware news, Google unveiled software news at Barcelona. The changes affect the Google Chrome web browser, Wear OS, Google Play and the new version of Android Car.

Google Chrome on Android gets the ability to zoom in on content without breaking the page formatting. You can now enlarge a page up to 300% of its original size. The Emoji Kitchen has added more emoji to Android, which can be accessed via the Gboard keyboard. The Google Meet app now supports noise filtering. So if you take a call on the go, noise from the street, traffic or a restaurant, for example, should no longer interfere with the conversion itself. The Google Drive app now supports annotations with a stylus or finger. Google has introduced a stylus annotation option for PDFs in Google Drive.

What’s new with Wear OS.

Wear OS will get new sound and display modes to improve the watch’s performance. In addition to the mono audio mode, there will be a black and white mode or a mode in which it will be possible to adjust the perception of individual shades of color. A new Google Keep widget will appear on the watch to make managing your notes easier. Each note will have its own background colour, just like on a smartphone, and you can also view embedded photos or add notifications to your notes on the watch. The Google Wallet app also has an improved payment confirmation animation.

Google Play and Play store news

Late last year, Google started working on updating Google Play and the Play store. The biggest change is the addition of the Nearby Sharing feature to the top bar. If sharing is available or currently in use. Google has fixed bugs in system management and diagnostics and tool-related services. The Google Play Store got new features for discovering your favorite apps and games. Improved optimization makes downloading and installing content from the store faster and more reliable. There have also been security improvements to Play Protect services, which ensure the safety of apps on Android. Google has also added performance optimizations and bug fixes to its store, improving security, stability and accessibility.

New Android Car 9.0

Android Auto is Google’s platform that lets you connect your Android smartphone to your car and control it via touchscreen or voice control. The current version of Android Auto 9.0 will, like previous versions, offer more under-the-hood tweaks. It fixes a few known bugs and improves the operation of the new Coolwalk environment. As has been the case so far, the new version will not ensure that users running on the old interface will receive a redesign called Coolwalk. This isn’t tied to a specific version of the update, but its deployment is managed by Google’s servers in phases.

Setting automatic updates

On an Android smartphone, you can set the system to update automatically so that the operating system version is always up to date. By default, all Androids receive Google updates automatically. In Settings – Google, the feature is hidden in the button with three dots in the top right corner, specifically in the System Service Updates submenu.

While you can disable automatic updates, you may find that over time some services may stop working. For example, security controls, anti-malware, parental controls, or battery life enhancement modes. However, if Google assesses serious problems with the security of phones or is prompted by legal obligations to do so, Google may install system updates on your smartphone even if the feature is disabled.