CorysTechTime

Believe it or not but YouTube Music did not always have podcasts. As a matter of fact YT Music was not the home for music for Google. That was once Google Play Music but in December of 2020 YT Music took over the music duties for the company. In 2023 YT Music absorbed podcasts from Google Podcasts which brings us to where we are now. For the sake of time I am only going to mention the podcast function within the app/service. What does YouTube Music offer? YT Music is a real basic podcast player that has got the essentials right. The service offers podcasts that are available on the service and the option to add podcasts via an RSS feed. Podcasts can also be downloaded, playback speed can be adjusted, audio/video switching (YT Music podcasts only), sleep timer, trim silence (new), and background play without the need for a YT Music subscription.  There is also library support to manage your collection of podcasts, a dedicated podcast section and search and recommendation for podcast...

  Recently, I was going back through some Google I/O videos and came across an interesting promotional video for the upcoming Wear OS 6 update. The video highlighted the visual changes that are to come but this very quick transition to the apps list caught my attention because there was an icon not currently on my Pixel Watch 3. It was the same Pixel Weather icon on my Pixel phone and tablet.  Not sure if this means a new app in Pixel Weather is coming to the Pixel Watch or if they will keep everything the same and just change the icon. I'm hoping with the icon change we will see new features also added to the app. I don't recall any new features being added to the current weather app on Wear OS for some time so we may be due. Check out the screenshot below and let me know what you think in the comments section. 

Today on my Pixel 8 Pro I received a UI update for the Google Tasks app. While minor in nature, the overall look of the app arrangement makes more sense, at least to me. The FAB button is in the same spot on the bottom right side. The action buttons that were once on the left side are now on the upper right side of the app. No new functionality was introduced but that's to be expected. I like what Google did here. The bottom of the app where the FAB button is made the bottom bar look beefier than it needed to. The back border adds depth to the app and keeps things looking clean. Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think in the comments section.

I came across this concept Youtube app on Google's own Material Design Twitter page and fell in love with it instantly. The app looks very modern and seems to be more functional or at least as functional. The navigation rail is on the left making it easier to dive into other menus on larger screens. Up next is on the right just like it always has and I would assume live chat and maybe even the description would appear as an overlay when selected in the same area.  But that's only half of the story. With Android 12L and beyond the OS will be more adaptable and will be able to adjust to the size of the display or in this case type of display. Here we have a foldable and the YT app splits in half to take advantage of the device being folded. I believe the idea here is to keep the content front and center while making the other touch elements more accessible for the form factor.  Google, can we get this now, please?  

 Hopefully, we will see more of Google's Android apps receive tablet optimizations.  With the introduction of Android 12L, Google has been focused on making better and more optimized apps for Android tablets and Chromebooks. I'm sure this has been in motion for some time but we are now starting to see the fruits of that labor. Earlier this year I noticed that the Google Podcast app received an update that better utilized the space with two rows instead of one podcast listing stretched across the screen. Now we're seeing the same thing with the Files app. Google is now using a navigation rail on the left side. Similar to the Google Photos Android app. This makes navigating Files by Google much easier and more importantly, the app is utilizing the space effectively. Elements in the app is not stretched across the screen creating a more aesthetically pleasing app to look at on a large screen and that's the goal with Android 12L. The tablet UI improvement can also be seen w...

  Google does a really good job of updating their own apps on Android and that's exactly the reason why I must point out the apps that have been somewhat neglected. Now, I'm not saying that Google has not updated these apps, however, the apps I am pointing out don't seem to fit with what they're doing from a design perspective so they tend to stick out like a sore thumb. I use all of the apps I will be mentioning on a near-daily basis. First up we have Find My Device. FMD is a handy app that allows you to track your devices, secure a device and play a sound so you can more easily find said device. Now the problem with FMD is that it looks very dated. There are no rounded corners or Material You support. Also, it has that green bar at the top. Why? Additionally, Google has not added new features in recent history. Personally, I would like to see my Chromebook in the list of devices and support for dark theme. Next up we have YT Studio. The YT Studio app is an app for con...