Google Maps will finally get Google Assistant

You may or may not have noticed but Google Maps’ navigation mode has been using Google’s old voice search functionality all this time. Finally, that’s going to change in the near future. Google announced at Google I/O 2018 that Google Assistant is finally coming to the app. It’ll be rolling out to Android devices this summer and will be coming to the iOS Maps app later in the year. Unlike it’s usual format of having Google Assistant take up most of the screen, on Maps it’ll show up as a small bar at the bottom of the navigation screen.

Source: Android Police

Google introduces Smart Compose for Gmail

Google’s introducing an extension to its Smart Reply feature on Gmail. Called Smart Compose, it’ll suggest complete sentences in the body of your email as you type. Similar to autocomplete on phones, it works as you compose your message and you just need to hit tab for the text to auto-populate your message. The feature aims to help you save time and help prevent any spelling or grammatical mistakes. Smart Compose will also recognize context. So if you send out an email on Friday, it will prompt you to add “Have a great weekend!”

The feature is supposed to roll out to all Gmail consumer users later this month, while G Suite customers can access it in the coming months. You will need to have enabled the new Gmail (which you can access through the gear icon on the top right) to get access to Smart Compose. From there, you head into the general tab of settings and scroll down and enable “experimental access.”

Google revamps News app, taps AI to improve personalization

Google is going to be replacing its Play Newsstand and News & Weather apps to bring to Android and iOS users the new News app. It’s going to rely on artificial intelligence to scour the web for articles, videos, podcasts, and comments and bring you items based on your interests. According to Trystan Upstill, an engineer working on News, you won’t need to give your preferences for the app to provide you news items you might be interested in. Instead, it’s going to rely on what it learns from you as you use it. “Our AI constantly reads the firehose of the web for you,” Upstill said.

The app now offers a Full Coverage section, which will show you deeper insight into a specific event. You’ll see top stories from different publications, timeline, videos, and opinion pieces. On top of this, there is also a Headlines section for the biggest stories available, and Newsstand for finding reliable and credible sources to follow. This is also where you can subscribe to your favorite publications. For the paid subscriptions, you won’t need fill out a form or provide payment information, you can simply pay using your Google sign-in information. The new app has begun rolling to both mobile platforms and the web and is expected to come to 127 countries by next week.

Source: CNET

Google acknowledges we're on our devices too much, proposes some time management solutions

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

What was most impressive was the company's acknowledgement that we are spending too much time glued to our devices and that we're missin out on real life by being mired down by notifications and being distracted by social media, mobile games, infinite scroll experiences like Instagram of Facebook.

There were a lot of cool announcements today at Google I/O, the yearly pow-wow for all things Google. This is usually the time when we see the next version of Android as well as enhancements and improvements to the Google ecosystem, large as it is. Android is the world's leading smartphone platform with well over two billion user install base.

Google showed off smart functions of Google Assistant that can enable it to make calls and appointments just like a real assistant can. Improvement to the Photos app that can colour old Black and White photos using Machine Learning algorithms. Improved keyboard functionality and more intuitive Android OS features across the board.

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