Google Play Music design overhauled, machine learning for better discovery
Gus Lubin for Business Insider:
Play Music’s latest update blows up the concierge in favor of a new array of recommendations that pull from not only relevant activities (e.g., “focusing”) but also recent listening and recommended classics, new releases, and customized stations. In short, it’s pulling from a much wider range of sources. It’s also getting more use out of Play’s carefully curated stations, many of which where buried in some dark corner of concierge.
And the whole thing adjusts based on context, giving you different recommendations on your phone, on your computer, at the gym, and in the office.
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The new Play Music is not only smart but also wonderfully simple, putting it all on one neat page. If you scan the recommendations without seeing anything that excites you, you can always click “I’m Feeling Lucky Radio” for a unpredictable custom radio station based on something it knows you like. Not feeling that, and you can sort by new and top releases, create custom radio stations, and more.
Google Play Music has long been my music streaming service of choice and it just got even better. This is a great update, both aesthetically to the design of the service and technically to helping find that next great song or album too.
Also mentioned in this piece:
Spotify has excellent playlists, including the personalized Discover Weekly, and it’s great at surfacing hot new music—and for some that will make it the best. It remains a step behind Play Music on contextual recommendations, however, and if you ask me, it’s lagging in interface too, especially after Play’s update.
Apple Music? It has a clunky interface, even after a big update, with often contrived playlists.
It’s not about who has the better library of songs anymore. They’re all practically identical. Now, it’s all about how easy it is to navigate and bring the most relevant music to the surface. I’ve switched back and forth through the different services over the past year or so and, as mentioned, Google’s interface, features, and ease of use have for a long time made it the clear winner in my books. Now, with this new update, it’s not even close.
After spending some time with the new Google Play Music interface, i’ve noticed a fairly major issue. On the mobile app, it’s become much harder to specifically have new albums surfaced than it is custom radio stations. I’ll get the occasional new release but otherwise it’s entirely radio stations built around my habits. As someone who rarely used the radio feature prior, this doesn’t really fit my routine. It’s not the end of the world, as I use the desktop player most often as well as the “feeling lucky” playlist generator, but definitely something i’d want to see addressed in a future update.
Google just updated Gmail for iOS
Gmail for iOS is getting a big revamp today in what Google calls “the biggest overhaul of the app in nearly four years.” While it’s largely an aesthetic change, there are a few interesting new features to note.
First up, that new look: it’s a lot more like the Android app, with ample use of red for a more Material Design.
Feature-wise, the main addition is Undo Send, which means you now have a life-saver for those times you email the wrong person and notice immediately after.
While it’s nice to see Google updating one of their biggest apps on iOS and adding the option to undo send, I’ve noticed a handful of issues and features that appear to be either missing from the previous version of the app or from the Android version.
These include being able to toggle sender images on and off (currently always on) and, much more importantly, force images to display in emails. While you were prompted at the top of the incoming email in the previous version, that option is missing in the new Gmail app which has left me with empty or broken emails on more than one occasion. Another issue I’ve been having is being constantly routed through the “unread” inbox. I never use that. Just show me everything when I open the app, read or not.
This is a much needed step in the right direction for the Gmail app but it looks like it’ll be a while before it replaces a much more feature-rich and stable experience you’ll get from something like Spark for iPhone or even bring it back on par with the previous version in terms of reliability.
On the Pixel's apparent lack of premium features
Russell Holly for Android Central:
This is a fantastic phone, but there’s clearly room for improvement and it’s important to remember that as we place this phone on its pedestal. And yeah, I miss the Note 7. I can’t have a Note 7 though, and the S7 edge isn’t nearly as comfortable to hold and use. So it’s a Pixel for me for now, in hopes that Google figures out how to really push for premium next time.
I’ve never been able to wrap my head around the “make it or break it” attitude some people have for expandable storage and wireless charging. For starters, I’ve yet to have an experience with expandable storage on an Android phone that wasn’t clunky and frustrating. Storage is usually mishandled from app to app, causing errors and weird file management issues, at which point I usually remove my memory card and just use the phone without it.
As for Wireless charging, it’s always been a bit of a half-baked idea in my opinion. I’ve owned a couple phones that had the capability to charge wirelessly and never once thought it was something that really worked well and added much value. Between the technology failing outright or the phone needing to be adjusted constantly to have the charging kick in, I don't think it's fully baked yet.
In my experience, these features don’t yet deliver a consistently premium experience, so why expect them in a premium phone?
Google debuts Spaces, a new group sharing app
When someone shares something new to a space, the conversational view lets you see what the group is talking about without missing a beat. And if you ever want to find something that was shared earlier—articles, videos, comments or even images—a quick search lets you pull it up in a snap.
Google’s Spaces comes too little, too late in my opinion. The pitch for the app is that people need a way to keep all their shared items and conversations in one convenient place. The issue with that is that people have already found solutions to this issue. Current messaging apps do a pretty great job of keeping these conversations organized to that point where Spaces really isn’t needed.
That said, Spaces isn’t without merit. The use of Material Design is pretty solid, even on iOS. The app functions well and doesn’t need much from users to get up and running. The baked-in Google Search and YouTube is also really nice and makes the experience pretty frictionless. This is clearly something the company is getting more and more interested in doing as we’ve also seen Search make its way into Google’s recent Gboard iOS keyboard replacement.
In many ways, Spaces is a rethinking of Google+’s Collections feature which, like most things features within the social network, hasn’t seen a ton of traction from the rest of the online world not using the service on a regular basis. Sadly, I feel like Spaces may be destined for the same fate. The design is nice and intuitive. Again, mimicking Google’s social network in many ways. If you’re a fairly active G+ user, Spaces might be just what the doctor ordered but, for the rest of us, there isn’t a ton of reason to move the party over to this new app, at least not yet.
Google debuts new family of Play icons
You’ll start to see the new Google Play icons across devices and online in the coming weeks. We hope you’ll continue enjoying the Play family of products—now with a new look.
I really dig the new look. Very consistent, seems like they’ll play well with the design Google’s slowly refined over the past couple of years. I’m especially excited to see that new Play Music icon make its way (hopefully) over to iOS. The current app icon is, to put it lightly, not my favourite.
Google working on Echo-like hardware
Google executives have seen and heard all the positive buzz around Amazon’s Echo speaker, and now the company is said to be preparing a similar product for the home. The Information is reporting on a “secret Google project to create a competitor to Amazon’s echo,” though the story offers no details on the product’s features, nor potential pricing or any release timeframe. The nugget is part of a report that details a “stalled” and struggling Nest, the company that Google acquired in 2014.
It’s shocking to me, given the success Amazon has had with the Echo, that competitors like Apple and Google have waited so long to release something similar and getting the Nest team onboard seems like a slam dunk.
Google's visual identity
We were invited to create a new visual identity for GOOGLE that would adapt to the ever-evolving multi-screen world, without losing the speed and simplicity users love. No small task with over 12 billion searches made monthly and ~200 GOOGLE products to consider. The result is a dynamic system of components beyond the iconic logo.
This is a great case study. I love seeing how an identity of this size appears across a number of surfaces and I can appreciate the work the team put into having a clear, consistent message and vision. The difference between design at Google a handful of years ago and design at Google now really seems to be night and day.
Given how it was covered during the initial reveal, I always assumed that Google had developed the logo in-house. It’s interesting to see not only a company the size of Google taking much of their design work outside of its own walls but also having their Material team work so closely alongside other design firms.
Google ads going all-HTML, banning Flash
On the Adwords Google+ page, Google just announced a timeline for banishing Flash from its advertising network, announcing that “Google Display Network and DoubleClick Digital Marketing are now going 100% HTML5.
Thank goodness. This cannot possibly happen soon enough.
Google updates Chrome for iOS: now faster, more stable
Google has pushed an update to its Chrome browser for iPhone and iPad, making it nearly 70 percent more stable as well as much faster. The browser now uses Apple’s latest rendering engine, WKWebView, which provides an overall better experience on the iPad and iPhone.
While Chrome has never been unusable on the iPhone, it’s never felt nearly as polished as Apple’s own Safari browser. With the new version, Google has closed the gap and once again shown their dedication to iOS, despite it being a competitor.
Google and Ford working together on self-driving cars
Google just found a major partner for its self-driving car program. A report from Yahoo Autos claims that, during CES, Ford will announce a joint venture between it and Google to build self-driving cars.
Similar to how the company handles its Nexus line of phones, it only makes sense to keep the hardware in the hands of people who’ve been doing it for years and let Google handle the software.
Interesting contrast to how Apple is handling the development of their car project, which is apparently being done entirely in-house but includes former Ford employees amongst others.
Google Hangouts for iOS gets a redesign
Frustrated with the Google Hangouts app on iOS from time to time? Us too. Mountain View updated the mobile software today with a refreshed UI and more. First, you’ll likely notice the new coat of Material Design paint that tidies things up a bit. Heck, even the dialer got a redesign.
Interesting to see the iOS version of the new Hangouts arrive ahead of Google’s own Android. Although, I’d argue the iOS version has lagged behind for a while now and needed a much larger refresh anyway.
Having played around with the update this afternoon, it’s a very welcome change and brings the experience together nicely when paired with the recently refreshed Hangouts Chrome app.
First look at Google's new photo service
Liam Spradlin for Android Police:
We’ve been hearing for a very long time (…) that Photos would be splitting off from Google’s social/sign-in platform. We’ve heard vague rumblings, and even seen some baby steps toward this split, but now we have something a bit more substantial to go on – an exclusive early look at Google’s new Photos app, separate from Google+ and improved in a number of ways.
After months of rumours, Google’s online photo solution (in particular, one that doesn’t require users be a member of Google+) begins to takes shape. While the look of the app doesn’t stray too far from the current Android Photos app, it’s really what’s under the hood that matters here.
Rumoured features such as enhanced sharing (Facebook, Twitter) as well as the inclusion of Google’s Auto Awesome (along with the ability for users to modify the settings themselves) will likely make this a pretty great solution for users who, like myself, have their images backed up to Google’s servers.
No date announced for this update to reach users but with I/O right around the corner, you’d have to imagine it can’t be far away.
Google Calendar hits iOS
Do you prefer the iPhone, but would like to use Google’s calendar app to keep track of your life rather than Apple’s own? That’s finally an option. Google Calendar has launched for the iPhone, giving you the same schedule view, Gmail events and broad account support (including Exchange and iCloud) as your Android-toting buddies.
At long last, Google’s gorgeous Material Design-y calendar arrives on iPhone and should be an instant replacement for people who still use the stock iOS calendar.
While it’s not quite as rich in features as Sunrise, which includes a Notification Center widget (Google Calendar v2.0?), and a desktop version of the application for Mac, i’d argue it’s easily the best looking option on iPhone with buttery smooth performance, fun little graphics for the month headings, a neat little map displayed for location based events, and more.
My biggest issue? The truncated app title on my home screen, which i’m sure everyone else would argue is a small concern and the definition of a first world problem.
Even still, Google’s new calendar app is more than worth your time. It’ll sync with a variety of services, so you’re not just limited to those that Google provides, and you’ll still be able to check out Material Design in all it’s wonderfully colourful glory.