Android Is Closing the Gap With Apple With This New Feature

Google is launching one other new characteristic to make switching between all of the Android units in your life a little bit simpler. Media Notifications, introduced at CES, will allow you to transition audio content material from the automotive to your telephone, headphones, telephone and sensible house units primarily based on proximity. It’s Google’s latest effort to deliver its Android ecosystem as much as par with Apple’s relating to connectivity and cohesiveness between units. The manner Apple’s merchandise seamlessly join to at least one one other has helped it turn into the world’s second-largest smartphone maker and the highest vendor of smartwatches and wi-fi earbuds. The launch of Media Notifications is Google’s newest try to point out that merchandise do not must be made by the identical firm to work collectively. Google has been shifting in the direction of this objective for years by introducing options like Phone Hub, Nearby Share and Fast Pair. Additions like these have turn into all of the extra necessary now that Android and iOS have staked a bigger presence in our vehicles, our ears and on our wrists. “This is an ongoing investment,” Erik Kay, Google’s vp of engineering for Android, mentioned to CNET solely forward of CES. “We get to the point where pretty much any feature that shows up on the phone or shows up on a watch is going to inherently be a multi-device feature over time.” Spotify and YouTube Music will likely be among the many first apps to be appropriate with Media Notifications. Google can be working with Spotify to make it doable to handle playback between Spotify Connect units in Android 13’s new media participant — one other transfer to enhance consistency throughout Android units. Google has not but mentioned when both of those updates will launch, nor has it mentioned which merchandise Media Notifications will likely be appropriate with. But for the reason that objective is to make shifting between units simpler, Google says customers doubtless will not must do any legwork within the settings menu to allow Media Notifications. Prompts ought to simply seem mechanically as you progress nearer to a appropriate machine.  “That all happens naturally through little nudges and prompts in the user interface,” Kay mentioned when describing how Media Notifications will work.Media Notifications will not require extremely wideband, a connectivity protocol that is made its manner into new premium smartphones over the previous three to 4 years, as a result of it depends on indicators from numerous sources like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. But it’ll doubtless work extra precisely if you happen to’re utilizing a UWB-enabled machine, in keeping with Kay. Since UWB can present exact proximity calculations, its presence in telephones improves duties like sharing recordsdata and content material between units and digital automotive key performance. It’s additionally the identical expertise Apple makes use of to level you in the proper path of a misplaced AirTag.”UWB is something we’re pretty excited about,” mentioned Kay. “But it is one of these things that’s going to take a long time for it to really get ubiquitous in the market.” An illustration displaying what Google’s new Media Notifications characteristic might seem like. 
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Google’s bulletins come after Apple has been step by step including new connectivity options to its ecosystem of iPhones, iPads, AirPods, Apple Watches and Macs. Apple introduced the flexibility to swap FaceTime calls between your iPhone, iPad and Mac in its most up-to-date working system updates, for instance. The capacity to switch audio out of your iPhone to the HomePod Mini primarily based on proximity was additionally a standout characteristic when Apple launched its miniature speaker in 2021. But in contrast to Apple, Google is not utilizing options like Media Notifications to push its first occasion {hardware}. Instead, Google needs to make swapping between Android units really feel constant and simple whether or not you are utilizing merchandise from Google, Samsung, JBL or any of its different companions. It’s a objective that Google should stability alongside selling its personal Pixel units, which solely account for a sliver of the worldwide smartphone market. You could also be questioning why Google does not simply preserve options like Media Notifications unique to its Pixel telephones, Pixel earbuds and Nest sensible house units to make its units stand out throughout the Android panorama. If Google needs to emulate Apple’s ecosystem strategy, that would definitely be a method to take action. The reply is straightforward: Improvements like these are solely helpful in the event that they’re obtainable all over the place. “Every feature you build is a network effect feature, so it depends on there being a wide variety of devices to support the feature,” Kay mentioned. “So if you build something [and] try to make it exclusive to one device, or one partner, or even our first party things, it’s not going to be as successful because there’s not as many devices for it to work with.” As smartwatches and wi-fi earbuds have grown extra well-liked, telephone makers like Apple and Samsung have more and more targeted on these ancillary merchandise as complementary promoting factors for his or her smartphones. Global shipments of smartwatches grew 13% year-over-year in 2022, in keeping with Counterpoint Research, whereas Canalys experiences that true wi-fi earbuds have been the one private audio class to point out development within the third quarter of 2022. Google is the newest smartphone maker to leap on that bandwagon and launched its first smartwatch, the Pixel Watch, in October, Google plans to introduce a brand new Pixel pill subsequent 12 months. Making watches, earbuds and sensible house units work collectively extra seamlessly is not nearly comfort. Some specialists imagine that equipment like these will play an enormous position within the smartphone’s future as annual telephone upgrades really feel incremental. “The next quest for the smartphone is to figure out what it will connect to next,” Runar Bjørhovde, an analyst with market analysis agency Canalys, mentioned in a earlier interview for a separate story. “Because the smartphone has not necessarily reached its potential yet, but as a standalone device I think the smartphone is getting closer and closer to the edge.”