Google app v8.10 beta prepares image search from screenshots, Routines to lock doors, and much more [APK Teardown]

The Google devs are at it again with another late-night rollout of the Google app. Like most others, this update doesn't appear to bring any specific live changes, but it does include clues for a lot of th e upcoming changes. There's plenty here to talk about, so let's just jump into it. Teardown Disclaimer: Teardowns are based on evidence found inside of apks (Android's application package) and are necessarily speculative and usually based on incomplete information. Read More Google app v8.10 beta prepares image search from screenshots, Routines to lock doors, and much more [APK Teardown] was written by the awesome team at Android Police. Android Match ae http://androidmatch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

[Update: APK download] Uber is piloting a Lite version of its rider app in India

Update 1: 2018/06/30 11:19am PDT We've now got the Uber Lite APK over at APK Mirror. We also have its Play Store link, though it's not live to the public yet. If you're Scaled down versions of apps are nothing new; Google has made plenty of "Go" apps made specifically for emerging markets where internet connections are unreliable, phones are generally less capable, and plans offer less data. Uber is now getting in on the act, too. Read More [Update: APK download] Uber is piloting a Lite version of its rider app in India was written by the awesome team at Android Police. Android Match ae http://androidmatch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Experimental 'Chrome Duplex' UI now has a tweaked address bar and easy tab switching

Google has been working on a new Chrome Android interface for nearly two years now. The first iteration was 'Chrome Home', which moved the address b ar to the bottom of the screen. That interface was essentially done, but Google decided to scrap it for unknown reasons. The project was changed to 'Chrome Duplex' in February, with the address bar back at the top and a new toolbar at the bottom (much like Samsung Internet). Read More Experimen tal 'Chrome Duplex' UI now has a tweaked address bar and easy tab switching was written by the awesome team at Android Police. Android Match ae http://androidmatch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Google Play Movies & TV expands HDR cast support to Nvidia Shield TV, Sony smart TVs

Almost a year ago, HDR support came to Google Play Movies & TV by way of Google's 4K streaming dongle, the Chromecast Ultra. Now, compatible Sony smart TVs and the best Android set-top box in the game, Nvidia Shield TV, are getting support for HDR content from Google Play as well — but only if it's cast from another device. Of course, you can't watch HDR movies on just any old screen. Read More Google Play Movies & TV expands HDR cast support to Nvidia Shield TV, Sony smart TVs was written by the awesome team at Android Police. Android Match ae http://androidmatch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

13 new and notable Android apps from the last week including Instagram Lite, BBC Sounds, and Navbar Weather (6/24/18 - 6/30/18)

Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so. This week I have a few exceptional apps I would like to highlights such as Instagram Lite, BBC Sounds, and Navbar Weather. Heck,there is even an app for all you Pokémon GO fans out there with the release of Silph Road. Read More 13 new and notable Android apps from the last week including Instagram Lite, BBC Sounds, and Navbar Weather (6/24/18 - 6/30/18) was written by the awesome team at Android Police. Android Match ae http://androidmatch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

LG Stylo 4 with 6.2-inch display heading to Cricket Wireless

It has been over a year since the LG Stylo 3 started making the rounds at wireless carriers, so now it's time for the handset's successor to show up. Cricket Wireless is launching the LG Stylo 4 at a price of $230. What you get for that price tag? A 6.2-inch Full HD display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of built-in storage, and a battery that measures in at 3300mAh. The Stylo 4 is also equipped with a 13MP rear camera, a 5MP front-facing camera, and Android 8.1 Oreo. There's also a stylus in the box, and LG has thrown in more than a few features to help take advantage of the accessory: Pen Pop – helps you quickly launch note taking and screen writing apps when you pull out the stylus. Screen-off Memo – lets you instantly jot down brilliant ideas! –Just write, no need to turn on the screen! Pen Keeper – ensures you never get too far from your stylus. A pop-up message lets you know when you haven't stored it back away. GIF Capture – allows you to capture and create GIF files from video Pop Lens – when reading, use the stylus to magnify text and view clearly. So, that's the LG Stylo 4. Does the mid-range handset catch your attention at all? Android Match ae http://androidmatch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Improving discovery of quality apps and games on the Play Store

Posted by Paul Bankhead, Director, Product Management, Google Play Every day, millions of people come to the Play Store to discover the best apps and games. As part of our continued effort to deliver great experiences to our users, we regularly update the Play Store to help people find and discover safe, high quality, and relevant apps and games. Over the last year, we've been enhancing our search and discovery algorithms' consideration of app quality and user engagement. This means that apps and games that have high retention rates, low crash rates, low uninstalls, and many other factors, are recommended more often. Recently, we increased the importance of engagement and app quality in our recommendation systems and users rea cted favorably to the changes. With more high quality titles being surfaced in the Play Store's recommendations, people are playing the games they download more often. We believe that providing great experiences for our users on Google Play will encourage a healthier, growing Android ecosystem. We encourage all developers to review some of the suggestions in this post and on developers.android.com for guidance and best practices. Android Match ae http://androidmatch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

YouTube TV is down for many subscribers, but Google is working on it

Looking to kick back and relax this F riday afternoon with some streaming TV courtesy of Google? Well, your plans might be on hold. We're getting multiple reports of YouTube TV outages. Streams are failing to load left and right, and some users can't even log in. According to Outage Report, there are around 100 users with issues each day. That number could easily be because of user error. Today, there have been almost 2,000 reports. Read More YouTube TV is down for many subscribers, but Google is working on it was written by the awesome team at Android Police. Android Match ae http://androidmatch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

AT&T's $15/month WatchTV streaming service is now open to all

AT&T surprise-announced WatchTV, its $15-a-month Sling TV competitor, in April. Earlier this month, the service went live for subscribers on certain AT&T plans. Now, it's available to everybody, and if you're in the market for an alternative to a basic cable package, it's actually looking like a pretty good option. WatchTV includes some big-name channels like Cartoon Network, TLC, and TNT, with more networks on the way. Like pretty much every service of this kind, you can sign up for a one-week free trial; after that, it's $15 a month, and you can cancel whenever. Read More AT&T's $15/month WatchTV streaming service is now open to all was written by the awesome team at Android Police. Android Match ae http://androidmatch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Verizon certifies Moto Z3 Play, adds Samsung Galaxy J3 to postpaid and prepaid plans

Verizon on Friday announced that it has certified a new Motorola smartphone for use on its network and that it's also bringing a new entry-level Samsung smartphone to both its postpaid and prepaid offerings. Fist up, the new Moto smartphone. Verizon has officially certified the Moto Z3 Play (which launched earlier this month) for use on its network. That means you can buy the Moto Z3 Play directly from Motorola, Amazon, or Best Buy and then stick your Verizon SIM card and get full 4G LTE support. Next, the Samsung Galaxy J3. This is the third generation model, improving the cameras, built-in storage, and battery life over the previous generation. As far as features go, the display measures in at 5 inches, there is an Exynos 7884 processor under the hood, there's 16GB of built-in storage, a 2600mAh battery, and support for microSD cards up to 400GB. The Galaxy J3 is running Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box, and it's priced at just $7.00 per month for 24 months or $168.00 full retail for postpaid customers. Meanwhile, prepaid customers can pay just $124.99 for a limited time to get the new smartphone. Android Match ae http://androidmatch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Sling TV gets more expensive, adds à la carte channels and free content

Sling TV announced a number of changes yesterday. Strangely, it seems people who don't subscribe to the service stand to benefit the most. While the price of a basic package has gone up by five bucks a month, from $20 to $25, the company has introduced free content for non-subscribers, as well as à la carte channel selections and additional on-demand programming that don't require subscriptions. So long as you have a Sling account, whether or not you're a paying customer, you'll have access to "more than 100 hours of free TV shows and movies" in the Sling app. Read More Sling TV gets more expensive, adds à la carte channels and free content was written by the awesome team at Android Police. Android Match ae http://androidmatch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

A New Universal Music Player

Posted by Nicole Borrelli, Android Developer, Programs Engineer The Universal Android Music Player (or "UAMP") is a favorite on GitHub for music app developers with over 9,500 stars and 3,000 forks. Since UAMP was first released, Android development has changed significantly. ExoPlayer has improved, Architecture Components were introduced, and Kotlin became a first-class language for Androi d developers. We decided that the best way to integrate the modern features for our beloved music app would be to re-write UAMP. UAMP v2 was built from the ground up in Kotlin. The UI is built around ViewModels and LiveData. Playback, and particularly integration with MediaSessionCompat, was vastly simplified by utilizing the MediaSession extension of ExoPlayer. We also added a bunch of new songs by The Kyoto Connection and Kai Engel. There are some features from UAMP v1 that haven't been integrated into the new code yet. The missing features include Android TV with the Leanback library and remote playback via Google Cast. Even though these features aren't yet included in v2, we wanted to show you the new updates as soon a s possible. The old code will continue to be available in the v1 branch on GitHub, so please take a look there to see how to use those features in a music app. We would love your feedback on which features to add next. We are considering offline playback, improving the integration with Android Auto, and using the upcoming Navigation components of Jetpack for the UI. We'll be creating GitHub issues for features and improvements to help you let us know what is most important to you. Go vote on these features to let us know where we should focus our efforts. We'd also like to invite you to open pull requests for bug fixes and features that are missing. See the contributions process for more information. Grab the code from GitHub! Android Match ae http://androidmatch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default