During the event, Google announced some great new features for Android and Wear OS devices. Mobile World Congress 2023 in Barcelona, Spain. These new features will start rolling out today, February 27th, with more coming later.
New Android features available from February 27th
Google Drive users will now be able to leave handwritten comments on Android phones and tablets. This means you can now use your stylus or your fingers to annotate PDFs directly in the Google Drive app on Android.
Google Meet users will now get noise reduction on Android phones and tablets. The noise canceling feature will filter out distracting background sounds during a call. Those using the Gboard keyboard now have a new emoji kitchen where you can mix, remix, and share sticker-style emoji combinations.
Chrome users on Android will now have access to page zoom. This first starts in Chrome Beta and then becomes available to everyone in the general version. With page zoom, you can easily increase content size up to 300% in Chrome browser. This includes text, images, videos, and even interactive controls. Even though it’s enlarged, it still retains the layout of the page. You can also set your preferred content size as the default setting, eliminating the need to change it every time you use Chrome.
If you already have access to the beta version of Chrome, you can try this feature right now by going to Settings > Accessibility in the Chrome browser app.
New Android and Wear OS features will be added
For now, the features we just mentioned should arrive today. But that’s not all, though Google hasn’t yet given an exact release date for the next new features other than “soon.”
Google Wallet is getting a payment touch animation to help provide visual context for in-store transaction confirmation. These animations include funny penguins and other characters.
Google Keep users will soon be able to have a single note widget that allows them to manage their notes and to-do lists from the home screen widget. The widget will display reminders, background colors, and images added to the app’s notes, all synced to your smartwatch. In addition, Wear OS users will be able to get new features of Google Keep: two new shortcuts for Wear OS 3 allow you to create notes and to-do lists by simply touching the watch face.
There will also be two new sound and display modes for Wear OS users, improving overall watch accessibility. Mono audio limits the disorientation that can be caused by audio separation, while color and grayscale connection modes offer more options for those who need more viewing options.
Finally, Chromebook users will get Fast Pair, which makes it easy to pair and connect to your Chromebook’s headphones. If you’ve already set up a headset on your Android phone, your Chromebook will automatically connect to it when it’s in range.
Source: Digital Trends
