Google Introducing more features in Android; “Emoji Kitchen” “Spotify Tiles” and reading practice improvements
Google has listed a bunch of features that will be rolling out to the Android ecosystem starting June 1st, and one of those features can help new readers improve their language and vocabulary. The new reading practice tool is available for phones and tablets with thousands of compatible children’s books in Play Books. It challenges children or people who are just starting to learn English to read sentences using a microphone. When they click on the instructions, the buttons that appear allow them to quickly look up word definitions or hear a sentence read aloud for help. It is now available in English for US users as long as they have a device running Android 8 or higher.
The tech giant is also rolling out new tools that include entertainment suggestions for Google TV, stock market data from Google Finance, and curated stories from Google News. These tools are available for all Android 6 and higher devices in all supported languages. Meanwhile, for those tired of the standard emoji options, there’s a new tool called “Emoji Kitchen.” It allows users to mix and match emoticons available on Gboard – as long as they have a compatible set – and then turn them into stickers that they can send.
Users running WearOS 2 now have new Spotify tiles and watch face complications to choose from. Available to Premium subscribers in the US, Canada, UK and Ireland, Spotify DJ can play a custom selection of songs or stream episodes of the user’s favorite podcasts as soon as they press the play button on the new smartwatch screen. WearOS 3.0 users can now add a tile to a single Google Notes to-do list. Those living in Washington and the San Francisco Bay Area get something extra: They can now load their SmartTrip and Clipper cards into Google Wallet so they can ride local transit with a tap and pay on their smartwatch.
In addition to all these features, which are just starting to roll out, Google has also announced that the dark web version of its single subscription service is fully available in the US. Subscribers can run checks to see if their Gmail addresses have been exposed on the dark web. They can also check to see if sensitive information, such as their social security numbers, has been compromised. Additionally, they can choose to automatically begin monitoring the dark web for their personal information, alerting them as soon as their information is published. Dark Web Monitoring is currently only available to Google One customers in the US, but Google plans to expand its availability to more than 20 countries in the coming months.
