Google has announced several Android features that will enhance various experiences on the operating system. There will be significant upgrades to apps like the Gboard, Google Photos, Live Transcribe and Google Messages and other functionalities. Google hasn’t provided exact release dates for these features, but they may be rolling out over the coming weeks.

Gboard gets major updates

The Gboard (Google Keyboard) is an essential part of typing and messaging experience. To further enhance the overall experience, Gboard is getting grammar correction features that will detect grammatical errors for the user. According to Google, the feature will work on-device along with the spell check feature. Earlier, the grammar feature was exclusive to Pixels but now it will get a wider roll-out to other devices as well.

The Google keyboard app will also be updated with more than 2,000 ‘emoji mashups’ to provide an exciting messaging experience. Google Pixel users will get an exclusive feature that will allow them to convert words into colourful stickers in the Gboard.

Live Transcribe will now work offline

One of Google’s ‘brilliant apps’, the Live Transcribe accessibility app, that offers quick speech-to-text conversion for the hard of hearing will get an update to work offline. According to Google, this will be helpful for conversations that happen in places without a reliable internet connection like subways, airplanes, etc as reported by The Verge. The app comes preloaded in Pixels and Samsung phones; other devices can download and install it.

Google Photos will expand Portrait Blur feature

Google is set to improve the Photos experience not just on Pixel devices but for all Android devices. For starters, Google announced that the videos sent as Google Photos links will play in the same resolution as the original.

Secondly, Google Photos’ portrait blur feature on Android will allow users to blur backgrounds in a wider range of photos, including pictures of pets, food, plants, etc. It will turn even the photos that were taken on devices that do not have portrait modes into background-blurred portrait photos.

Earlier the ‘portrait blur’ feature worked only on photos of people and was exclusively available to Google One and Pixel owners. The new feature drop will make it available to all Android devices inside the Google Photos app.

Nearby Share feature gets an update

The Nearby Share used to share content conveniently is also getting an update. The feature allows users to share photos, videos, documents, links, audio and entire folders between devices. With this update, users will be able to share the same with multiple people at the same time as long as the devices are running on at least Android 6.

Assistant parking and other new Android features

Google Maps feature to pay for parking is already available in 400 cities of the US. With the update, the Google Assistant will now be able to handle parking payments for the users.

Users can simply say “Hey Google, pay for parking” and the assistant will handle everything. It works by integrating the Google Maps with Parkmobile.

The feature drop also brings improvements to Google TV by adding a personalised feed of entertainment, news, reviews and additional content based on the user's TV show interests.

A new time screen widget is also coming that will tell users how much time they are spending on their Android device and what they’re doing on the phone or tablet.

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(Edited by : Thomas Abraham)