Google’s Android Auto has been getting constant updates for a while now and is getting the attention it finally deserves. Android Auto has been a blessing for plenty of Android users in their cars. With every update, they just get better, more useful, and even more relevant to drivers today than ever before. You can use Google Assistant seamlessly in your car, for example. You can also reply to text messages via Android Auto, obviously via voice activation. In one of their latest updates, the interface now allows you to spread the screen out in multiple windows with Google Maps or Waze taking up most of the real estate while allowing another app like YouTube Music, Tidal, or Spotify in a smaller window. Even your notification can get its own window in the latest interface.
Source: Google
In their latest update, Google is looking to make Android Auto a better journey companion than before by bringing more apps into the Android Auto Ecosystem. For those that are always on-the-go but can never get away from their smartphones for work, Google is bringing Zoom and WebEx into Android Auto for a more seamless video call experience even when you are stuck in a terrible traffic jam. For the long-drawn-out standstill traffic, they are also bringing Prime Video into the fold. Best of all though, for better journey planning, they are bringing weather updates via The Weather Channel app into Android Auto.
The Weather Channel app has been the most popular weather prediction app on Android devices worldwide. It is only natural to start bringing the app into Android Auto for the purpose of journey planning. The Android Auto version of the app will operate a little differently from the smartphone app though. There are still some similarities like push weather updates, but now it is more catered toward your specific journeys. It updates the users of incoming bad weather, for example, just so that you can either plan around the traffic build up, or brace for extended journey times. The Android Auto app also can offer hourly forecasts, follow-me alerting, and Trip View radar that allows you to be your own F1 race engineer watching out for rain on your journey.
Source: Google
The updates are being rolled out to Android Auto units by select manufacturers currently and will roll out to other users following the select manufacturers. They are also rolling out digital key support in select regions for select manufacturers and models. Of course, while that nifty feature allows you to lock and unlock your car via your smartphone, you want to keep in mind that it will only work if your care comes natively with Android Auto. More information on the latest updates on Android Auto can be found on their website.
For avid YouTube users, the platform’s abundance of ads during video playback, especially on smart TVs, can sometimes be more than a minor annoyance. YouTube appears to be listening to its viewers and is testing a new approach to ad delivery that could provide a more seamless watching experience, albeit with longer ad breaks.
YouTube is recognizing that how we watch content is evolving. With more viewers enjoying longer videos on their smart TVs, the current frequency of ad interruptions might not align with the viewing experience. In response, YouTube is experimenting with reducing the number of ads shown but extending their duration.
For many viewers of long-form content on TV screens, having ads scattered throughout a video can be disruptive. Google’s research reveals that 79% of viewers prefer ads that are grouped together rather than spread out in smaller interruptions. To cater to this preference, YouTube is exploring options to provide fewer but longer ad breaks, creating a more seamless viewing experience on larger screens.
Improved Transparency
In addition to fewer, longer ad breaks, YouTube is considering enhancing the transparency of its ad experience. This may include providing viewers with better information about the duration of ad breaks, allowing users to prepare for more extended interruptions.
While these changes are currently experimental, YouTube tends to introduce them if they prove successful and enhance the viewer experience. So, if you’re a regular YouTube viewer on a smart TV, you can look forward to a potentially improved ad experience in the near future. However, if longer ad breaks are not your preference, YouTube Premium remains an ad-free alternative worth considering.
YouTube’s efforts to strike a balance between ads and content are in response to evolving viewer habits. As the platform continues to lead in streaming watch time on connected TVs, it aims to provide an experience that aligns better with the expectations of its audience.
Google Chat is getting some big updates that take significant strides to better the user experiences and add interoperability across platforms.
Google Chat will soon be able to Duet you and help you collaborate even better with your coworkers. Duet AI is Google’s real-time collaboration partner is designed to provide users with updates, insights, and proactive suggestions across their Google Workspace apps. It will also be able to handle complex queries and even search through organisational data by searching through messages and files in Gmail and Drive. You won’t be slugging away to summarizing shared documents, and even offering recaps of missed conversations much longer as Duet AI will be able to take over with a simple prompt.
Together with the inclusion of Duet AI, Google Chat is getting a makeover. It will be getting updated colour schemes, typography, and visual styling inline with Google’s Material 3 design language. It will also be getting a little bit more accessible with a unified conversation list that will consolidate direct messages and spaces. Additionally, new shortcuts, including a chronological home view, @mentions, and starred conversations, aim to streamline communication for users.
New Features To Enhance Collaboration
Collaboration is taking centerstage in Google Chat. Google is introducing a bevvy of new features that will allow teams to work seamlessly and collaborate more efficiently.
One of the many changes coming to Google Chat is the integration of Smart Canvas on the chat platform. This will allow teams to collaboration real time and interact seamlessly as if they were in the same room even remotely. The addition of smart chips for quick file sharing directly from the compose bar will also make collaborating a breeze. Accessing relevant conversation threads is also getting easier with in-line threading improvements.
Speaking of real time collaboration, Huddles offers teams a way to communicate in real time through quick-to-join audio and video conversations. Huddles seamlessly integrate meetings into the Chat experience, eliminating the need to switch between platforms. This feature is expected to enter customer preview by the end of the year.
Of course, in many organisation or even when it comes to cross organisational collaboration, compatibility is always an issue. Recognizing that collaboration often spans multiple platforms and tools, Google Chat is partnering with Mio, a collaborative interoperability solutions provider. This collaboration enables messaging interoperability between Google Chat and other platforms such as Slack and Microsoft Teams.
Scaling your team and collaborating with more parties will now be easier with Google Chat. The limitations on team size on team size is figuratively going away with Google increasing the number of members in spaces to a whopping 500,000 members compared to 8,000 members previously. This will allow larger corporations to manage their workforces through a single space.
Better Search, More Privacy
Google Chat’s search functionality is receiving a revamp. It will feature a redesigned results page and enhanced features such as suggested queries, autocomplete, and AI-based relevance ranking of results. Additionally, an autocorrect feature is being introduced to the suite of AI-powered composition tools, ensuring professional and polished communication.
With Chat being integrated into the Workspace ecosystem, users benefit from built-in protections against spam, phishing, and malware. Real-time data loss prevention warnings and content moderation tools help organizations maintain data security and privacy.
Google I/O in May 2023 saw them launching a sort of experimental open-sourced AI platform that is the Google Bard. In our write-up, we theorized that Google Bard is a direct response to ChatGPT, or rather, an attempt to compete with or replicate the technology that is ChatGPT-4. Before you get confused, again, Google’s Bard is not the result of their DeepMind AI project. It is not exactly Google Assistant as well, though sharing plenty of similarities.
At its launch, Google’s Bard was only available in English, Japanese, and Korean. Despite only working in three languages, the experiment was made available in 180 countries at launch. It is also important to know that the Google Bard you see in May’s Google I/O 2023 is not in its first iteration.
A few months on and Google is updating Bard to be more relevant to plenty more users around the world. The latest update to Bard makes it now available in over 40 languages, including the ones it started with. They also made it available in more than the original 180 countries including countries in the European region and Brazil. Of course, this is not where Google will stop with Bard. They are still planning to bring their Bard service to more regions in the future, but they are also doing it in stages in accordance with regulatory bodies, policy makers, and experts in the different regions they are expanding to. They also say that they are taking privacy and data into consideration when taking steps in expanding their services.
Language is also not the only thing that is being updated in Google Bard. Google has also updated Bard to improve its ability to customize its responses even more. Instead of just written responses, Google Bard can even read out its own response with correct pronunciation in case you are wondering how to say certain words. This is also available in 40 languages in the new update, which makes Bard super useful when you go travel too. You can even customize the responses from Bard by telling it to respond in five different options: simple, long, short, professional, or casual. Like ChatGPT, you can even ask Google Bard to create listings or postings for various things on various platforms. For now, this one is only available in English though. Obviously, the feature will be available in more languages as Google Bard collects more contextual data in different languages and regions.
Like your browser history, your interaction with Bard should not only last for that short minute you interact with the platform. The platform makes it easier for you to revisit conversations and topics you might have dropped off from with Bard. You can now pin your conversations and rename them so that you can archive it and bring it up on a later date when you have the time or whenever necessary. They have also improved Bard’s coding capabilities by now offering the ability to export Python codes to Replit and Google Colab to make coding much easier and faster. You can even share your Bard conversations with your friends and have them see the ideas you have thought of with the help of Bard. Google Lens is also now integrated into Bard. That means you can either take a photo or upload images with prompts or requests and Bard will analyze the photo to help with its responses.
Twitter, under the new management of Elon Musk, is a different one than the one we were introduced to more than a decade ago. In just a few months after Elon Musk took over the social media platform as CEO, the platform started charging people for the blue ticks that indicates verified accounts. In a recent stir, the platform restricted contents to just people who are registered on the platform. A little later, they introduced a rate limit, where non-paying users get to see only up to a certain number of tweets a day. Specifically, you get to see up to 600 tweets a day before a limit error comes up to stop you from scrolling some more. Now, Twitter results are disappearing from Google search results.
While it may seem to be a deliberate move from Twitter to limit access to the platform by unregistered users. The disappearance and lack of Twitter content is a direct result of Google simply not picking up tweets from the platform because of the access restriction from Twitter. The Google Search engine still picks up feeds from Twitter with their API, but it has reduced significantly as noted by Search Engine Land. According to their report, Google Search has dropped more than half of the indexed URLs from Twitter. That is not to say that you cannot see tweets from Twitter in a Google search though. You still can, but you can only see new tweets that are made public. There are no mentions currently indicating the age limit of a tweet showing up on the Google Search platform.
There are rumours that this is just a temporary thing. Speculations regarding the lack of Twitter results in Google Search is due to the large changes happening within Twitter and for its users. In 2015, Twitter and Google had a deal where Twitter gave access to the full stream of tweets on Twitter’s platform, known today as the “Firehose”. While that was done before the Elon Musk era of Twitter, there are no reasons to believe that the deal has changed in any way for now. Then again, Twitter and Google are keeping any information close their chests for now, so we may see a change in stance from both parties in the coming days.
The move to limit Twitter only to registered is nothing new in the social media space. If you want to see a post or story from Facebook, you must get registered with the platform. Even for Instagram, you are only able to see single posts from users before needing to sign up for the platform to have access to the library of content the platform holds. In this sense, Twitter is technically pretty much just following in the steps of other social media platforms. Still, we think that closing off access to Twitter might be more damaging than helpful to the platform, especially since Elon Musk is focusing on monetizing the platform. It limits the option to run ads that could even be visible from Google itself and reaching out entire populations that do not have Twitter accounts or have no intention to get on the platform just to entertain themselves with microblogs.
Nothing is confirmed at this point, but Elon Musk may just denounce the deal with Google at any time. While it does not sound like a major loss to Google, it is a small loss to content creators who are active on Twitter. It is a loss in exposure of the platform and users. It closes off the platform to be used as a public announcement platform too in this case. Currently, only time can tell whether or not this is going to be a permanent thing.
Google’s Gmail is the next best thing to happen to emails and online accounts since Hotmail, Friendster, and Facebook. In almost every service you have on your smartphone or on the web, you tend to rely solely on your Google account. You sign into your Netflix account with your Google email, you sign into your Facebook account with Google email, you register for services with your Google email. Why not? It is free, and super easy to use and set-up.
The thing is, because of its ease of use, people tend to take advantage of it. You sign up for multiple accounts, you use those accounts to sign up for free services all around the internet just so that you can take advantage of free use periods of certain premium services. Yes, you can do that with YouTube premium, but do not recommend you do that. You would also have to have a new Gmail account every month, a headache to manage.
Google has been cracking down on phishing scams, account hijacking, and general email security for a long time with Gmail. But there is always going to be problems, especially when an account has been idle for too long. It not only takes up space in the database, but it also becomes a security concern, especially with the rising cases of account hijacking cases of late. According to Google’s internal teams, abandoned or forgotten accounts that are ten-folds less active than regular accounts does not feature added security layers like 2-step verification, meaning that the accounts tend to be a lot more vulnerable for hacks and identity theft, phishing basically.
While Google is giving more control over their accounts to users who owns the accounts in one way or another, they are adding another policy to their already extensive guidelines to Google accounts usage. Google will be deleting accounts that have been inactive for two years and above. If you have a Google account you have not activated or logged into for the past two years and more, you will no have access to them anymore come December 2023. This deletion will be a complete deletion that even includes data from Google Workspace apps and Google Photos.
For now, the policy only affects personal Google Accounts. If you are a business relying on Google’s services, you still have full control over your own Google Accounts. They are also taking a phased approach to the deletion and will inform users comprehensively and accordingly.
After Google I/O 2023 last week, you might have noticed that your Android smartphone pushing a notification to you. It is a prompt for you to try Google’s updated Bard. Most of you on Google’s email platform (Gmail) might also get an email asking you to try Bard today. If you are familiar with AI (artificial intelligence) news, you might already be familiar with Google’s Bard alongside OpenAI’s ChatGPT. To those, it might sound like a foreign object.
In simple terms, Google Bard is really the Google version of ChatGPT. While ChatGPT is developed by OpenAI, Bard is completely Google. You want to keep in mind that both ChatGPT and Bard are two separate platforms altogether though before jumping to conclusions and say that they are the same things. They are both categorised as generative AI, but they are both different from one another.
Unlike ChatGPT which has existed for some time, and is in its fourth iteration, Google Bard is fresh out of the oven; two months out of the oven, to be fair. Like ChatGPT, Google Bard was launched as an experiment. Like ChatGPT as well, the technology for Google Bard is not exactly new.
What is Google Bard?
Source: Google
As mentioned, Google Bard is a generative and creative AI by Google. Instead of overcomplicating the explanation, Google’s FAQ says that Google Bard is technically based on their LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) AI model, Google’s very own linguistics program written for conversational purposes. When we say conversational, we do not mean that it will be like a regular conversation with a human being, but LaMDA aims to make it close.
To be fair, Google’s conversational AI is not something you have not seen before, you see it with Google Assistant whenever you call out “Hey, Google,” or “Okay, Google”. You can even use Google’s clever Assistant to get you a booking for a restaurant by having Google Assistant make the call and get the booking done, instead of you calling the restaurant yourself. In their demo a few years ago, Google’s Voice Assistant sounded so natural that the other person on the other end of the line could not even tell that they are speaking to an artificial person. This proves that LaMDA works, and has a place in the world. But our many use case of the Google Assistant even with Google Nest systems is prove enough that conversational AI has many uses in the current world.
Bard is not just a conversationalist though. It is more than that, a generative AI of sorts. It still has its roots in LaMDA, but it is a lot more than that now. It is made as a collaborative tool, for you to basically generate ideas, tabulate and make sense of data, help you plan things, help you design tools and steps, collate your calendars, and even use it as a learning tool.
According to Google, Bard is made to create original contents at the request and behest of individual users. Meaning that the algorithm could be different are results can be different from one person to another. Because it is Google, any request or question you post to Bard might prompt Bard to look into hundred or thousands of sources and draw conclusions, or present result in a way the does not infringe copyright or plagiarism laws. In the case that it does take up contents from another source, Bard will acknowledge and cite its sources. Google Bard is not built to write your college essay though, it is built to be a collaborator to manage your work and your life, to make it more seamless somehow over just Googling things. They do actually have a ‘Google It’ button for you to make full use of Google’s search engine though.
It is not a 100% solution for your own research and use case though. Google has mentioned and stressed that Google Bard is an experiment. It is an opportunity for their AI engines to learn even more at an accelerated pace with public input and use. Google Bard is meant to be iterated, which also means that the current form of Google Bard will not be final. They also mention that Google Bard, at its current form will not be 100% accurate at all times; hence, the ‘Google It’ button on Bard. While it is open source, Google also says that Bard is not meant to be used commercially or for advertising purposes at this time.
Why Bard?
Source: Google
The entire existence of Bard could be a sharp response to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The success of the open-source AI platform has sort of forced Google to quickly introduce their own AI tool for use to the public. If they are to be believed, Google could offer the most powerful AI tool for the masses.
In the recent Google I/O 2023, Google has officially embraced Bard and announced that they have moved Bard to PaLM 2, an improved language model that offers more capabilities of Google Bard compared to just conversational based on LaMDA model. PaLM 2 now offers Bard the ability to code and program. It also allows Bard to solve even more complex mathematical problems and process through more complex reasoning models that offers Bard the ability to make better decisions over time.
As of Google I/O 2023, Google has opened the Bard experiment to more than 180 countries as of writing and is available in Japanese and Korean. As things go, Google is planning to open the experiment to more regions and make Bard available in about 40 languages. On top of more languages and regions, where the older Google Bard was mostly just conversational via text, the new improvement at Google I/O 2023 adds some visual flavours to your conversations with Bard. They have integrated Goole Lens into Bard and allow you to now scan photos of your things at home and let Bard come up with whatever captions you might want. You can even add photo references to your Google Bard generated itinerary when you travel.
But it is not just the surface updates for Google Bard. For Google I/O 2023, they have announced that Bard is not just a tool that is isolated from any other systems. Google is making the Bard available with an “export” button for collaboration purposes in the form of exporting and running codes on Python. You could directly copy email responses into your Gmail or Google Docs, if you want. If you want more out of Bard, you can even expect Adobe Firefly integration in the coming future for even more powerful generative tools like complete poster designs based on both Google’s and Adobe’s combined algorithms. They have also announced that they are working with more partners like Kayak, OpenTable, ZipRecruiter, Instacart, Wolfram and Khan Academy to get their Google Bard project integrated into their services and products.
In this case, where OpenAI is allowing you to plug its API anywhere and get it working with minor tweaks, Google is not looking to just do that. Google is offering deep integration with their partners to create even more, to become an even more powerful tool in your toolkit for the future. They look to open up even more opportunities and applications for the average user with deeper and more curated collaborations with partnering brands. While that may not necessarily be the best thing to do for some, it is a way forward for more integrated services and solutions to serve individuals and businesses better. It even allows partnering companies to understand their users and customers better in some cases.
The idea of an official Google Tablet has always been on the table for years. To be fair, the idea of a Google Tablet did not exist in the early days of Android, not until Apple introduced their iPad to the world. There was not too much sense for an Android tablet made by Google though. Like the iPad in its early days, it will be nothing more than a glorified Android that is blown up to fit the size of a tablet, which is what Google did not want.
That has not stopped Google from introducing an entire interface dedicated to tablet devices at one point. When it did not make sense at the time, they integrated the entire Android ecosystem again and allowed tablets to take advantage of Android’s versatility and built-in functions that were specific to tablet type devices. Now that Google has sort of perfected that, they now see sense in introducing the highly anticipated Google Pixel Tablet, the new benchmark in Android tablets.
Source: google
There was nothing technically new with the Google Pixel Tablet, nor is it that innovative. Inside, you find a Google Tensor G2 powerhouse like the one you find on the Google Pixel 7a, Pixel 7, and Pixel 7 Pro. Of course, it also packs a Titan M2 processor to keep the device encrypted and secure. The integrated powerhouse comes with 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM for speedy and smooth multitasking. You can choose between 128GB or 256GB for your storage options.
Out the front is an expansive 10.9-inch LCD display that offers 2,560 by 1,600 pixels at 16:10 aspect ratio. You can get up to 500 nits in brightness, which might not sound all that bright, but it is not designed for outdoor use mostly. The display also supports USI 2.0 stylus pens like its ChromeOS cousins, allowing the tablet to be used with USI certified stylus pens. Since they made the tablet mostly for entertainment, the LCD panel offers up to 24-bit in colour depth.
Of course, it is not just made for play, but for work too. You get an 8-Megapixel sensor that shoots out of the back with 1080p recording. No 4K recording here, you do not need 4K video capabilities on a tablet at most times. The front-facing camera is also a similar 8-Megapixel shooter with 1080p video recording and calling capabilities. That also means that you get very similar video calling performance out of both cameras, which is a good thing.
Source: Google
Source: google
Source: Google
Source: Google
Source: Google
Source: GooSource: Googlegle
Source: Google
On its own, the device packs four speakers for the most immersive sounds for your movies and even your music. Out-of-the-box though is a speaker dock that you can dock your Pixel Tablet to for even bigger sounds. It is not quite a wireless speaker though; it connects to the Pixel Tablet via pogo pins. When connected, the tablet’s 27Wh battery is also charged via the Pogo Pins. When docked also, the tablet suddenly becomes your Google Home hub, no need for a Google Nest system anymore. Of course, to liven up your living space, you can even use it as a live photo frame with your Gallery app .
Price and Availability
The Google Pixel Tablet is now available for pre-order in the United States (U.S.) and select regions and will see shelves by 20th of June 2023. It will come in three colour options – Porcelain, Hazel, and Rose and will be priced at US$ 499 (MYR 2,226*) onward. Unfortunately, the device will not make it into Malaysia at any official capacity. More on the Google Pixel Tablet can be found on their website. *Approximately based on the exchange rate of US$ 1 = MYR 4.46 as of 11/05/2023 on xe.com
Google I/O 2023 did not just introduce a brand-new Android to us. It introduced the budget powerhouse that will be running Android 14 for us. Google I/O 2023 brought the new Google Pixel 7a to us.
To be fair, not much has changed from the Google Pixel 7 from last year. It still packs Google’s in-house developed Tensor G2 platform with eight cores within the processor unit. You get 8GB of RAM out of it and up to 128GB of UFS 3.1 storage for ultra-fast data access and interface feel. Alongside Titan M2 chip integrated into the Tensor platform, you can even be sure that your device is more secure than ever.
You get a slightly smaller screen at 6.1-inch instead of 6.3-inch. It still displays at Full HD+ resolution and up to 90Hz in refresh rate. While it is nothing close to what ASUS had offered with their flagship ROG Phone 7, the display is a respectable one. It is also protected with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3, not their latest, but still strong enough to take on the daily bumps and scrapes. But it is not just the screen that is durable. Google says that the Pixel 7a is built to be the most durable A-series smartphone they have so far. The entire aluminium housing of the device is also 100% recycled, to comply with Google’s commitment to sustainability.
Source: Google
It packs everything that made the Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro a delight to use, thanks to Android in part. It features the clever Pixel Call Assist that just makes phone calls to service providers much more bearable. With Direct My Call, the device gets you to the right departments quicker without too much fuss, Call Screen lets you screen through calls before you pick it up, Hold for Me holds your calls for you when you are in a waiting line so that you do not have to, the device even tells you how long you have to wait until you get an answer or representative talking to you via Wait Times. Of course, the clever interface enhances your calls with anyone with Clear Calling that enhances your voice and reduces background noise. Thanks to the power of Tensor G2 and Android, Live Translate, Recorder Speaker Labels, Assistant Voice Typing, and Voice Messaging Transcription on the messaging app is better than ever too on the Google Pixel 7a.
Where the Pixel 7a differs from the Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro is the cameras it packs. The Google Pixel 7a comes with a 64-Megapixel main shooter that is also supported by a 13-Megapixel ultrawide camera on the side. It does not have a third camera like the Pixel 7 Pro. The Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro also only comes with a 50-Megapixel main camera, which is technically less powerful than that of the Pixel 7a. Compared to the Google Pixel 6a though, the 64-Megapixel sensor is 72% larger than before for up to 44% more light capture. There is also a 13-Megapixel front-facing camera that is now capable of recording videos at up to 4K resolutions. Thanks to the Tensor G2 processor, the main camera can now shoot in Long Exposure mode that can really enhance photos with moving objects or subjects. You can even take photos at 8x zoom with Super Res zoom function.
Price and Availability
The Pixel 7a is now available in the United States for US$ 499 (MYR 2,226*) onward. You can choose between four attractive colours – Coral, Sea, Charcoal, and Snow. The Google Pixel 7a will be available in other select markets on a later date. Unfortunately, Malaysia will not be getting the Google Pixel 7a in an official capacity at this time. More about the Google Pixel 7a can be found on their website.
*Approximately based the exchange rate of US$ 1 = MYR 4.46 as of 11/05/2023 on xe.com
Google I/O 2023 is just around the corner, and we are all quite excited. Apart from the new Pixel 7 series, we are expecting Google to announce a new foldable smartphone. We are also expecting that to be priced like a Samsung foldable, which is not necessarily a good thing. Still, we can look forward to a new Android, a foldable or convertible friendly one at least. They say that it might not look completely different this time round over the 13th generation of Android introduced in the same event last year. Every iteration of Android comes with a slew of its own improvements though, be it in the interface improvements, responsiveness, and even function.
There is a problem that has plagued Google’s mobile ecosystem for a while now though. It has to do with the multitasking capabilities of the interface. While manufacturers like Samsung have been championing multitasking on their devices for a long time, the vanilla Android is quite bad at it, as it seems. One of those problems is that apps tend to shut down when you leave it in the background. That is the opposite of what you want to happen when you are championing your device for multitasking purposes.
Their blog announcement points out a consistency problem of background apps working behind the scenes of your Android smartphone. They say that the Android ecosystem is flawed when it comes to multitasking. They pointed out that foreground services and background work are restricted on different devices by manufacturers. That means that different apps tend to behave differently across devices when they are put on the backburner. That is why you have passive apps that hardly work on your Android devices until you launch them again.
The next step for Google, according to their blog post anyway, is to introduce APIs and standards to ensure their partners adhere to a consistent set of guidelines for app functions on their devices. Samsung, one of the champions in mobile multitasking, is announced to be their first partner to take the step. The new APIs that is to be introduced by Google is not a way to police their partners, rather a set of guidelines to ensure that apps behave consistently on the foreground and background across devices, creating a more consistent Android experience for all users. Allowing for better and more consistent background works on Android also allows app developers to create apps that work better with other apps at the same time, offering better user experiences across the board. Of course, the guidelines will help offer apps that work as intended by the developers.
Google has also stated that all these improvements on foreground and background apps will be introduced in Android 14. The improvements include more user control even on foreground apps and services, smoother large uploads and downloads of user-initiated data transfer jobs via JobScheduler, and a new Google Play policy for appropriate use of foreground services. There are no mentions on whether the first patch of Android 14 will get these treatments or not. We can only tell when they announce Android 14 in the coming Google I/O or when they start shipping their latest Google Pixel out to customers.
