Just recently, Google started doing a beta track of their Google App – you know the app that includes Google Now, and search. Well the latest beta, which is v5.5, was recently torn down by the guys over at Android Police. And they found some rather interesting tidbits here in the Google app.
One of those new features are new cards for status indicators. So currently, pulling up Bluetooth, WiFi, the Flashlight, etc in the app has a white card with a dark gray background. Well in the update, the background is now white, it looks a bit more sleek as well. Additionally, there is code in the APK for adding in airplane mode and battery saver toggles to the list of toggles already supported.
Google Now is also looking to add support for concert tickets. Google Now already keeps pretty good track of the events that are in your Gmail inbox. Including flights, meetings, and much more. Google is looking to add concerts as well. There are a few strings in the APK which show us the name for the concert as well as when doors open at. Making it easy for you to see what time you need to get to the concert so you don’t miss anything. Very helpful. It’s not quite rolled out, but should be coming soon.
Finally, we have Chrome custom tabs coming to the Google App. So, for example, if you see a link in Google Now and decide to open it, instead of loading up the Chrome browser, it will instead load up a popover window in Google Now for you to view that link you click on. Custom Chrome tabs were announced at Google I/O back in May, and have actually become a pretty popular feature. Allowing developers to include a web browser in their app, and keep users inside their app, instead of sending them to Chrome or another browser. Now this isn’t live yet, but the strings are there, so it could be coming real soon.
You can download the latest beta from the Play Store now. You just need to opt into being a tester here, and then download the latest version of the Google app, and you’ll be good to go. It’s quite simple. You’ll also receive all of the beta’s. So be careful, as they are likely to have some bugs or broken features.