In addition to the Chrome Beta for Android update, which now allows limited Chromecasting from the browser, Google has released updates to two other core Android apps: Google Text-to-Speech and Google Play Games. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s new.
Google Text-to-Speech
Google TTS now supports high quality voices in English. I haven’t noticed much of a difference yet in day to day use; additionally, if you have limited storage on your device, you may want to hold off a bit, since these are pretty large files – most regular standard voice files are 5-6MB, while the high quality files seem to be 20o-300MB.
So far, this feature is only available in US and UK English – and our British friends also have the option to switch between high quality male and female voices! (Hopefully, male voices will come to US users soon enough.)
Other updates include a few tweaks to the TTS user interface, making it a bit easier to toggle between voices when you’ve downloaded two or more voice packs. Additionally, Portuguese and US Spanish are now supported, as well.
Download: Google Play
Google Play Games
While the last version of Google Play Games let users join multiplayer games from directly within the app, this update now lets users view game invites, as well. Google is really pushing Google Play Games to be more social, so users can also see which people in their Google+ circles are playing what, too.
Additionally, Google moved the settings to the sidebar, which brings it in line with a similar update to Google Play Music. Finally, Recommended Games has now become Find Games.
Download: Google Play
