Ever have a kind of moments the place you see some new tech twist — an app, a function, an concept of some kind — and also you simply cease in your tracks and assume: “Whoa. Now, that’s clever”?I will not lie: Those moments come up far much less incessantly for me than they as soon as did. By and enormous recently, we simply have not been seeing the identical form of awe-inspiring developments within the mobile-tech area that we did a decade in the past. And most firms — Google very a lot included — are at the moment obsessive about chasing a really particular taste of AI that is overhyped, incessantly impractical, and awkwardly misplaced in its current implementation.You know what, although? If something, that solely makes these real “whoa” moments much more significant, once they do arrive — as a result of they honestly are a particular shock.My good friend, I had a kind of moments this week. It introduced me again to an period of Android when issues had been shifting in an unimaginable course and the long run felt wealthy with real-world, life-enhancing technological intelligence.This time, the second did not come from Google. But it did come from a developer who’s been part of the broader Android ecosystem for ages now — and it feels prefer it’s choosing up on a superb however in the end deserted concept Google gave us many moons in the past.[Get fresh Googley goodness with my free Android Intelligence newsletter. Three new things to try in your inbox every Friday!] Google Now — and thenBefore we dig into the current, we have to take a fast journey to the previous. (It’ll be quick. I promise!)If you have been loitering round these Android-tinted lands for lengthy, you little question bear in mind: Back in 2012, Google gave us one thing that basically felt like the long run. It was an Android-centric service known as Google Now, and it was all about providing up predictive, contextual intelligence — data you wanted, in different phrases, earlier than you even realized you wanted it.I’ve been excited about Google Now so much recently, as Google joins the present tech circus of flailing round to drive the sq. peg of generative AI into the spherical gap of our day-to-day lives. In some ways, it seems like the sensible impact of Google Now properly over a decade in the past was way more superior and aligned with our real-world wants than what Google’s Gemini chatbot is giving us right this moment.In case this is not a ringing a bell, the core interface of Google Now was a stream constructed into your Android machine’s dwelling display screen. That stream confirmed you a sequence of playing cards that’d change based mostly on the place you had been, what you had been doing, and what was happening round you — so that you would possibly see something from a primary climate forecast to data concerning the present site visitors to a spot you usually go to at that particular day and time.Google Now had the flexibility to make our lives simpler — and it had the potential to set Android aside in a significant method that, if marketed successfully, may have actually resonated with the plenty. Google was years forward of everybody else. And then — properly, y’know. Google…Googled. It gave up on the idea earlier than it had an opportunity to completely flourish and began chasing another shiny new factor as a substitute. And that brings us to right this moment.Google Now — againSo right here it’s: With a latest replace, a long-exceptional Android launcher app known as Nova Launcher has added the idea of Google-Now-like playing cards into its app drawer.Nova, like different Android launchers, replaces the house display screen and app drawer of any Android machine with a extra customizable and feature-rich various. That means it is capable of introduce choices and talents that Google itself (or Samsung, or every other Android device-maker) is not pursuing. And this card setup is an ideal instance of the fascinating decisions that form of framework can supply us.As of now, Nova’s playing cards are pretty restricted in what they will do. But they really feel like the beginning of one thing particular — and one thing pleasingly acquainted, for these of us who bear in mind the promise round Android’s Google Now period. At the second, Nova’s playing cards are you able to present three varieties of data:
The climate — anytime circumstances in your space are altering in addition to at any particular recurring days and instances you need
Media controls — anytime you may have audio actively taking part in out of your telephone
And one-tap map areas — based mostly on particular recurring schedules you configure inside Nova’s settings
JR
Nova Launcher enables you to configure several types of playing cards round climate, media controls, and bodily areas.
Whatever playing cards you choose then present up proper on the high of your common app drawer every time the related moments come up: JR
Nova’s schedule-driven location card in motion. (Mmm…burger.)
It’s nearly an much more considerate association than the separated Google Now feed of yesteryear, which usually required you to swipe over to the left of your essential dwelling display screen panel. Nova’s method places the identical form of data proper into an space you are already accustomed to interacting with and transforms that usually static app drawer into an all-purpose motion and data hub.Clever of an idea as it could be, in fact, it is a particularly restricted begin. What made Google Now so magical wasn’t simply the knowledge it supplied however the service’s capacity to floor precisely the precise data at precisely the precise time — earlier than you even thought to ask for it.That piece of the puzzle shall be way more difficult for an app like Nova to realize, given its way more restricted perception into your assorted actions each on-line and off. Google Now, for example, may know that you simply’d looked for a flight in your laptop after which proactively present you a card with that flight’s standing data seconds later in your telephone. It may do not forget that you’d seemed up a enterprise after which instantly pop up a card with instructions to that enterprise in addition to present driving time and essentially the most environment friendly route. And it may sense by itself what areas you had been prone to go to on completely different days and instances out of your Android-associated location historical past as a substitute of getting to ask you to manually program those self same schedules.Nova could not ever be capable to go fairly that far, however it actually has loads of room to develop inside its present confines. With the precise machine permissions, it may regulate your calendar after which pull off the Google-Now-like feat of letting you realize when you’ll want to go away for an upcoming appointment with a purpose to make it on time, based mostly on each your location and present site visitors circumstances. It may provide you with up-to-the-minute data on public transportation anytime you method a bus cease or prepare station. And with a teensy little bit of handbook enter, it may watch something from shares to sports activities groups of curiosity and floor worthwhile updates at related instances.None of that is precisely easy, in fact, and the way deeply Nova invests on this idea and pushes the function ahead is one thing solely time will inform us for positive.But proper now, I can let you know this: This function feels filled with potential. It seems like a style of the long run we had been as soon as promised. It seems like a pure development from the period of Google Now and one thing Google itself may need achieved, in a barely completely different fork of actuality.And it completely seems like a “whoa”-worthy second — one which has me desirous to see the place this takes us and enthusiastic about what may come subsequent.Discover oodles of helpful new treasures with my Android Intelligence e-newsletter — free, from me to you each Friday.
Copyright © 2024 IDG Communications, Inc.