In addition to Android 16 arriving and Google giving Pixel owners a Feature Drop, they’ve also given all Android owners their own June Feature Drop. While not the largest in history, there are at least 6 items you should know about.
The June Android Feature Drop: In this latest feature release for the Android platform, Google is providing updates to RCS in Google Messages, a new photo editor in Google Photos, a time extender in Safety Check, customization for Google Home favorites, new Emoji Kitchen options, and quicker payments for transit with Wear OS watches.
- RCS group chat improvements in Google Messages: Folks using Google Messages will soon be able to customize their group chats with unique names and images. Those group chats will also make it clear if your contacts have RCS enabled, plus you’ll be able to mute notifications from specific groups for a duration of your choosing.
- Google Photos gets a new editor: We talked about this in the Pixel Feature Drop, but Google is going to rollout a new photo editor in Google Photos that brings all the AI and recommendations and shortcuts. As you can see in the images below, a quick tap on an image could let you erase objects, change focus or lighting, etc. You’ll also be able to use AI to Reimagine a photo using a description or utilize Auto Frame to expand a scene or crop it.
- Safety Check timer extender: In the Safety Check experience, assuming you are using it to allow others to keep track of you, you’ll soon be able to easily add more time through an “Add time” button just when your Safety Check is coming to an end. The app will give you quick options of 5, 10, 15, or 30 minutes, but you could also add in a custom length.
- Google Home favorites customizations: On Wear OS watches and tablets, Google is finally going to let you customize the favorites in Google Home. As you scroll through those favorites now, you’ll find an “Edit” button at the bottom (on watches) that will let you customize through an interface on your connected phone. You can see how this will look below.
- New Emoji Kitchen combos: I don’t know how anyone keeps track of these, but if you happen to use Emoji Kitchen to make wild combos of emoji, you have new ones to play with. Google offered up examples like 🙏 + 🥕 or 🫵 + 🐷 as remix ideas.
- Wear OS express transit payments: Finally, if you have a Wear OS watch and use public transit, you’ll soon be able to make payments from your watch without having to wake the watch or open the Google Wallet app. It should just happen with a quick tap.
