Among these announcements was the launch of the Watch Face Format. This offers developers a new way to build watch faces for Wear OS smartwatches with a declarative XML format to design the appearance and behavior of watch faces.

According to Google, this means there is no need for the executable code involved in building a watch face, and there is also no code embedded in the watch face APK.  With this release, users can create analogue and digital watch faces, watch faces with complications, customizable watch faces, and more. 

Updates have also been made to Jetpack Compose, including the ability to bring Compose everywhere that the developer is building UI, whether that be on a phone, tablet, foldable device, watch, or TV. These changes are available in the May 2023 release and the most recent alpha versions of the Compose libraries.

Furthermore, the performance of Compose has been improved. The company stated that since October, modifiers have started to migrate to an improved system, and with this, text has seen a 22% performance gain that can be seen in the latest alpha release.

The alpha version of the UI framework for creating functional apps for Android TV Compose for TV has also been released. With this, apps can be built with less code, easier maintenance, and a modern Material 3 look. 

Next, Android Studio Hedgehog was launched in order to offer developers an AI powered conversational experience geared at heightened productivity. This offers improved tools when developing for multiple form factors, and helps to improve the quality of applications with new insights, debugging, and testing solutions.

Android for Cars also received updates intended to expand the reach developers have with users in the car.

Among these updates is the global rollout of Waze on the Google Play Store for all cars with Google built-in. Additional templates were also created for Android for Cars App Library in order to accelerate development time across several app categories, such as navigation.

This update also brings tools to port media apps across Android for Cars; new app categories for driving experiences; and video, gaming, and browsing in cars. 

Additionally, Google Play has been updated so that on top of the ability to tailor by country and pre-registration status, users can now customize listings for inactive users, so they have the chance to try out an app or game again.

Google also announced that custom store listing groups for Google Ads App campaign ad groups are set to be launched in the near future. This will allow for custom listings to be served to users coming from specific ads on AdMob and YouTube.

Next, Google Workspace adds Duet AI, combining all of Workspace’s generative AI features and allowing users to collaborate with AI so they can enhance their productivity. Duet AI is also coming to Google Cloud, enabling users to solve common work challenges with the AI collaborator.

There have also been several updates to Vertex AI, including three new foundation models that can be accessed through API, tuned through an AI in Generative AI Studio, or deployed to a data science notebook. 

Lastly, Google Cloud has launched the next-generation A3 GPU supercomputer. With this, Google Cloud offers users a complete range of GPU for the training and inference of machine learning models. 

For more information on these releases, visit the website. 

The post Google announces updates to Android, Google Cloud, Workspaces, Google Play, and more at Google I/O appeared first on SD Times.

It was first announced last October and since then the company has released a number of innovations to it for businesses, nonprofits, and classrooms. 

Users can use Google Workspace to create a secure collaboration space to share ideas and keep track of information. It provides suggestions for recommended files and people to share with. To access this integrated, collaborative experience users need to turn on Google Chat. They can then use Rooms in Google Chat as a place for connecting, creating, and collaborating.

Google plans on evolving Rooms over the coming months into Spaces. It will introduce a new user interface, in-line topic threading, presence indicators, custom statuses, expressive reactions, and a collapsible view. 

The company also announced Google Workspace Individual, which is designed for small business owners. It provides premium capabilities such as smart booking services, professional video meetings, personalized email marketing, and more. Google Workspace Individual will soon be available in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, and Japan. 

“Every day, the world’s most innovative companies, schools and nonprofits use Google Workspace to transform how people work and achieve more together. It’s a daily part of how leading healthcare providers revolutionize patient care, schools turn remote learning into an immersive, personalized experience, and aerospace companies rethink flight. Now, with Google Workspace for everyone, you can organize your junior sports league with ease, take that fundraiser to the next level, or even turn your hobby into a business. Whatever it is, Google Workspace helps people (teams, families, friends, volunteers, neighbors…) connect, create and collaborate,” Kelly Waldher, vice president of marketing for Google Workspace, and Aparna Pappu, vice president of engineering at Google Workspace, wrote in a post.

In addition, Google announced new security and privacy features protecting Workspace. It has launched Google Workspace Client-side encryption, which gives customers direct control over their encryption keys and identity service. According to Google, client-side encryption is especially helpful for organizations storing sensitive data, such as intellectual property, healthcare records, or financial data. 

There are also new trust rules for Drive, which gives customers more control over how files can be shared within and outside of their organization. They will be able to set specific rules for organizational units and groups, which allows for a more granular approach than applying blanket policies to all users. 

New Drive labels will allow users to classify their files to ensure they’re handled correctly. Drive labels also integrate with Google workspace’s data loss prevention (DLP) capabilities. Files can also be classified automatically based on DLP rules defined by the administrator. 

In addition, the company is introducing new phishing and malware protection. When abusive content is found, the file will be flagged and will only be visible to admins and the file’s owner, preventing sharing and reducing the number of users exposed to the abusive content. 

“These Google Workspace innovations further our longstanding mission to protect and secure anywhere, anytime collaboration. They help our customers realize the full potential of a trusted, cloud-native platform that’s built for the evolving hybrid work environment. Client-side encryption is an especially important development for Google Workspace. When combined with our other encryption capabilities, it provides our customers—even in the most heavily regulated industries—with additional controls, safeguards, and peace of mind,” Karthik Lakshminarayanan and Erika Trautman, directors of product management of Google Workspace, wrote in a post.

The post Google Workspace now available to everyone appeared first on SD Times.