New Google Play tags will make it easier to find Android apps with Accessibility

To celebrate this year’s Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), Google has tagged apps that are accessible with relevant accessibility (a11y) tags in the Play Store app. The tags will categorize apps into several categories:

• Screen reader-friendly
• Visual assistance
• Hearing assistance
• Learning disability
• Motor assistance
• Accessible communication (Currently no apps have this tag.)

Clicking on such a tag will open a list of applications with similar features. These tags may even appear on games (e.g., A Blind Legend).

🔗 Google Play Help

Updated Android version distribution chart for May 2022. Android 12 is still missing.

Google has updated its chart showing the percentage of Android devices running various versions of the OS (It was last updated in November 2021.) Android 11 now make up the biggest single slice of the pie at 28.3%, up from 24.2% (November). The share of devices running Android 10 and older has decreased accordingly. Jelly Bean is now less than half of one percent.

The lack of statistics for Android 12 in this chart can be explained by the fact that it is intended to help developers know what percentage of potential customers they might lose by dropping support for an older version of Android. Anyway, it would be interesting to know what percentage of devices are running on Android 12 and 12L.

🔗 9to5Google

Google Assistant is now officially available on the Samsung Galaxy Watch4

Starting today, Galaxy Watch4 users will be able to download Google Assistant from the Play Store.

Google Assistant will be available in 10 markets, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, The UK and USA.

It will, also, support 12 languages, which include Danish, English (American, Canadian, United Kingdom, Australian, Irish), Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French (Canadian, France), and Taiwanese.

Play store link

🔗 Samsung Mobile Press

The Pixel Watch has surfaced in FCC certification, the watch will have a USB-C charging cable, and LTE will not be in all models.

Earlier, the watch surfaced in the Bluetooth SIG certification, from which three models were known. As it turns out, the GQF4C model will only have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi modules. And the GBZ4S and GWT9R will have LTE support (the latter is likely to be available only in the U.S.).

A fourth FCC ID (G943M) has also surfaced in the certification. This is a USB-C cable for charging the Pixel Watch, which is essentially supposed to have a simple magnetic puck on one end and USB-C on the other.

The assembly will be handled by Compal Electronics, a Taiwanese company that has also been one of the manufacturers of the Apple Watch since 2017.

🔗 9to5Google

Google Calculator has been updated to version 8.2. What's new?

- The font of the buttons is now larger and bolder;
- Changed the erase button icon;
- Improved the coloring in the dark theme;
- Fixed laggy expanding animation of additional functions (as promised on Issue tracker);
- Added two-column layout for tablets. (9to5Google);
- The haptic feedback when you press the buttons is no longer "double";
- Added a quick settings tile that just opens the app;

Google News | En

Google Play Store web redesign starts rolling out globally

Back in November 2021, thanks to the Taiwanese and Korean versions of the site, we got a glimpse of what the first major redesign in years of the web app store will look like. And now it's becoming available to users all over the world.

The Game, Apps, Movies, Books and Kids switches are now in a single line on the top bar. Search is hidden in a button with a corresponding icon in the upper right corner, next to "Help" and the account image. The account controls have moved from the left panel to the menu by clicking on the account icon, just like in the mobile app.

The rollout is gradual and global, so if you don't see a redesign, you'll just have to wait a bit.

🔗 9to5Google