Google has announced seven new features for Android that will, among other things, improve accessibility and make shortcuts more useful.Google Assistant.
Enabled end-to-end encryption of messages
Google announced that RCS Talks (Rich communication services) sent via the Messages app will now be end-to-end encrypted. The feature was rolled out in beta last November, but it looks like the company will be releasing it to everyone with access to RCS. When a message is encrypted, the send button will have a lock icon – it will be important to monitor it, as many people you are writing to may not have RCS or may not use the messages. It’s also worth noting that according to Google, the feature will only be available for individual conversations, after that Your group chats will not receive the feature at this time.
Earthquake warnings are coming in multiple countries
Google says a phone earthquake detection and warning system will soon be available in Turkey, the Philippines, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The system uses Android phones to create an earthquake detection network that can warn people if they are in a potentially affected area. This tool was originally launched in California, but was made available in Greece and New Zealand in April.
Google says it hopes to bring this feature to more regions next year but is focusing on making it available sooner for countries with high seismic risk.
private messages
If you were sent a text message with important information and you want to be able to find it quickly, you can add it to Private Messages, which will put it in a special category so you don’t have to go back through a conversation to find it. Google says the feature will be rolling out to the Messages app “in the coming weeks”.
Kitchen recommended using emoji
Starting this summer, Gboard will simultaneously suggest stickers created in Emoji Kitchen, a Google tool that allows users to create a mix of two different emojis. Suggestions will appear in the Emoji menu for people who write a message in English, Spanish, or Portuguese.
Google Assistant Shortcuts Update
Google Assistant shortcuts allow users to navigate to a specific part of the app, but developers will now be able to show user information in the form of a widget directly in the assistant.
Voice Access will only work if you look at the phone
The Google Voice Access app, which allows people to navigate their phones using their voice, now recognizes looks so it can tell if someone is talking to their phone or other people. The feature, which is in beta, will stop receiving commands if it detects that you’re not looking at your phone.
Voice Access also gets improvements when it comes to entering passwords: users will be able to say words like “dollar sign” and they will be translated to the symbol, instead of being spelled literally.
Andorid Auto becomes a character
Android Auto users will be able to use their phone to customize the app launcher and manage the dark mode manually. Google also adds the ability to quickly scroll to the top of the list, and the slider gets the A to Z button.
Google also says that the messaging experience for apps like Messages and WhatsApp has been improved, making it easier to send and read messages.
