Android
Android 15 will be released to Googles Pixel phones this month (October), it is has inspired me to review some of the features in newer Android phones and Google provided software which others may not be aware.
Android Updates
The newest version of Android, Android 15, starts to deploy this October to the phones that typically receive the earliest updates. Typically, these will be Googles Pixel phones (through Pixel 6 and higher) and higher end Samsung Galaxy phones. Pixel 8 and higher are supposed to get 7 years of updates, while older pixels typically get three years of OS updates and 5 years if security patches. You should check your phone to see what updates it will support.
Until Android 14 the software for most previous versions of Android were still compatible. Now software written for Android 5 and earlier no longer works due to security concerns.
Google Provided Android Applications
Android provides a number of useful and free applications that run Android devices. These include Google Maps, Keep, Drive, and so on.
Google Maps is a navigation program designed to provide real-time navigation between locations as you drive your car. It also works when walking, riding your bike, or using mass transportation. A less well-known feature is that it will save a map for use when the phone has no wireless connection. For example, while camping is a very rural area of West Virginia, we saved the maps to navigate to our campsite. We drove for nearly 30 miles with no internet access, yet the navigation worked well the entire trip.
Google Keep is a simple tool to store notes, shopping lists, save drawings as notes, and setup with reminders for notes. It provides easy use in your browser on your computer, stays in sync with your devices using the same Google login. One feature I really enjoy is setting up grocery shopping lists and then sharing it with my wife. When one of us visits the store we can buy this things that the other added to the list and avoid two trips to the store. Each list item gets a check mark when purchased. It is also easy to add quick reminders when to take medicines or events you don’t want on the calendar. I also keep copies of important information like my car insurance card, Vaccination records, Emergency Contact information, Medicine List, and other information I may need to have handy.
Google Drive is like having an extra hard drive on your computer or phone. I often travel and I have a lot of information I like to carry with me. For example, I have over 1,100 ebooks that I like to keep with me as I travel. I keep these on Google Drive. Drive works on all my Android devices (I have a phone and multiple tablets and computers with Drive access). Last week I decided I wanted to start reading a series of books I had purchased and downloaded. As I was waiting, I added the first book of the series to my Play Books library (another Google program) and started reading it on my phone. When I returned home, I picked up from where I left off on my desktop computer (bigger pages and comfortable chair). That evening, I picked up my Android tablet and continued reading the book on yet another device.
Just a note, I do pay a small annual fee to use the storage on Google Drive because I have nearly a hundred Gigabytes of various files. Google typically provides 15 free Gigabytes of storage.
Google Workspaces provides an office suite of tools that work on your browser, Chrome OS devices, and on Android devices. The core functions are word processing using Google Docs, Spreadsheets using Google Sheets, and presentations using Google Slides. There are others including Gmail and Calendar, which like Keep are also independently available. I tend to use sides as an all-purpose calculator. I have created simple spreadsheets for car loan calculations, home loan calculations, and as a checkbook register. These files are all stored on Drive and easily found.
I do use Docs but normally only to outline something that I will go back to and finish when I’m sitting at my computer.
Some Simple Tools
Android typically provides some simple and useful tools easily accessed by swiping down from the top center of the phone. These are a Flashlight, great when you need one, a “do not disturb” button that will prevent the phone from interrupting a movie or other event, an airplane mode to turn off all of the radios in the phone, and a turn location tracking off feature to make it harder for people to track your location.
Speech Recognition and Translation
Android has speech recognition built-in allowing you to speak what you want written and to read out loud whatever needs reading. To write just press the microphone icon and Google will type away as you speak. I use this almost anytime I am creating a restaurant review for example. This works well when using a headset or in a quiet environment
To read, look up how to enable accessibility, then the “select to speak”, capability and set it up. Then find some text to read. It should read it back to you in your chosen language.
Google Translate translates text from one language to another. The cool new feature is that it will translate voice in real-time and speak it back into the translated language. Sort of like a primitive Universal Language Translator from Star Trek. How cool is that?
Quirks of Non-Google Android Devices
I have preferred Google phones ever since they released the Nexus. I have also used Samsung, Asus, Lenovo, Motorola, and several other Android and Chrome OS devices. I have found quirks in some of these that it is good for awareness. For example, the email application, the phone dialer, contacts, keyboard and photo gallery applications are typically the ones provided by Google and are included with Android. Instead, some vendors replace these applications with ones they have created giving them access to your information and providing a lower quality experience and adding risk but no extra value. Most of these you can’t remove but you can disable and replace with the Google counterparts.
My primary concern here is protecting privacy, some of these companies (yes, I am talking about you Samsung) have been known to share this information with third parties. Frankly, my emails, photos, contacts, and people I call are none of their business.
Motorola is pretty well known for just providing the Google apps and only adding extras that are specific to hardware features if the Motorola devices. One exception is the dialer. Motorola tends to use an older version of the Google dialer that is not as effective at blocking SPAM calls.
Some phones like Samsung and Asus like to replace the launchers. A Launcher is the software that provides the home screen and the ability to start or “launch” an app on the phone from the screen. Android provides the ability to replace the launcher with one downloaded from the Google Play Store. This can be very useful, for example, I once set my Mother’s phone with a launcher designed for older people making it easier to access the functions they used most frequently.
It is rare that I find a keyboard better than Googles. A feature that I really like is that when using a tablet in landscape mode (wide side on the bottom and top) the keyboard will reconfigure to use thumb mode, which to me is much easier than the regular keyboard. This is modifiable if it is not your preference. Google spelling, and grammar correction and speech recognition, also seem better than the others I have tried.
Ciao
Ciao, in Italian seems to be the universal word for Goodbye and I am out of room. November is my annual Holiday Column, so until then, ciao.
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