HIGHLIGHTS
* Google has announced its latest Pixel Feature Drop .
* The new drop brings exciting features for phones, tablets, and smartwatches.
* The company has added seven new features in the Pixel Feature Drop in June 2023.
* Dark Web report will be launched in 20 countries in the coming months
* Users can remix emojis into stickers now
* Google News home screen widget will offer latest headlines
Google has announced the latest June 2023 Pixel Feature Drop for Android and Wear OS users. The company drops these quarterly updates in the last month of every quarter to keep things fresh for its users and give them new features to play with.
The last feature drop came mid-march with 5G support, Magic Eraser for all pixel devices, Direct My Call, and more. The latest June 2023 Pixel Feature Drop brings seven features for phones, tablets, and smartwatches. Read on ahead to know which features have been added to the latest drop.
Google has unveiled a slew of features for Android smartphones, tablets, and Wear OS smartwatches on Thursday. The latest improvements include three new widgets for Google Finance, Google TV, and Google New for customising the Android phone or tablet home screen.
On top of that, Google’s June feature update brings “Reading practice” mode on Google Play Books to improve the vocabulary and comprehension skills of users. The Emoji Kitchen now lets users remix their favourite emoji into stickers.
Further, the tech giant is offering Dark Web Reports available to Google One account holders in the US.
Google on June 1, announced the addition of new features coming soon to Android smartphones, tablets, and Wear OS smartwatches via a blog post. Google Play Books is getting a “Reading practice” functionality. This new mode will help readers improve their vocabulary and comprehension skills using their Android phones or tablets.
With this, readers can hear the pronunciation of unknown words, practice mispronounced words, and receive feedback in real time. This is supported by e-books marked with a “Practice” badge in Google Play Books.
Further, Google is bringing three new widgets — Google Finance, Google TV, and Google News — for phones and tablets. This would allow users to customise the home screen of their devices with shortcuts and find personalised movie and stock suggestions, and important headlines right at their fingertips.
Emoji Kitchen is getting upgrades as part of the June feature drop. Now, users can remix emojis into stickers to send as messages via Gboard.
Additionally, the Dark Web report, which was previously available to Google One account holders in the US, is getting a wider rollout. First announced at I/O 2023, the feature allows users to check if their details have been exposed on the Dark Web and receive guidance on the actions they can take to protect themselves online.
Google One members in the US can scan for additional personal information, such as their social security number through the website and App. The Dark Web report will be launched in 20 countries in the coming months.
Google Pixel Feature Drop June 2023: What’s New
Dark Web Report
The Dark Web Report is a handy feature that lets users know if their Gmail account has been compromised. Available to most Google One users in the US, the feature scans the dark web to check if the Gmail account has been exposed and if any of their stolen data is found on the dark web.
The feature will then suggest steps to protect the stolen info. Users simply need to select personal data that they want to be monitored. Google has announced that the feature will available in over 20 more countries in the coming months.
Reading Practice
Reading Practice is a new feature available in Google Play Books. Android phone and tablet users can check for eBooks marked as ‘practice’ in Play Books to check this feature. It helps in improving the comprehension skills and vocabulary of the readers. According to Google, users can “hear the pronunciation of unknown words, practice mispronounced words, and receive feedback in real-time.”
New Android Widgets
With the latest feature drop, Google has also introduced three new Android widgets for its users to check out. These include Google TV, Google Finance, and Google News widgets. As the names suggest, the Google TV widget shows personalised suggestions for movies and TV shows. The finance widget shows select stocks’ graphs and the news widget displays daily headlines specially curated for the users directly on the homescreen.
New Emoji Kitchen Combinations
The Google Keyboard offers an Emoji Kitchen feature, which lets Android users mix and match existing emojis to create interesting stickers. Google is known for dropping interesting emoji mashups from time to time. The new Pixel Feature Drop brings aquatic-theme mashup, where users can combine shark, dolphin, and whale emojis with other emojis to create fun new emojis (the picture above shows the combination of shark and laughing face emoji).
Spotify Tiles
Google has also improved the music listening experience for Spotify for Wear OS users. The June Pixel Feature Drop brings new Spotify tiles and watch face shortcuts for the music streaming app. Now, Wear OS smartwatch users can conveniently and quickly access their Spotify playlists on their smartwatch.
Improved Google Wallet
Google has also improved Google Wallet to include SmarTrip and Clipper cards. Commuters can now simply tap their Pixel devices and enjoy the ride. However, Google mentions that the service is currently available only in Washington, D.C., and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Google Keep Tile
Google has also introduced a tile for its Google Keep for Wear OS app. Users can create individual notes like shopping or a to-do list and pin them on the watch face through a tile for quick access. They can then simply swipe through their tiles to find the pinned note quickly.
These are all the new feature introduced by Google in its June Pixel Feature Drop. While these features will roll out to Pixel devices first, they will arrive on all other Android phones and tablets as well soon.
Faqs
1) Android’s June feature drop is here, bringing new skills, widgets, and more
Ans) What you need to know
* Google drops new Android features for June 2023.
* The company has announced seven new updates and features.
* These are spread across Android phones, tablets, and Wear OS smartwatches.
Google had a two-hour keynote at its I/O event last month and while the emphasis was primarily on AI, there were a few hardware announcements next to software enhancements. Google has announced seven new updates today to make Android devices like phones, tablets, and Wear OS smartwatches more helpful.
Dark Web report to scan your Gmail address
Google is leveling up regarding protection, and as part of the initiative, it now provides a Dark web report. Google One users would be able to check if their Gmail address has been exposed on the Dark Web. Users can check this through the Google One app on their Android devices or through the Google One website.
If their Gmail is supposedly compromised, they can seek guidance from Google, such as taking measures to be safe online. Users can not only scan their Gmail addresses. Still, they can also check personal information such as their associated social security number.
Access to the Dark web report is currently limited to U.S. citizens. However, it plans to expand to 20 more countries in the coming months.
To have a more enhanced experience Spotify on Wear OS is getting updated with new tiles and watch face shortcuts. Additionally, the music streaming platform’s DJ feature promises to deliver a personalized lineup of music, the ability to stream podcasts, and hear frequently played music.
Other nifty features coming to Wear OS include importing SmarTrip and Clipper cards through Google Wallet and using them via a WearOS smartwatch. Commuters from Washington, D.C., and the San Francisco Bay Area are the first ones to avail the new ability.
Consumers who heavily rely on Google Keep to stay on track can now add a new tile for fast access right on their wrist via Google Keep app for Wear OS. Users can swipe through their tiles and find pinned notes or a to-do list on their smartwatches.
Greet your Home Screen with these three widgets
With the latest feature drop, Google is bringing new widgets to your Android phone and tablets. They include a Google TV widget that gives entertainment suggestions like what to stream. Then there’s a new Google News widget curated with daily headlines.
Further, users who are into stocks all day can keep track of their favorites with the help of stock tracking from the Google Finance widget on their home screens.
Improving vocabulary with Google Play Books
Within Google Play Books, the search giant is bringing a new “reading practice” feature with an aim to improve vocabulary and comprehension skills for new readers. Users can head over to children’s ebooks that are marked with a “Practice” badge in Google Play Books.
Readers will be able to “hear the pronunciation of unknown words, practice mispronounced words and receive feedback in real time,“ Google stated in the announcement blog post.
Gboard gets new Emoji Kitchen stickers
Gboard is also getting Emoji Kitchen stickers, a fun way to interact within conversations. Users will be able to remix their emoji into stickers, and the new emojis that are being added as part of this month’s feature drop include aquatic-themed emoji combinations.
2) New Android feature drop will scan the dark web for your Gmail address
Ans) Google has announced the latest of its regular Android ‘Feature Drop’ releases, bringing seven new features to Google-powered smartphones, tablets and smartwatches.
Perhaps headlining the new feature set, although Google places at the bottom of its blog post, is the ability to search the dark web for a Gmail address.
With dark web report, now available for Google account holders in the US, users can “run scans to see if your Gmail address has been exposed on the dark web, and receive guidance on the actions you can take to protect yourself online.”
Google plans to expand this feature to include 20 more countries in the coming months, so we can assume the UK will be among those.
There’s also a helpful-sounding reading practice feature for Google Books. For books marked with the Practice badge, younger readers will be able to hear the correct pronunciation of unusual words and also practice that pronunciation. Pretty cool.
Google has also launched three new Android home screen widgets for phones and tablets. They’ll give you personalised recommendations from Google TV, as well as Google Finance and Google News.
The Spotify Wear OS app is also getting an update to include the recently-released Spotify DJ feature. The AI-powered feature is designed to deliver a personalised array of streaming content, complete with a DJ explaining exactly why it serving up the tunes or podcasts. The app also features new tiles and watch face shortcuts for Spotify on Wear OS.
Speaking of Wear OS, there’s fast access to a Google Keep note via pinned lists, while there are new aquatic themed emoji mashups available within the Gboard keyboard app.