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Tag: android apps

  • Outsourcing The Development Of Your App? Google Has Some Advice For You.

    Outsourcing The Development Of Your App? Google Has Some Advice For You.

    Google has a new Outsourcing Playbook available for companies who are outsourcing the development of an Android app.

    The guide explores topics like pitfalls to avoid, things to do to make the app successful, and how to choose a software development agency. The intro explains:

    It’s not always possible to develop an Android app in house; so you may look to an agency to help you create your app. This agency may call itself a systems integrator, mobile/design studio, consultant, dev shop, freelancer, app developer, or mobile specialist among other names.

    We’ve seen a wide range in the quality of apps built with the help of an agency. Getting it right is not only about finding an agency that fits well with your organization and its goals, but also building the appropriate skills and culture in your own organization. This playbook will help you do that with its advice, questions to ask, and tips for selecting and working with an agency to build a high quality Android app.

    The playbook is available for free right on Google Play. A PDF is also available here.

    Image via Google

  • Pinterest Profiles Get Revamp on Android, iPhone

    Pinterest is rolling out an updated mobile profile making it easier for users to get back to pins. It’s the first time they’ve updated the profile since 2013, and it has made things faster and easier to find pins while they’re on the go.

    According to the company, 80% of Pinterest users use the app on their mobile device.

    “A profile on Pinterest is like a library of all the things you like or want to try,” a spokesperson for the company tells WebProNews in an email. “More than 100 million people have saved over 50 billion Pins onto 1 billion boards, and we hope these updates make it easier to bring those saved ideas to life.”

    With the new profiles, recent pins and boards you’ve saved to are now at the top of the profile, and they can be sorted in alphabetical order. According to the company, they’ve heard from literally thousands of people that they’d like to be able to sort this way and to have a better way to find pins within their boards.

    “Sorting through your Pins and boards just got faster,” the spokesperson says. “If you have more than 15 Pins saved to a board, we’ve added filters to help you quickly see all your Pins for your most active topics. For example, if you’ve saved lots of recipes to a breakfast board, you’ll now be able to filter your Pins by topics like ‘waffles,’ ‘pancakes,’ ‘eggs’ and more. You can also explore other Pinners’ boards by topic.”

    As with much of what Pinterest announces these days, search is front and center with the new profiles. According to the company, early tests have shown that users who search their own pins are searching doing so 70% more with the new profiles. The number of those searching their pins in general has increased by 75%.

    Another element of the new profiles is that pins you’ve liked will automatically go to a board called “Your Likes” as the “likes” tab has been eliminated.

    Additionally, board covers are now a mosaic of your 6 most recent pins, and the profiles, designed for mobile, are just faster in general.

    According to Pinterest, people in early test have revisited their pins more often with the new profile.

    The new profiles are rolling out on both Android and iPhone.

    Images via Pinterest

  • Etsy Local Now Available On Android, iOS

    Etsy Local Now Available On Android, iOS

    Late last year, Etsy launched the Etsy Local pilot program, which enabled select shoppers to get push notifications from the Etsy Android or iOS app that alerted them when an Etsy seller is selling at a local event.

    “Etsy Local push notifications are a new way for Etsy sellers and buyers to connect locally and in-person,” a spokesperson for Etsy told us at the time. “It connects sellers participating in fairs and markets to shoppers in their area; shoppers can meet and buy from sellers in-person, supporting both the Etsy community and their own local economies.”

    The company just announced that the feature is now getting a proper launch on both operating systems. A spokesperson tell us in an email:

    Etsy is committed to finding ways to bring the online world together with offline shopping experiences, creating even more meaningful connections between buyers and sellers. And now, with Etsy Local for mobile, people can shop just around the corner! Through the Etsy app for iOS and Android, shoppers can now more easily discover nearby stores that feature their favorite sellers, and connect in-person when a seller is at a market or an in-store event.

    Etsy Local not only allows shoppers to discover great boutiques and markets in their local area to shop vintage and handmade, but also view recommended stores and events in their area that are tailored to their tastes based on the types of shops and sellers they have previously engaged with. The Etsy Local experience also incorporates a newer member of the Etsy community – retailers – and encourages buyers to shop from them, supporting their local communities.

    When you open the Local tab fro the app, recommended nearby retailers and events (tailored to user tastes) will appear. They’re based on shops and sellers you’ve previously engaged with through favoriting, purchasing, and browsing. You can find the feature from the Home page and click on a map or listing to see more info, like hours of operation, available items, etc.

    Another cool part about the feature is that you can use it when you’re traveling to find shopping destinations.

    Naturally, the feature will benefit sellers who sell offline as the feature should up their visibility a great deal.

    Etsy talks more about the feature in a blog post here.

    Image via Etsy

  • Microsoft Just Launched Office For Android Phones

    Microsoft announced that Office for Android is now generally available and in the Google Play Store. In other words, Android users can take advantage of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint on their Android phones.

    Each has its own app, and join those that were already released for Android tablets.

    “Five weeks ago, we announced the Office for Android phone preview,” says Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president for the Office Client Applications and Services team at Microsoft. “We are so grateful to our preview users, and with their help we were able to test the apps on over 1,900 different Android phone models in 83 countries. During the preview, we heard from thousands of these users, and over the last few weeks we were able to incorporate a lot of their feedback into the apps we’re launching today. For example, we made it easier to connect to other popular third-party storage offerings like Google Drive and Box, as well as many usability adjustments to make it easier to navigate commands within the apps.”

    With the new apps, you’ll be able to review and edit documents in “full fidelity” from your phone, as well as read comments and add your own.

    With the PowerPoint app, you can just take your phone to a meeting and present a presentation wirelessly.

    “owerPoint for Android phone gives me the same transitions, animations and design that I would have from my desktop, and I can even use inking to highlight important points while presenting,” says Koenigsbauer.

    On a related note, Google itself recently made presenting with Slides a lot better too.

    With Office, you can get quick access to documents from your phone and see where you were last working within them. You can access those stored in Dropbox, Google Drive, or Box in addition to OneDrive.

    Microsoft has partnered with over 30 OEMs to pre-load the apps on Android devices, which will be in stores later this year.

    Image via Microsoft

  • ‘Ok Google’ Coming To More Android Apps

    ‘Ok Google’ Coming To More Android Apps

    Google is giving developers a new way to let Android users interact with their apps with voice commands. The company announced the launch of its first set of partners for custom voice actions, as well as plans to expand it more broadly.

    Google said in a Google+ post, “This feature will enable people to say things like ‘Ok Google, listen to NPR’ or ‘Ok Google, show attractions near me on TripAdvisor.’ We’re currently piloting custom voice actions with a select group of partners, but we plan to open it up more widely in the future — and we’d love to hear your ideas for actions you’d like to implement.”

    “Google Voice Actions let users quickly complete tasks in your app using voice commands,” Google explains. “It’s another way to drive usage of your app with Google. Users’ voice and text action requests can now lead directly to your Android app, so they can get to your native mobile experiences quickly and easily.”

    “Google Voice Actions provides support for defining custom actions to support use cases not addressed by system actions,” it says. “For example, developers have implemented commands like ‘scan my receipt on Walmart’ or ‘watch trailer for Inception on Flixter’. The custom voice actions feature let you define these kinds of new commands.”

    Google has a form developers can fill out here if they wish to request voice actions for their apps. They can request up to three for now.

    Voice actions recognize many spoken and typed action requests, and create Android intents for them. Google explains how to define an intent filter, handle the intent in your app, and report what your app did using the App Indexing API here. You can also add voice search to your app by following the instructions here.

    Image via Google

  • Gmail Just Got Better On Android

    Gmail Just Got Better On Android

    Google announced an update to its Gmail app for Android with some much-needed new features.

    Late last year, the app got an update that enabled users to add email accounts from other providers like Yahoo or Microsoft Outlook. The new update takes this a step further, and lets you put it all together in one inbox.

    “These days, many of us have more than one email address,” says software engineer Régis Décamps. “If you’re a student, you may have one account for school, one for a campus group you lead, and one for your blog. If you’re a parent, you might have one for family and one for your business. However many email addresses you have, today’s improvements to the Gmail app for Android make it easy to manage all your mail from all your accounts (yes, even @yahoo and @outlook) while you’re on the go.”

    “Starting today you’ll be able to view all your mail at once, regardless of which account it’s from, using the new ‘All Inboxes’ option,” adds Décamps. “This way you can read and respond to all your messages without having to hop between accounts.”

    Another big improvement that builds on the addition of third-party accounts is conversation view for those. Gmail has long been known for conversation view, but now with the update, this is extended to Yahoo, Outlook.com, and other IMAP/POP accounts. This should make a lot of people happy. In fact, Google implies that it’s been a highly-requested feature.

    In addition to all the new account-related functionality, the update includes smarter search. This includes better auto-complete.

    Also on the menu are: more responsive animations, such as when you open or close a conversation; larger attachment previews; and the ability to save to Drive with one tap.

    Google makes no mention of when this all might come to iOS, but it’s likely not too far behind.

    Images via Google

  • Microsoft Expands Preview Of Office Apps For Android Tablets

    Early last year, Microsoft finally launched its long-awaited Office apps for iPad. In November, the company announced their Android counterparts, making Word, Excel, and Powerpoint available in preview mode.

    Microsoft promised general availability of the apps in 2015. That isn’t happening just yet, but they did just expand the preview.

    In a blog post, the Office 365 Team writes, “Over the last two months, we have heard from people all over the world who want the power of Office on their Android tablet. The feedback we’ve received through this initial phase of preview has helped us shape and optimize the Office experience for Android tablet users. Your feedback also helps us plan and prioritize future feature updates.”

    “We want more feedback from more users to ensure that Office apps work well on a range of different Android tablets before launching the official apps,” it says. “To participate in the preview, you can use an ARM-based Android tablet running KitKat or Lollipop, with a screen size between 7″ and 10.1″. Starting today, anyone can go to Google Play and download the Word, Excel and PowerPoint preview apps. No waitlist. No requesting access. Just go and download the apps!”

    The company is hosting a Google+ Community for the Office for Android Tablets preview, where Android tablet users can request access to the apps and leave feedback about them.

    Image via Microsoft

  • Yahoo’s Aviate Lets You Search Apps, Contacts, Web

    Yahoo has added search to its Aviate app, enabling users to search apps, contacts and the Web directly from their homescreen.

    Yahoo says in a blog post, “Search on Aviate is your gateway to your apps, contacts and the Web, with Web results powered by Yahoo. Aviate will display all your search results directly on your homescreen, so you won’t have to open a browser or separate window.”

    The Aviate update is available in English to users in the United States and will be rolling out to supported devices over the next few days. It can be downloaded from Google Play.

    Yahoo acquired Aviate nearly a year ago.

    Image via Yahoo

  • Yahoo Mobile Apps Get Local News, Commenting

    Yahoo announced updates to its Android and iOS apps, adding local news, comments, and a new side-swiping navigation interface.

    “Want to know more about what’s going on around you? Today we’re bringing local news to your fingertips with the Yahoo App,” says senior product manager Matthew Wee. “As you move around the country, you’ll be able to see what’s going on in your area. And that’s not all: swipe left to right to get more news, customize your categories to immerse yourself in content you care most about, and comment on stories when you want to get more involved.”

    “Once again, we’ve listened to your feedback and today we’re bringing you one of the most requested features – comments!” he adds. “Now, you can engage with other Yahoo App readers and react directly to the content that interests you. Participate in the conversation and share your opinion with others, vote on people’s comments to let them know how you feel, or just read them to get a sense for what other users are saying about a topic. Comments let you really explore all aspects of a category.”

    The side-swipe navigation lets you move between personalized news, local news, Yahoo digital magazines like Yahoo Tech and Yahoo Style, and categories like World, Business, Sports, Science, etc. The order in which all of this appears can be customized.

    The updates are currently available via the App Store and Google Play.

    Images via Yahoo

  • Google Drive Gets New Features On Android, iOS (Also In Gmail)

    Google announced some new features for Google Drive on Android and iOS. On Android, users can search for files in Drive from the main Google app.

    Google explains, “For example, you could say ‘OK, Google — search for holiday letter on Drive’ to get to your files without opening the app and typing keywords.”

    On iOS, you can add files to Drive by uploading content from other iOS apps.

    On both platforms, you can now access and share maps you create with Google My Maps. Google added My Maps to Google Drive last week.

    There is also some helpful, new Google Drive functionality in Gmail. As Google explains in a Google+ post:

    There are now more ways to share Drive files with friends and family through Gmail, without having to worry about accidentally removing their access. By selecting the “Insert as Attachment” option from Drive you’ll be able to attach non-Google files directly to your Gmail message.

    Now you can be sure your friend will always have that great candid photo from your weekend getaway, or the PDF for your aunt’s fruitcake recipe (do people actually eat Fruitcake?) even if you delete it from your Drive. 

    The new iOS app is currently available in the App Store. The Android update will be rolling out over the next week.

    Image via Google

  • Yelp Shows Businesses Some Love With New App

    Yelp’s reputation among businesses is…let’s just say a mixed bag. By now, you’ve no doubt heard plenty of horror stories, regardless of whether or not they’re true (they’re often unproven), but the fact is that Yelp needs businesses to exist, and ultimately, the better its reputation among them is, the better off the company itself is bound to be. Yelp is making efforts to become a more valuable tool for businesses.

    Do you think Yelp is on the right track when it comes to catering to businesses? Let us know what you think in the comments.

    Yelp announced the launch of a new app for business owners, aptly titled the Yelp for Business Owners app. It’s available for both iOS and Android, and enables businesses to get real-time notifications of new Yelp messages and reviews.

    According to the company, the app is designed to make it easier for businesses to engage with customers, manage their Yelp reputations, and respond to consumers more quickly.

    “Since launching in June of 2014, consumers are now sending an average of 55,000 messages each month to businesses through our free Message the Business tool,” Yelp says. “With more than 64% percent of Yelp searches done on mobile and 73 million monthly unique visitors using Yelp via their mobile device as of Q3 2014, it’s clear there’s a demand to conduct these conversations on the go.”

    Yelp, in general, is becoming much more mobile. It was just last year that Yelp finally started letting users leave reviews with its mobile apps. This led to significantly more reviews. It’s nice that they’re finally giving some of this mobile love to the businesses it lists, especially considering all the highly publicized grief businesses have experienced with Yelp.

    Business owners can also use the new app to view their business page activity, such as the number of user views and customer leads they have generated over the past 30 days. They can respond to reviews by private message or public comment, and respond to customer inquiries from the Message the Business feature.

    Advertisers can also use the app to view reports on ad clicks from Yelp users.

    “We’re excited to take this step in making Yelp more accessible and easy to use for business owners, and we plan to add additional features to the app in the near future,” Yelp says.

    The company considers the app its “gift to business owners”.

    The app is available in all of Yelp’s 29 countries and 16 languages. You can find it in Google Play or the App Store.

    It’s still early, but on Android, the Yelp for Business Owners app seems to be getting mostly positive reviews so far. The App Store doesn’t have enough ratings to display.

    One of the negative Android reviews, while praising certain aspects of the app, suggested that it’s missing some key features:

    Very clean, very fast…but… #fail The app has no reason being an app to only respond to messages. Here’s what I need: (1) Change business location. (2) Add photos on the fly. (3) The ability to edit my business. Without that, why does this app even matter? Are companies just wasting money to build apps that aren’t even productive that only waste space? I’ll be back to see if you guys fix it. Stop giving good reviews for non-productive apps, maybe they’ll actually make it a business app.

    Yelp will no doubt be updating the app in time, so it won’t be surprising to see them add some of this stuff. It’s rare that mobile apps are full-featured right out of the box.

    What do you think of the app? Will it help you get more out of Yelp as a business? Do you think it will help you manage your reputation? Share your thoughts in the comments.

    Image via Yelp

  • Netflix Adds Social Recommendations To Android App

    Netflix Adds Social Recommendations To Android App

    Back in September, Netflix launched a social recommendation feature, which enables users to recommend titles to people privately. When you finish watching something, it asks if you know anyone else who’d like the title, and prompts you to find your friends using Facebook.

    Upon launch, the feature was available on the Netflix website, on iOS, PS3, and Xbox, and a variety of set-top boxes and smart TVs. It promised Android availability within months, and now it’s delivering on that promise.

    The Android version even comes with some extra features.

    “First, we’re taking full advantage of the rich Android push notification capabilities to add images and action buttons that let you to watch, get more info, or thank your friend for a recommendation,” says Netflix in a blog post.

    “Second, for Android smartwatch users, we’ve created an Android Wear integration that alerts you when you’ve received a recommendation, and lets you watch, thank, play, or get more details on the show,” it adds.

    The feature does not post anything to Facebook or share what you watch to your friends’ News Feeds.

    Image via Netflix

  • New MSN Apps Released For iOS, Android

    New MSN Apps Released For iOS, Android

    Microsoft has launched some new MSN Apps for iOS, Android, and Amazon devices. These are platform expansions of apps currently available for Windows.

    There are six in all: Sports, Finance, News, Health & Fitness, Food & Drink, and Weather. They provide users with content from publishers and Microsoft’s partners as well as personalized experiences to let users follow topics of interest, sports updates for their favorite teams, and use diet/exercise tracking.

    “The MSN apps already sync across MSN.com, Windows and Windows phone devices, and now with availability on iOS, Android and Amazon devices, there is a new degree of scale across screens and platforms,” Microsoft said in a blog post. “The apps are customizable and intelligent, so you can choose your preferences in one place and enjoy content everywhere with your preferences syncing seamlessly across platforms and devices. For example – just in time for those New Year’s resolutions – you can use the Health & Fitness app to search from over 200,000 foods and log your calories in the Diet Tracker on your phone or tablet, while traveling or on the go. Then, access the same tracker on your computer at home.”

    “The apps are another example of Microsoft’s commitment to creating engaging and useful experiences for consumers, and continuing our investment in mobile and cross-screen platforms to provide scale and reach for our brand partners,” the company added.

    The new apps are available in 56 markets. They’ll make advertising available within the apps next month.

    Image via Microsoft

  • Google Play Releases Its Best Of 2014 Lists

    Earlier this week, we got a look at the top apps, movies, games, songs, etc. on iTunes. Today, its rival Google Play revealed its lists.

    These are packaged in a nice infographic:

    “It was a big year for entertainment, from games that fed your sweet tooth to apps that kept you fit,” said Google. “Icy movies warmed your hearts, and your go-to party song was literally a dark-horse favorite. You loved reading stories — real and imagined — of love, adventure, and, OK, sometimes lust.”

    It shouldn’t be too long until we get the year-end Zeitgeist, looking at all of Google’s search trends for the year.

    Image via Google

  • Google Hangouts App For Android Gets New Features

    Google launched an update for its Hangouts app for Android that includes a bunch of new features.

    For one, there are new “smart suggestions” in conversations.

    “When you’re trying to meet up with friends in real life and someone asks, ‘Where are you?’, Hangouts can now understand what you need and offer to help,” explains Google’s Rhett Robinson. “You’ll see a one-tap option to share your location right in the conversation, without you needing to hunt around in a map, drop a pin and send your position.”

    That’s pretty helpful.

    You can also now confirm your phone number so friends can more easily find you in the app. Another addition is that of “last seen” timestamps, so you know when your friends are ready to chat. This will be a familiar feature to Facebook Messenger users.

    There are sixteen new sticker packs, and Google will be launching additional ones. Also, you can now use video filters like sepia, vignette, and black & white. These are accessible by swiping down during a video call.

    There are additional new features, which Robinson said Google will just let users find on their own. Fair enough.

    Image via Google+

  • Facebook’s Trending Feature Just Got A Lot Better (And Mobile)

    Facebook announced some updates to its Trending feature, including availability on mobile and new sections for different types of content.

    Availability on mobile is pretty self-explanatory other than to say it will only be available in the US for the web and Android for now with iOS support and additional countries coming “soon,” which in Facebook time could be a while.

    The new sections makes Facebook’s Trending feature considerably more interesting. Whereas before, it was basically a jumble of news stories with varying degrees of personal relevance, the experience is now split up into: Articles, In the Story, Friends and Groups, Near the Scene, and Live Feed.

    The Articles section will provide you with coverage of the topic from various news organizations.

    The In the Story section shows posts from people who are actually part of the story. Facebook has already been pretty good at that with its Newswire services for journalists, though the topics are limited. This could provide exposure for more relevant content that’s actually from Facebook itself.

    The Friends and Groups shows what people in your network are saying about the topic, making the trending topic more relevant to the user on a personal level.

    The Near the Scene section is exactly what it sounds like, and shows you posts from people near where the story is unfolding, providing an additional layer of geographical relevance. You could see where this would be helpful in a story like Ferguson, for example.

    Finally, the Live Feed section just shows you a real-time stream of reactions from people around the world, basically like Twitter.

    There will continue to be a feed below the new sections like the one that’s been there. This displays posts Facebook deems relevant, ranked by engagement, timeliness and other factors.

    Facebook isn’t making any changes to how it determines what’s actually trending.

    Images via Facebook

  • Twitter Adds Photo Filters On iOS, Android

    Twitter Adds Photo Filters On iOS, Android

    In what might be considered another anti-Instagram move from Twitter, the company is rolling out new photo filter options on its mobile apps for iOS and Android.

    The company didn’t make a huge announcement about it, but mentioned it in a tweet from its Twitter Mobile account (via TNW):

    To use the filters, simply tap on an image’s thumbnail after you add it to the tweet, and you’ll be able to swipe through options like: Vignette, Warm, Cool, 1963, 1972, Golden Hour, Antique, and Black & White. You can also crop with wide or square options from here.

    The filters may not quite stack up to Instagram’s, but in most cases, they’ll probably be adequate, particularly for adding that vintage look.

    Also this week, Twitter announced some improvements to harassment reporting and account blocking. More on that here.

    Image via Twitter

  • Pinterest Android App Gets An Update

    Pinterest Android App Gets An Update

    Pinterest recently gave its iOS app a significant overhaul. Now, the company announced its Android counterpart’s update.

    Android users will find simplified navigation, some visual tweaks, and a quicker start-up time. Here’s a quick look at the before and after:

    The update is rolling out. It also includes some bug fixes.

    Earlier this month, Pinterest launched a new look for profiles on the desktop, opting for round profile photos rather than square ones. The design also adopted a centered approach.

    Image via Pinterest

  • Facebook Launches Standalone Groups App

    Facebook Launches Standalone Groups App

    Continuing its strategy of launching standalone apps for various functions, Facebook announced a new Facebook Groups app, which comes from its Creative Labs division. This one is immediately available for both Android and iOS (some of the other apps have been iOS only).

    “Every month, 700 million people use Facebook Groups to stay in touch with family, collaborate on projects, plan trips and offer support to friends – and we built this app to help people share faster and more easily with all the groups in their life,” a spokesperson for the company tells WebProNews in an email. “With the Facebook Groups app, you can easily discuss, plan and collaborate – nothing gets lost in the shuffle of text messages or email, and you can choose how and when to receive notifications.”

    Interestingly, you’ll still be able to use Facebook Groups in the main Facebook app, which should please users, considering how upset everybody got about Facebook forcing people to use the Messenger app.

    Defending the Messener move, CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently said it was basically too much friction to tap a tab in the Facebook app for messaging, so that’s why you have to use a different app now. Obviously this is a ridiculous explanation, especially considering that everybody knows Facebook is going to add money-related features to Messenger.

    This is most likely the reason Facebook is going to continue to let people use the Groups feature within the Facebook app. It’s not looking to monetize it just yet.

    The Groups app shows you all your Groups in one place, and prioritizes the ones you use the most. It also lets you start new groups, track notifications, and see suggested groups based on pages you’ve liked.

    Image via Facebook

  • Microsoft Announces New Office Apps For Android, iOS

    Earlier this year, Microsoft finally launched its Microsoft Office apps for iPad. Expanding on the offering, the company has now announced the apps for Android tablets, updated iPad apps, and new Office iPhone apps.

    iPhone uses are getting new apps for Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, which offer the same experience as those on iPad, but optimized for iPhone. These three apps are getting updates for iPad.

    The apps for Android tablets are in preview mode. You can sign up now, but they’ll be generally available next year.

    “Anytime someone has an idea or an inspiration, we want to empower them to take action,” said John Case, corporate vice president of Office at Microsoft. “With over a billion Office customers worldwide, and over 40 million downloads on the iPad, it’s clear that Office applications are what people want to use to get things done.”

    Also new is a touch-optimized Office for WIndows 10. The company didn’t have a lot to say about this just now, but said more details will be shared at a later date.

    The newly updated iPad apps as well as the iPhone apps are available now in 29 languages and 136 countries. They require iOS 7 or later.

    Image via Microsoft

  • Google Maps App Gets Design Revamp

    With the release of the latest version of Android, Lollipop, Google has been launching big updates for its major apps. In recent days, we’ve seen announcements about the new Google Calendar and the new Gmail.

    Google Maps is the latest to get a refresh, favoring material design and “bold colors and textures”.

    “This new look is all about creating surfaces and shadows that echo the real world; with Google Maps’ new material feel, layers and buttons come to life so you know just where to touch to get directions, recommendations and imagery,” says designer Evelyn Kim.

    When the user taps a place’s info at the bottom of the screen, a layer will glide up, and display pictures, reviews, etc. The Explore feature appears at the bottom of the map.

    U.S. users will be able to reserve tables at restaurants found on OpenTable from the app.

    “On a cool winter day, a chilly walk or train ride may not always be the most appealing choice,” says Kim. “Travelers deciding whether they should take an Uber or brave the frosty winds can now see estimates for Uber’s pickup time and price for their route in walking and transit directions in Google Maps. This option will appear if you have the Uber app installed, where available.”

    The update isn’t just for Android. It’s also hitting iPhone. Users should see the update over the next few days.

    Images via Google