Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Android Feature Drop May 2024 | 7 BRAND NEW features detailed!”.
If you’re an Android nerd like I am, then the Android feature drops that come every few months are actually pretty exciting and today is no different, because we have a feature drop. That brings a couple of new features that you can try right away. W needs you to be part of the program and a few that are coming soon, so who knows when they will drop, but they will get here eventually. But let’s start with one that you can go off and you can use right away, and this is now that you get the ability to edit messages inside of Google messages. This has been around for ages on pretty much every other messaging, app that you can think of, and now, if you send a risky message, you get 15 minutes to edit that message and just pretend it was never sent.
You can only edit these RCS messages and once you do edit that message, the other person will just know it’s being edited, because there will be a constant edit tag. That’S on that message that you can both see it’s a really simple feature that we’ve been needing inside Google messages for ages, and it’s actually really simple to do you just long press that message as long as it’s been sent within 15 minutes, tap the pencil icon And you’re all set to edit, whatever you want inside of that message, message: sticking with messages there’s now some updates to the Emoji kitchen, we’ve seen Emoji kitchen for a while now, but there’s now some new combos that you can use inside gboard. I quite like this cuz, it’s like creating a super Emoji out of a couple of regular ones, we’re getting some new ones for festival season, so headphones and glitter ball kind of make this new headphone glitter ball combination. I don’t use Emoji kitchen that often, but if you’ve ever wanted to cook up your own emojis in emoji kitchen and add a glitter ball in headphones, then, luckily for you, this has been added with a new andro Android update next, if you’re someone that uses your Phone to hotspot to an Android tablet – or you might have a Chromebook that you do this with well now you can start to use this instant hotspot to share your data. So much quicker.
One of the worst things about hotspotting to any device is the fact you have to go into your settings. Go into Wi-Fi, find that hotspot put in the password and then connect, but with instant hotspot. It kind of eliminates.
All of that, for you, you need to make sure you have cross device Services enabled and be on the same. Google account for this to work but, like I said I Hotpot all the time, so this is going to make life so much easier and it feel like we should have just had this such a long time ago. Sadly, this is one of those features that is coming soon, so we don’t exactly know when it is coming to Android device, but it is coming and as soon as we know when it is coming, we will let you know the next new feature on this Android Feature drop is something that’s quite similar, and this is being able to change.
Google meet devices whenever you’re in the middle of a call, I’m pretty certain that we’ve all at some point connected to one of these Google meet calls when we’re meant to be at our desk, but we’re actually on our phone in Supermarket or at the gym, or Something and when you get back and you need to be on camera, you have to disconnect from your phone to connect over to your laptop well now you don’t have to do that disconnecting part again. If you have that cross device Services enabled just like you did for instant hotspot, all you need to do now is tap the Cast icon and then you can throw that call to whatever device you’re looking to move to without having to actually disconnect. And it’s just seamless – and this is something that we’ve needed for a while and now it’s finally here the next feature I have been wanting for years on Android and now we finally got it, because what you can do is add a Google home favorites widget to Your phone, basically, you can now create a widget on your home screen that shows you, your favorite smart home controls, so you can access this stuff so much quicker without having to go into that home app. This is my favorite part of the entire update, because I am so sick of asking Google to turn on and off lights or having to go into that home app and find the light that I want now. If it’s one of my favorites, it’s accessible right there on the home screen.
If you want to use this, though it is not just as simple as adding it from the widgets menu, you have to be part of the Google home public preview program, which is actually really simple to do. So, if you want to do this, all you have to do to be part of that program is go into your home, app, go to settings and then go right to the bottom and you’ll see a public preview option, and all you have to do is just Opt in there and it’s as simple as that and as well as getting this widget for your phone you’re, also getting something very similar for we OS now. So what you’re going to be able to do is get a Google home favorites tile. This works pretty similar to every other tile that you’ve ever had you just place it anywhere on your Ware OS device that is suitable for you, and then you get access to your home favorites, just like you did with that widget and if that’s not exciting enough.
There’S also going to be a complication but adding a shortcut to supported watch faces, which is something I think is really exciting. While we’re talking about where a though, if you live inside the us or Germany, you’re now able to pay with PayPal on your wrist, you need to have this link to your Google Wallet. Just like you would with any other credit or debit card. But then what you do is you simply add it to your watch. That runs whereare OS and it means you can now take funds directly from your PayPal account. Instead of having to use a credit or debit card when you’re paying for stuff on your wrist, which is a really nice addition, but remember this is only if you’re in the US or Germany digital car keys is getting a bit of an update today as well, And we’ve had this for a bit of time now, but it’s pretty much been limited to a couple of makes and models of car.
But today that is expanding to a few more we’re getting that expansion today. Finally – and this is coming to minis, holster and mercedesbenz, so if you have any of these cars and you might be able to access digital car keys, then this is something you might want to keep an eye out on, and that is all the big features of No inside this new Android feature drop some of them. Of course you can go use right now, like the Google messages, editing feature and some are coming soon eventually, but we will let you know exactly when they drop, so you can go off and start using them. Let me know what your favorite feature is of this new Android feature update before you head off as well, make sure you subscribe to the Android authority YouTube channel and I’m going to go off and cook some emojis in the Emoji kitchen. So I’ll see you in the next article .