what i need now
- Google announced the latest Android feature drop at MWC 2023.
- Google Keep now has a new widget for Android and a new shortcut for Wear OS smartwatches.
- Android phones also get new Chrome accessibility features, an emoji kitchen combo, and noise cancellation for Google Meet.
MWC 2023 is coming soon. Google will be at the show in Barcelona, Spain to reveal additional features for devices in the Android ecosystem. Feature additions planned for Q1 2023 bring several improvements to smartphones, smartwatches and Chromebooks, including new app shortcuts, accessibility updates, and new ways to connect to ChromeOS.
New shortcuts added to Google Keep
Google continues to steadily improve your favorite note-taking app. And with Keep’s latest update, he’ll be able to easily add or edit notes from his Android home screen or his Wear OS watch face.
On Android, Google is rolling out new widgets for Keep. This widget only shows one note instead of showing the whole list. This way, you can easily view and edit important notes and to-do lists without digging into them. Notes will still display images and backgrounds in the widget and will continue to sync across devices as you edit.
On Wear OS, Google Keep already has a handy tile that lets you easily add new notes by swiping from your watch face. Keep will soon have new complications that users can add to their watch faces. Two new shortcuts let users create new notes and to-do lists from their Wear OS watch without opening the app or swiping to a tile.
accessibility
Speaking of Wear OS, the platform gains new audio and visual accessibility features. Google is introducing a mono audio setting for Wear OS 3 smartwatches. This helps users with improved hearing in a year and hears everything better. Additionally, Wear OS adds color correction and grayscale modes for your display.
For Android phones, the Chrome browser also adds visual accessibility updates, allowing users to increase the size of content within the browser by up to 300% and set their preferred size as the default.
This feature is already available in Chrome Beta. Settings > Accessibilitybut will be rolled out more broadly in March.
Other updates for Android and ChromeOS
With March Madness approaching, Google is expanding its Emoji Kitchen combo with new spring and basketball-related emojis. Google Wallet is also getting new animations for tap to confirm payments, including a cute penguin.
Noise cancellation for Google Meet calls is coming to more Android phones, and Chromebooks announced Fast Pair last year, allowing you to “connect your new Bluetooth headphones to your Chromebook with a single tap.” increase.
Finally, Google makes it easy to annotate PDFs on Drive using your Android’s touch screen or stylus. It allows users to mark up pages and images with various ink strokes or to emphasize important text. The user can then save another copy of the annotated PDF.
Some features, like annotated PDFs in Drive, the new Emoji Kitchen mashup, enhanced Google Meet noise cancellation, and page zoom in Chrome, will launch on Monday. Other features, such as new wallet animations, will start rolling out as soon as next week, but Google hasn’t elaborated on the exact timing of the remaining features.
The Pixel Watch is a sleek and sexy example of what Wear OS can do, with a beautiful display, great performance, and a wealth of features to help you track your health and fitness goals.
