Abner Li

2 weeks ago | 9to5google.com | Abner Li

Google Pixel owners on Sunday evening unexpectedly received an app update for something called “Pixel VIPs.”According to the Play Store listing, Pixel VIPs — with its heart-shaped icon — helps you “stay connected to the people who matter most and never miss a moment from them.”Quickly and easily connect with the people who matter most to you. The Google Play screenshots show a widget that looks a lot like Favorite contacts from Google Contacts. In fact, another shows the app’s Highlights tap.

2 weeks ago | 9to5google.com | Abner Li

After widely rolling out the redesigned compose field last month, Google Messages is now addressing a common complaint about the 4-line limit when drafting by letting the text box get much taller. Update 6/8: In addition to the big Gallery redesign with fullscreen camera and higher-quality sending, Google Messages recently rolled out the new 14-line text field limit. That increase of 10 lines appears to be across all phones.

2 weeks ago | 9to5google.com | Abner Li

Like most Google apps, Messages A/B tests many features. However, it takes the RCS/SMS client a rather long time to actually launch these capabilities in stable even after they are announced. From various reports, Google itself, and devices we’ve checked, this is the current state of Messages. Update 6/8:These are Messages features that Google announced or have been spotted in the wild by beta users. The chat interface is now its own container with rounded corners at the top.

2 weeks ago | 9to5google.com | Abner Li

Earlier this week, Google doubled the recently introduced 2.5 Pro query limit in the Gemini app for AI Pro subscribers. It then emerged that Google is planning to make similar limit changes to AI Studio. Google AI Studio is a developer tool that lets you directly access Gemini and other first-party models. To date, the website has provided free access to those models with pretty generous limits.

2 weeks ago | 9to5google.com | Abner Li

As previewed earlier this year, Google is getting ready to add a “Battery health assistance” setting to help long-term Pixel usage. About APK Insight: In this “APK Insight” post, we’ve decompiled the latest version of an application that Google uploaded to the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APKs, in the case of Android apps), we’re able to see various lines of code within that hint at possible future features.