Image used with permission by copyright holderAndroid may soon get a helpful feature for those that use Bluetooth headphones — the ability to tell you exactly how much battery your Bluetooth devices have left. The feature recently gained support from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), XDA Developers reports. What that means is that Android, by default, will allow users to check their Bluetooth devices battery on their phone.
Now, as noted by some engineers in the original post, some third parties — including Samsung, LG, and OnePlus — have supported the feature in their software for some time now, as has iOS. So in this case, Google is finally adding a feature to stock Android devices that others have been thinking about for a while. It is also not clear exactly when the feature will make its way to a full Android release — though considering the next Pixel is rumored to do away with the headphone jack, it wouldn’t be all that surprising to see it pop up in Android O.
We also do not yet know exactly how the feature will be implemented on Android. As noted in a report from The Verge, the battery status may show up in a notification or somewhere in the settings. Thankfully for phone manufacturers, it looks like the feature is customizable, so they can have it show up wherever they want or wherever it fits into their software.
Android O is the next major release of Android and its set to bring a number of new features. For example, as we noted in our hands-on review of the latest Android O Developer Preview, notifications are set to get revamped with Notification Dots — making the operating system a little more like iOS. On top of that, users will now also be able to snooze alerts and set them to pop up at a later time. To do that, you drag a notification to the right-hand side of the notification shade, and a little clock icon will appear. Tap on that will bring up the ability to reschedule the notification. Another major new feature in Android O is “Copy Less,” which basically uses machine learning to predict when you want to copy and paste text and the feature will do it automatically.
Android is getting an AI overhaul. Here’s what it looks like
At Google I/O 2024, Google has shown off a lot of new improvements coming to Android, thanks to Gemini. With Gemini, Android will be aware of the context on the screen in a variety of scenarios, which will make your life a lot easier. At least, according to Google.
Circle to Search, which was first shown off during Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event earlier this year, will be getting some new enhancements. Now, Circle to Search will be a great new study buddy for students. Why? Because it will be able to help with homework, like physics and math. You can simply circle a prompt on the screen, and it will give you step-by-step instructions on how to solve it.
Android, Wear OS, and Pixel may be Google's household names, but it was Google Gemini, its emerging AI technology, that stole the limelight at Google I/O 2024. The company's annual software celebration sets the stage for everything the company has planned for the coming year, and this year, CEO Sundar Pichai unambiguously declared that Google is in its "Gemini era." From AI searches in your Google Photos to virtual AI assistants that will work alongside you, Google is baking Gemini into absolutely everything, and the implications are enormous. Here's an overview of everything Google announced this year.
Gemini takeover
Users upload more than 6 billion photos to Google Photos every day, so it's little wonder that we could use a hand sifting through them all. Gemini will be added to Google Photos this summer, adding extra search abilities through the Ask Photos function. For instance, ask it "what's my license plate again" and it'll search through your photos to find the most likely answer, saving you from needing to manually look through your photos to find it yourself.
Google is making it easier for you to find and download Android apps
Google announced a wide range of features for Android phones at the I/O 2024 developers conference earlier today. However, the event was not all about user-facing changes. The company also revealed a handful of new tricks for developers to showcase their apps effectively while maintaining a vigilant eye on safety.
Among the most important changes -- one that is also going to make life easier for users - is support for more payment options. The most notable of these is support for installment subscriptions, which has already yielded positive results for developers in the early access phase.
