Published on December 2, 2021, 12:56
Google is rolling out a slew of new features for Android, including new widgets for YouTube Music, Google Play Books, and Google Photos, new features for Android Auto, and updates for Google Assistant and Google Photos. The company detailed these new features in a blog post.
The biggest car-based addition is that starting today, Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S21 owners will be able to use their phones as a car key with “compatible BMW vehicles” in certain countries. . Google announced it was working on car key functionality for Android 12 in May, specifically citing BMW as one of the manufacturers it would be working with. Google says the feature will be available "on all 2020 and 2022 model year BMW vehicles" and hopes to add more compatible vehicles in the future.
Other new features coming to Android Auto include an option to automatically launch the in-car interface when an Android phone is connected to the vehicle, a new play button on the home screen to launch 'one-tap' music playback, a new search icon to quickly find music, and new smart reply options for text messages.
New widgets also appear on Android phone screen for YouTube Music, Google Play Books and Google Photos apps. The Music widget offers playback controls and access to recently played titles, while the Books widget offers shortcuts to your library. A new Google Photos widget will also be available next week. It can be configured to specifically display photos of selected people and animals in your library. Along with this new widget, Google Photos' Memories feature will also start displaying selected photos and videos from events like New Year's Eve in the standard photo grid interface.
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Google's "Family Bell" feature, its alarm-like reminder system that can be streamed from smart speakers and displays, is also being updated to work on mobile devices.
Finally, Google also provided an update on the rollout of its new Permissions Reset feature on older Android phones, which automatically disables permissions for apps you haven't used in a while. This feature is already available for devices running Android 11 and above, but it will be extended to devices running Android 6 and above "starting next month", the company says, indicating a rollout in January. She previously indicated that the extension would start rolling out in December.
As is often the case with these kinds of announcements from Google, these new options are available in a variety of different timeframes, ranging from "today" for BMW car key functionality to "next months” for Android Auto voice search and smart responses.
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