Google’s Android app updates that you shouldn’t really miss
Quite a few of Google’s Android apps have gotten updates this week, most of which have brought some pretty nice enhancements to already-awesome apps. Here are the ones you shouldn’t miss.
Google Translate
Google Translate now lets you use the app without a network connection all devices running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and above. This is an especially nice feature when you’re roaming internationally, and you want to avoid paying those obscenely high rates for data. In total, 50 languages are supported for offline use, but make sure you’re connected to WiFi before you download the offline language packs – they’re big. The German one I’m downloading now is 160MB.
Download: Google Play
Google Play Movies & TV
The latest version of Google’s movie and TV portal offers a very nice feature for tablet users: when you press pause the show or film that you’re watching, you can view cards that give you more information on the actors, related films, or even what song is currently playing. Right now, only select movies and TV shows have the “info cards badge” that indicates this feature is available, but Google will most likely try to expand availability across most of its library very soon.
Additional new features include the ability to search across your library and the Play Store for specific movies and TV shows, and receive notifications for new episodes if you’ve purchased the entire season of a show. There’s also a new “refresh” option in the overflow menu to check for any updates to the library.
Download: Google Play
Google+
The latest version of Google+ also has some nice additions and improvements. The most noticeable is the new stream design, which now includes comment previews and the ability to swipe through photo albums inline. More text can be previewed without actually clicking through to a post, and overall it looks much cleaner than before.
Other new features include:
- Control the volume of posts that you see in your stream from individual circles/communities
- New app setup flow
- Filter search results by best or most recent
- Tell others about a community (by sharing it or sending an invitation)
- Re-share posts to communities
- Share your current location on your profile and control who can see it via G+ settings
Download: Google Play
Gmail
After already getting a fantastic update that allows users to reply, archive, or delete messages directly from notifications, the app got another update, as well. There’s no official changelog on the latter update, so it probably just had a few bug fixes and other performance enhancements. In any case, it’s always best to have the latest version, so make sure you update.
Download: Google Play
