#ChromeOS
Chrome OS is preparing Self Share feature for Nearby Share
XDA Developers

Google's Nearby Share has been available since 2020 for every Android devices running version 6.0 and later, allowing users to share files wirelessly without needing Internet connection at all.

Spotted by Chrome Story, Google seems to be improving it by adding a new feature, Self Share. It's suggested that the feature will allow users to share files directly between signed-in devices without needing to search and connect the recipient device.

It will be nice to see such feature rolling out soon, as nowadays we usually just share files with our own devices anyway.

#DigitalWellbeing
Digital Wellbeing gaining widget to show "Your screen time"
9To5Google

You will soon be able to check your phone usage via your home screen as Google is preparing a widget for Digital Wellbeing.

The widget is given the name "Your screen time." Screen time is shown on the top follows by top three apps of the day below. The widget size is quite flexible, you can set it to 2x1 to only show screen time, while expanding it larger will show the most used applications in a descending order.

In its current state, the widget has supported Dynamic Colors theming. For now, the widget is hidden inside version 1.0.416751293.beta of the app. Mishaal Rahman said the widget is functional, but from my testing, it seems like it won't work on older Android version, anyway take this as a grain of salt for now.

#A12L
Android 12L Beta 2 survey opened for Pixel users
9To5Google

Pixel users who are running Android 12L Beta 2 (S2B2.211203.006) can now give feedback to Google with this form.

#News #YouTubeTV #GoogleTV
YouTube TV soon will add The Weather Channel, Google TV getting new apps from AMG
9To5Google

First reported by Deadline, Google has partnered up with Allen Media Group, this partnership will bring in The Weather Channel over to YouTube TV soon this year. Additionally, they are also working together to bring in more applications to Google TV.

#YouTube #YTMusic
YouTube Premium subnoscription gains annual subnoscription, discounted price deal ending in a few days
9To5Google

Since YouTube rolled out its Premium subnoscription, users can only sign up the service with monthly plan, but YouTube recently quietly added annual plan with discounted price for a few days.

The annual plan of YouTube Premium is currently offering a promotional pricing of $107.99, saving $3 monthly or $36 yearly. Meanwhile YouTube Music Premium is costing $89.99 for savings of $2.50 every month. The deal is ending on Sunday, January 23.

The annual plan is only available in United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Turkey, Germany, Thailand, India, and Japan. Existing YouTube Premium members can sign up for the annual plan by cancelling their current membership. The support page mentions that partial refund isn't available and you have to manually renew the subnoscription.

#YouTube
YouTube scale back its Originals series
Robert Kyncl

YouTube started YouTube Original since 2016, and after nearly 6 years time, they have decided to reduce the focus of creating YouTube Originals content, said YouTube CBO Robert Kyncl. The company decided to only fund originals in their Black Voices and YouTube Kids Fund from now on.

Additionally, he also announced that the current YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki will be leaving the company by March 1. It's unclear who will be the next to take the role.

#YouTubeTV
You can sort YouTube TV channels by 'most watched'
XDA Developers

Want to quickly get accessed to your favourite channels in YouTube TV but it take quite a while to open it? You're in luck.

First spotted by The Streamable, YouTube TV has gain a new way to sort your channels by ‘Most Watched’ regardless of which platform you are using. Before that, members can only sort the available channels alphabetically or with a custom order.

This new addition also let you know what channels you have been watching the most. Although it's a minor change, it definitely save your time from having to browse through the channel lists which consist of over 100 channels.

#Chrome
Chrome's Omnibox is set to gain a major upgrade
XDA Developers

Nowadays browsers address bar are smarter than you expect, and Chrome's Omnibox (aka address bar) will be much more powerful soon with the ability to search through your history, bookmarks, and settings.

As reported by Chrome Story, there is a flag called "Omnibox Site Search Starter Pack," letting users to search their browsing history, bookmarks and browser settings with much more precision. This feature will enable support for search keywords, currently there are three tags being added: @history, @settings, and @bookmarks.

The flag is only making its way to the desktop version of Chrome, and at the time of writing, the feature simply isn't working just yet. Once it's working, we will provide update about it.

#Workspace
Free G Suite legacy accounts will be required to pay starting July
9To5Google

Google Workspace earlier used to be known as G Suite, and it provides custom domain for schools and businesses using Google services. There used to be a free tier of the service but now Google has officially killed it.

G Suite legacy free edition, also known as “Google Apps” for businesses and schools is launched back in 2006, with Google discontinuing the service for new customers in 2012. Those who have registered for the service are still able to use it till today, but Google has sent out email notification to inform administrators that Google is fully discontinuing the service by July 1.

To make the transition smoother, Google is offering discounts for the first 12 months to those customers. Accounts will be suspend if no billing details is added before the deadline.

#ChromeOS
Chrome OS Calculator web app is available as PWAs
9To5Google

Chrome OS Calculator app is now publicly available for every device to use.

Visiting calculator.apps.chrome on a Chromium browser will give you option to install it as a Progressive Web App, though you can visit it with any browser regardless of which platform. The calculator can do basic calculation, complex functions are also available. The design of the calculator looks quite classic as it is using the older Material Design.

*Not sure who is going to use it on other platforms as nowadays we have built-in calculator on phones & computers. Better alternative suggestion: Microsoft Math Solver & Wolfram Alpha

#GooglePlay
Google Play Games arrived on Windows computer, available today in selected countries
Official Website | Developer Site | Introduction Video

A month ago, Google announced they are bringing Android games over to Windows computer, and Google has officially released in the form of beta today.

The beta program of Google Play Games is currently available for sign-up in Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan, with the program expanding to more regions soon. Your PC will need to meet these minimum specs requirements in order to run it:
• Windows 10 (v2004)
• Solid state drive (SSD)
• Gaming-class GPU
• 8 logical cores of CPU
• 8 GB of RAM
• 20 GB of available storage space
• Windows admin account
• Hardware virtualization must be turned on
• Compatible PC device and configuration

You can learn all the info of the Google Play Games beta program on PC in this support page.

Follow @PixelHubUpdates

#News #Pixel6
Pixel 6 owners on Verizon network won't be able to enjoy C-Band 5G just yet
9To5Google

5G still isn't available in many regions but some countries already got it covered. We know there are several variants of 5G, and US carrier Verizon has make C-Band 5G available to users with supported devices, but Pixel 6 series is out of luck for now.

The only Google Pixel devices that support C-Band 5G will be Pixel 6 & Pixel 6 Pro units that are sold in the US. Unfotunately, those who own it will still need to wait as Verizon listed as "coming soon" as reported by The Verge, while AT&T haven't mention anything about it.

C-Band 5G speed is somewhere between sub-6GHz and mmWave, while the coverage is wider than mmWave. Users would be able to enjoy a much faster network experience in more areas at least.

#News #Pay
Google Pay to evolve into a ‘comprehensive digital wallet’
9To5Google

Bill Ready, Google's president of commerce told Bloomberg that Google wants to "become the connective tissue for the entire consumer finance industry,” which suggests that they are planning to partner with more banks, including Coinbase and BitPay to “store crypto assets in digital cards.”

“Crypto is something we pay a lot of attention to,” he said. “As user demand and merchant demand evolves, we’ll evolve with it.” Users can already store crypto but can't do any transaction with it for now, but Google might add such features soon as hinted above.

Besides, Google Pay could also make managing vaccine passports, tickets and airline passes easier to access soon probably, as this is a few examples they cited that the “comprehensive” Google Pay will offer. For your information, Google Pay preceded Google Wallet in 2018.

#ChromeOS #MY
Chrome OS is gaining Android 12's Material You element soon
9To5Google

Google introduced Material You with Android 12, which personalise your device for "you," and now they are bringing this similar stuff over to Chrome OS.

A recently merged commit shows that Google seems to be working on bringing Material You over to Chrome OS with a slightly different approach. The top part of the app window frame will be semi-transparent instead of solid-colored, with the four corners set to gain rounded corners.

What you currently see is just a mockup by 9To5Google of what Google might be doing, also things are subject to change since it is still in early development.

#YouTube
YouTube is preparing feature to let users watch video chapters repeatedly
XDA Developers

YouTube earlier has already rolled out loop functionality to mobile and desktop platform, and recently they have also do it for the TV platform too. Things doesn't stop here, YouTube might soon let users loop video chapters.

XDA Developers has done an APK teardown to the YouTube for Android app version 17.01.36, and they found out strings which hinted that YouTube is currently preparing functionality to repeat video chapters:

<string name="chapter_repeat_on">Chapter repeat is on</string>
<string name="chapter_repeat_turn_off">Turn Off</string>

Soon you will be able to repeat just parts of the video, you no longer need to scroll back manually, this is especially useful for tutorial guide videos. At the time of writing, the feature is currently hidden and haven't start to roll out yet. We will keep you updated on the feature availability though.

#News #YTMusic
YouTube Music is slowly growing bigger in the West
Android Police

Nowadays majority of the people just can't live without music, they listened it when they are resting, sleeping, walking on the street... Talking about this, YouTube Music is growing rapidly and has become the fastest-growing music streaming service in the Western markets.

A research from Midia Research via Variety, reported that the music streaming subnoscriptions across the world has grew up by 26.4% YoY, which means out of the 523.9 million people, 109.5 million has joined during the past year.

Impressively, YouTube Music has gained most of the new subscribers in the past 12 months, recorded over 50% YoY growth, other popular services like Spotify and Apple Music only managed to grow 20% and 25% respectively. Although YouTube Music only captured about 8% of the music streaming service market share, which is a far cry over Spotify 31% throne, but it is nice to see that the service is slowly catching up.

#News
Google Cameos say goodbye to everyone
Android Police

Some probably didn't even heard of the name before, but the service that is meant for celebrities or other high-profile people to answer their fans' questions by recording videos is ready to enter the graveyard, it is Google Cameos.

All celebrities won't be able to record new videos starting February 17, existing records won't appear on search results after that date too. Those celebrities who want to take a backup of their records can do so over at Google Takeout.

Launching way back in 2019, the service hasn't gain much popularity yet, as not many celebrities joined in over the past few years, also majority people didn't use it before too.