Google News

After two long, complicated years, every Android user worldwide (outside China and Russia) now has access to the next-gen texting standard that is replacing SMS. Google is directly offering RCS chat services through its Android Messages app to anybody who installs it and uses it as their default texting app, which partly bypasses a carrier rollout that, at times, has ranged from sluggish to incoherent to broken. Just as importantly, Google has announced that it’s finally beginning to… Source link

Google announced in late May that sometime in 2021, it will be adding three new search signals into the mix to play into a website’s overall page experience score and, therefore, a website’s overall search engine results pages (SERP) visibility. Beginning in May 2021, Core Web Vitals will begin making up 3/7 of the search signals Google uses to decide a webpage’s “page experience” score. The actual weight of each signal hasn’t been unannounced. To help webmasters prepare for the… Source link

Google recently tapped the Grammy-winning musician to score a series of animated commercials promoting its #BlackOwnedFriday campaign, encouraging shoppers to “buy Black” on Black Friday next week and beyond. “This is going to be a day to galvanize people to support Black businesses,” Jean told CNN Business. “When you look at where we’re at economically with the small businesses, I felt like this campaign is really vital.” The campaign aims to redefine the Friday after Thanksgiving — an… Source link

Google is adding new rewards and banking features to its Google Pay wallet. Associated Press Alphabet Inc. will soon let customers apply for digital bank accounts though its Google… Source link

Google’s Gmail application has been updated for iOS 14 with a new widget — but it’s probably not the kind of Gmail widget you may have been hoping for. Right now, there’s just a single iOS 14 Gmail widget that just does one thing: offer quick links to your inbox, the compose menu, or search. There’s no real preview of your inbox content, no ability to triage mail through archiving or deleting without opening the app, or any way to read an incoming message. The most interactive… Source link

Google has announced new family-oriented updates for Assistant and Fi, which can be potentially useful whether you’ve all been under the same roof for the duration of the pandemic or you’re making plans to visit for the holidays. Assistant’s changes are primarily focused on smart displays like the Nest Hub Max, in which a number of old and new features will be collected in a new section called the “Family Tab.” … Source link

Google is launching a major redesign of its Google Pay app on both Android and iOS today. Like similar phone-based contactless payment services, Google Pay — or Android Pay as it was known then — started out as a basic replacement for your credit card. Over time, the company added a few more features on top of that but the overall focus never really changed. After about five years in the market, Google Pay now has about 150 million users in 30 countries. With today’s update and… Source link

Today, Google Pay for both Android and iOS is relaunching with a giant array of new features. It turns the app from something that most people think of as a tap-to-pay card repository or peer-to-peer payment system into a much more ambitious service. The new app begins rolling out across the United States today. The new version of the app will have three new tabs: “Pay,” which includes peer-to-peer payments as well as your transaction history using tap-to-pay; “Explore,” which… Source link

Google unveiled a tool today that could help cities keep their residents cool by mapping out where trees are needed most. Cities tend to be warmer than surrounding areas because buildings and asphalt trap heat. An easy way to cool metropolitan areas down is to plant more trees in neighborhoods where they’re sparse. The hope is that planting new trees in these areas could help cities adapt to a warming world Google’s new Tree Canopy Lab uses aerial imagery and Google’s AI to figure… Source link