Google is bringing Reading Mode and more features to Android phones, tablets
Google has announced a bunch of new features for Android smartphones and tablets. It also unveiled a few features for Wear OS-based smartwatches. All these features will soon come to Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches. Some of these features include a system-wide Reading Mode, improved Google Cast, sharing Digital Car Keys, new collage styles in the Google Photos app, replies to specific messages in Google Messages, new emoji mashups, and better security prompts.
The Reading Mode app can be installed on any Android smartphone or tablet via the Play Store. It extracts text from any app or webpage and displays it without pesky ads and pop-ups. It also lets you adjust the font, font size, line spacing, background color, and switch between dark and light modes. It can even turn text into speech through Android’s built-in Text To Speech feature, which means you can choose the playback speed and voice (English, French, Italian, and Spanish) for the selected text. This accessibility-based app is available for all Android 9.0 (and above) devices.
The new Google TV app lets you cast any video with a single tap and continue browsing other content. The app can be used as a remote controller for a compatible Android TV or Google TV-based smart TV. Google is also making it easier to securely share Digital Car Keys through the Google Wallet app, and it works with Android and iOS. Speaking of security, Google apps will now display a safety alert, and you can tap it to take recommended actions to improve your account safety.
Google Photos is getting new collage styles from talented artists DABSMYLA and Yao Cheng. The Google Messages app is also getting smaller improvements, including a way to reply to a specific message and see which message you’re replying to so you can be sure where the conversation was and where it’s going. With the Google Keyboard app, Google is bringing more emoji mashups through the Emoji Kitchen feature.