The Google I/O keynote might have been all about AI, however there have been a handful of different significant updates that didn’t make it to the primary stage. Along with updates coming to Google Pockets, the corporate’s developer classes additionally revealed helpful options that can roll out to smartwatches, the Google Play Retailer, and Google TV.
Listed here are among the updates Google didn’t spotlight through the keynote.
Dwell Updates are coming to your smartwatch
Google is making ready to carry Dwell Updates — a characteristic that lets customers observe the standing of sure actions in supply, rideshare, and navigation apps — to your smartwatch. We already knew about Google’s plans to carry it to smartphones with Android 16, however in a developer session noticed by Android Authority, Google’s Aaron Labiaga confirmed that it’s going to additionally work on wearables “later in 2026.”
Apple already has an analogous characteristic, known as Dwell Actions, that shows at-a-glance standing data on watchOS gadgets.
Google Pockets can take out your boarding cross while you get to the airport
Google introduced a bundle of upgrades for Google Pockets, together with a brand new “Close by Passes notification.” If you happen to allow the characteristic, Google Pockets will immediate you to take out your cross while you attain a location the place you may want to make use of it, like a espresso store, airport, or fitness center. “This notification serves as a direct gateway, permitting customers to seamlessly entry the related cross with a single faucet,” Google says.
Moreover, Google revealed that it’s increasing digital IDs to Arkansas, Montana, Puerto Rico, and West Virginia, and can also be including assist for UK passports. It is going to additionally enable airways with loyalty playing cards “routinely push” boarding passes to customers’ wallets upon check-in.
Google Play will allow you to ask somebody to pay for you
The Google Play Retailer is including a brand new “Ask another person to pay” button. The characteristic is precisely what it seems like: it can let customers “request purchases” from folks exterior their Google Household by sending them a fee hyperlink. It launched in India first, however now it’s coming to the US, Japan, Indonesia, and Mexico.
Google can also be attempting to streamline checkouts by letting customers purchase subscription add-ons with a base subscription with “one value and one transaction.”
Moreover, Google is attempting to make it simpler to cease the rollout of buggy apps as effectively. The corporate says it can let builders “halt fully-live releases” to forestall “the distribution of problematic variations to new customers.” The Play Retailer can also be letting builders improve their listings with a content material carousel and YouTube playlist, together with audio samples for well being and wellness app builders.
There are new matter pages, too, that can let customers flick thru “well timed, related, and visually partaking content material” for reveals, films, and sports activities on the Play Retailer.
Google and Samsung’s audio codec is coming to Google TV
Android 16 is coming to Google TV, introducing some Materials 3 Expressive design adjustments, based on 9to5Google. It additionally provides new options like MediaQualityManager, which can let apps routinely “take management over deciding on image profiles.” Google TV will assist the Eclispa Audio codec, the spatial audio format that Google and Samsung are engaged on, as effectively.
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