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...
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...
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...
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...
YouTube TV is down for many subscribers, but Google is working on it
Looking to kick back and relax this Friday 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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
OnePlus is teasing a red OnePlus 6
It hasn’t been long since OnePlus launched its newest flagship smartphone, the OnePlus 6. And if you went to their online store right now to buy one, you’d find three color options: Silk White, Mirror Black, and Midnight Black. But a fourth is on the way.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, red is going to be...
Google Maps adding Waze-like incident reporting to Android app
It has been five years since Google acquired the navigation app Waze, but the app still functions on its own and is still popular.
One of the reasons drivers return to Waze so frequently is its real-time incident reporting. This allows for drivers to let others know what’s going on with a particular...
22 temporarily free and 35 on-sale apps to finish off June
We've come to the end of another week and another month. 2018 is officially half over (almost), so it's all downhill from here, right? Doubtful, but I digress. We have a small list today to finish off June, including Adventures of Mana and Hitman Sniper, as well as some other excellent games. Just...
Isoland 2: Ashes of Time is a new point and click adventure game worth the $2 entry fee
It's been over a year since Cotton Game's gorgeous hand-drawn point and click adventure game Isoland was released on Android. In that time the developers have been working on a sequel, and today that sequel is available on the Play Store. You can expect to find the same gorgeous hand-drawn graphics...
Instagram Stories hits 400m daily users, introduces new soundtrack feature
If you use Instagram, there's a good chance you've tried out Stories, which lets you send timely updates to your followers in photo or video form. It's probably to blame for the waning interest in Snapchat and has had a steady stream of feature updates such as music stickers and sharing from other...
Top 10 Android app updates this week: Firefox, STARZ
Welcome back to our weekly Top 10 Android App Updates column, where we take a look at the most frequently upgraded apps for the week. We’ve found that one of the best ways to discover useful apps is to find the ones that are actually being updated by the developers rather than selecting...
Google Maps now showing Waze-like incident reporting for some
One of the main differentiators that Waze has over its competitors, including Google Maps, is user interaction. Wazers can report accidents, road closures, police car sightings, and so on, all of which helps other users out. It's what makes the app so popular. However, Google is adding incident reporting...
Android Messages for web borrows a fun Hangouts feature (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞
As of this week, after a long rollout, Android Messages' new web interface is finally available to everybody. Even better, it includes with it an Easter egg from Hangouts: emoticon shortcuts. You can send your friends shruggies, table flips, and even Finn and Jake from "Adventure Time," all with simple...
Automating your app releases with Google Play
Posted by Nicholas Lativy, Software Engineer
At Google I/O we shared how Google's own apps make use of Google Play for successful launches and updates and introduced the new Google Play Developer Publishing API Version 3.
The Publishing API enables you to integrate publishing operations into your...
Spotify's Android app will get track reordering... at some point
Spotify is definitely the elephant in the room whenever the subject of streaming music comes up, but the service isn't without its foibles. Up until earlier this year, it was a common complaint that free users couldn't actually directly select songs to play, and the A/B UI tests are almost Google-level...
OnePlus promises two years of software updates, three years of security patches with Software Maintenance Schedule
One of the benefits of picking up a Google Pixel or Android One smartphone is the knowledge that you will regularly get OS and security updates for a long time after launch. Other smartphone manufacturers out there don’t typically promise the same thing, so when a company like OnePlus does, it’s...
