Google Quietly Rolls Out Key Updates to Wallet, Play Store, Wear OS, and Google TV
While AI took centre stage at this year's Google I/O keynote, several important product updates slipped under the radar during developer sessions. From upgrades to Google Wallet and Wear OS to changes in the Play Store and Google TV, Google has quietly introduced meaningful enhancements that users will begin to notice soon.
Live Updates Coming to Wear OS
One notable feature involves Live Updates expanding to smartwatches. Already anticipated on Android 16 smartphones, this functionality will soon be available on wearables. In a developer session spotted by Android Authority, Google's Aaron Labiaga shared that the feature will reach smartwatches "later in 2026." Live Updates will allow users to view real-time status updates from delivery, rideshare, and navigation apps directly on their wrists, mirroring Apple's Live Activities for watchOS.
Smarter Google Wallet Notifications and Expanded ID Support
Google Wallet is also getting a significant intelligence boost. A new feature called 'Nearby Passes notification' will prompt users to open their digital pass when they arrive at locations where it may be needed, like an airport, gym, or café. According to Google, 'This notification serves as a direct gateway, allowing users to seamlessly access the associated pass with a single tap.'
Additionally, Wallet's digital ID support is expanding. Users in Arkansas, Montana, Puerto Rico, and West Virginia can now store digital IDs, while support for UK passports is also being introduced. Another helpful improvement: airlines offering loyalty programs can now automatically send boarding passes to Wallet upon check-in.
Google Play Store Gets More Social and Safer
The Google Play Store is receiving its own set of enhancements, including a new option that lets users ask someone else to pay for an app or purchase. Initially rolled out in India, this feature will now be available in the US, Japan, Indonesia, and Mexico. It enables users to send a payment link outside of their Google Family group to request purchases.
Google is also refining the subscription model by allowing users to buy add-ons alongside base subscriptions in a single transaction. On the development side, the Play Store will now let developers halt buggy releases in real-time, preventing flawed versions from being delivered to new users.
To improve app discovery and engagement, developers can now enhance their listings with a content carousel, YouTube playlists, and audio samples for health and wellness apps. Google is also launching new topic pages to help users explore curated content across shows, movies, and sports.
Google TV Gets Android 16 and New Audio Enhancements
Google TV is set to benefit from Android 16, introducing visual updates through Material 3's Expressive design language. It's also gaining support for MediaQualityManager, which gives apps more control over picture profile settings.
Another notable addition is the Eclipsa Audio codec, a spatial audio format developed in collaboration with Samsung. This is expected to improve the overall sound experience across compatible content on Google TV.
As flashy AI demos dominated the spotlight, Google I/O's quieter announcements still promise real-world usability and quality-of-life improvements across a wide range of devices.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Mint
40 minutes ago
- Mint
How Docusign is modernizing the age-old business contract
When Allan Thygesen became CEO of Docusign in 2022, the company's stock was on a steep down-ramp after a nearly two-year rally. Shares of the digital agreements company's surged during the Covid-19 pandemic, peaking at $310. 'A lot of companies had overbought licenses," Thygesen told Barron's editor at large Andy Serwer in an interview for the At Barron's video series. As the pandemic cooled, some businesses' needs for virtual contract signing went away, he explained, adding, 'Of course, that is very disruptive inside the company." Thygesen, who joined Docusign after more than 10 years at Google, worked to turn things around. In the summer of 2023, a solution was conceived: implementing artificial intelligence assistance into the digital agreements workflow. Docusign started integrating its intelligent agreement management in early 2024 and rolled out an AI contract agent in April. Thygesen said Docusign now has about $3 billion in revenue from the 1.7 million businesses, nonprofits, and government organizations that pay monthly for its services. Ninety-five percent of Fortune 500 companies use Docusign, according to Thygesen. 'Docusign is probably the best-known company in signatures," Thygesen said. 'Most people regard Docusign as the gold standard for signing documents." In conversation with Serwer, Thygesen detailed the company's AI agent and how it is changing the business. Below are some highlights from their interview, which have been edited and condensed for clarity. Barron's: Some people might think of your company as a one-product company, but I bet you don't think of it that way. Allan Thygesen: We don't. But it's not unfair to say that we are so identified with our product category. As a result, we have built a tremendous amount of trust that over the years we've extended to other moments in the journey. An agreement goes through a journey. You draft it, you negotiate it, you execute it, and then you manage it once it is executed. And we have, over time, added pieces of all those workflows. If you want to sell mass-customized agreements, we can do that. If you want to verify the identity of people who you are sending documents to, we can do that. But we never really put the whole thing together and we never put it on modern plumbing. So that is what I've been working on. We announced our new platform called intelligent agreement management last year. And now we're releasing the full suite with modern AI built in. How do you go through the Docusign agreements journey? We help you create templates of various forms of agreements. You can then customize it, maybe pulling in data from your other systems. That creates a tailored agreement that then goes to the other party. You can go back and forth, and when you see their edits, you can have the AI review whether you approve or disagree with their comments. Then you sign electronically, of course, with Docusign. And then the agreement goes to our intelligent repository, where now we can give you AI-assisted intelligence about everything in those agreements. When is my agreement up for renewal? What would I want to renegotiate next time around? What are things I want to keep an eye on? All those things we can extract out of the agreements and present them to you. How is the AI rollout going? It is the fastest-growing product in our company's history. I announced at a customer event that we have over 10,000 customers live with the product already, which is just an exceptional ramp for a new software product. And we keep building new functionality. This spring, we're announcing a whole suite of new functionality, including a contract agent—using AI to automate the end-to-end agreement workflow. Let's imagine your job is to review contracts with all your vendors. We can automate every step in that process: checking the vendor, whether something has changed with them. Checking the contract, whether it complies with your templates now. Automating the communication with the vendor. Every one of those steps, which normally would have been a separate workflow and step for a contract person or procurement person, can now be fully automated. How are humans integrated into that process? That will be a risk-adjusted thing. Maybe if you're negotiating an nondisclosure agreement, you'd let the [AI] system just run it because there is a standard set of rules. But if it is a complicated, high-value agreement, there would be both a review on the front end and maybe multiple reviews during the negotiation process. So it is really tailored; the system is flexible enough to let you use as much or as little automation as you want. There is a lot of talk about Washington policies impacting different businesses in different ways. What does that mean for Docusign? We have a very diversified customer base across all industries, so we aren't as exposed to individual industries that might suffer more in the case of short-term swings in trade. And to the extent the trade shifts between countries, that also doesn't have a huge impact on us. Obviously, if global trade really compresses, that wouldn't be great for the big companies that work with us that import or export a lot. We haven't seen any evidence of that yet, but that could happen. The uncertainty could impact the investment climate, and we are an investment for companies. So we will just have to see. But we are hopeful—I think all Americans should be, that the U.S. economy can continue to perform strongly. Final question. Why should someone buy or hold Docusign stock now? We have the benefit of being trusted, well positioned, having established distribution, and we have a vision that I think addresses a very large pain point. We worked with Deloitte, and they estimated that over two trillion dollars are lost globally every year to inefficient agreement practices and systems. That is a meaty problem to attack, and I think we are in the best position to do it. And I think we are delivering. There is some good early evidence that customers are adopting. So I think it is a good story.
Time of India
11 hours ago
- Time of India
Sundar Pichai answers who would be next Google CEO
Google chief executive Sundar Pichai expects artificial intelligence to play a critical role in the tech giant's future leadership during the Bloomberg Tech Conference earlier this week. On the question of whether a human or AI will run Google in future, Pichai stated, 'I do think whoever is running it will have an extraordinary AI companion .' 'The products we built tremendously impact society. The journey of technologies, doing the hard work to make sure you're harnessing it in a way that benefits people. I think that'll be an important quality to have,' the Google CEO said. Before Pichai took the stage, Meta Platforms Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Andrew Bosworth said there has been a cultural shift in Silicon Valley , where it is now more palatable for the tech industry to develop resources for the US military. The company announced a partnership with defence contractor Anduril Industries Inc. last week to develop products for the US military, including an artificial intelligence-powered helmet with virtual and augmented reality features. Pichai said Google's parent Alphabet will keep hiring engineers at least into 2026, emphasising that human talent remains key even as the company ramps up AI investments. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories 'I expect we will grow from our current engineering base even into next year, because it allows us to do more with the opportunity space,' Pichai said. 'I just view this as making engineers dramatically more productive, getting a lot of the mundane aspects out of what they do.' Tech majors, like Microsoft, have fired more staff this year, reflecting in part the enormous investments needed to ensure leadership in AI. The firings have stoked fears about the technology replacing certain job functions. Google itself has conducted rounds of layoffs in recent years to free up resources. Pichai pointed out that while AI excels in areas like coding, the models continue to make basic mistakes, requiring human intervention.
Time of India
12 hours ago
- Time of India
Apple WWDC 2025: 'Big' updates coming to iPhones, iPads, MacBooks; what may be the 'hardware announcement'
Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicks off on June 9, 2025, promising a week of groundbreaking software announcements that will shape the future of its ecosystem. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Running through June 13, the event will feature a keynote from Apple CEO Tim Cook at 10 a.m. PT (10.30 pm IST), streamed on Apple's website, Developer app, and YouTube channel, alongside an in-person experience for select developers at Apple Park. Like every year, the event will be big on software. New naming and lot of new feaures likely coming to iOS, iPadOS, MacOS and more With the tagline 'Sleek Peek,' WWDC 2025 will see updates to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS, with a focus on design and AI integration. The headline announcement is expected to be a redesign of Apple's operating systems, potentially rebranded with a year-based naming scheme: iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, and visionOS 26. Reports suggest iOS 26 will undergo its most significant overhaul since iOS 7, introducing a unified design language with floating tab views, updated iconography, and glass-like UI effects inspired by the Vision Pro's aesthetic. This cohesive look aims to rival Google's Android 16 revamp, prioritizing fluidity and personalization across devices. Updates on Apple Intelligence Apple Intelligence, introduced in 2024, will see further enhancements, though not as the centerpiece. Rumors indicate Apple will open its Foundation Models to third-party developers, enabling custom AI-powered features in apps like Safari and Photos, which may be quietly rebranded as 'AI-powered.' Tired of too many ads? go ad free now A long-awaited Siri overhaul remains in development but is unlikely to debut fully. Additionally, an AI-powered coding tool, possibly in partnership with Anthropic, could be introduced for Xcode, streamlining app development. iPadOS 26 may introduce a 'Pro' version with advanced multitasking, improved external display support, and professional-grade apps, catering to power users. watchOS 26 is expected to support third-party Control Center widgets, while tvOS 26 could feature a revamped CarPlay UI and animated lock screen artwork. visionOS 26 may bring native support for gaming controllers like PlayStation and Xbox, alongside minor UI tweaks to bolster Apple's spatial computing push. Likely hardware announcements at WWDC 2025 Hardware announcements are less likely, as Apple's recent M4 MacBook Air release and focus on fall hardware events suggest a software-driven WWDC. However, speculation persists about a potential M4 Ultra chip reveal or Mac Pro updates, though these are considered long shots. Developers will have access to over 100 technical sessions, online labs, and one-on-one consultations with Apple experts, covering topics like Swift, machine learning, and AR/VR tools. The Swift Student Challenge will also spotlight emerging talent, with 50 Distinguished Winners invited to a three-day Apple Park experience. As Apple aims to balance innovation with its privacy-first ethos, WWDC 2025 is set to lay the groundwork for a smarter, more cohesive ecosystem, with iOS 26 leading the charge. Stay tuned for live updates as Apple unveils its vision for the future.
