Google to penalize poorly-made apps

While Apple keeps a tight rein on the apps that show up on the App Store, Google has always had a more lax approach. But it seems the tech company wants to finally punish apps that demonstrate poor stability and power efficiency. Announced at the recently concluded Google I/O, Google is introducing Android Vitals for its developers. This initiative aims to analyze various metrics and scores of an app in relation to speed, security, and stability.

Google will be looking at things like “App not responding (ANR) rates,” “Crash rate,” “Slow rendering,” Frozen frames,” “Stuck wake locks,” and “Excessive wake-ups.” Using these metrics Google will see which apps are ranked at the bottom 25 percent. The penalty for these apps is they might no longer be visible on the Play Store. If this helps improve the quality of apps that show up on the Play Store, then we’re all for it.

Source: Android Authority

Google can now help you find a job

Google leverages its advanced machine learning capabilities and introduces a new project that would help out job seekers. Called Google for Jobs, it seems to be a specific part of its search engine that shows job listings you might be interested in. Google itself isn’t hosting the listings. They’re using third-party sites and companies like Facebook, Glassdoor, LinkedIn, Monster, and ZipRecruiter. You can customize the search for criteria like length of the commute. The feature even bundles together openings for jobs that might be similar but have different titles. When you select a job you want, Google will then redirect you to another service. 

Some of the big companies piloting the program include FedEx and Johnson & Johnson. According to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, these companies saw an 18 percent increase in applications over previous methods used. The project is first rolling out in the US in the coming weeks. 

Source: The Verge 

Google Home brings the fight to Amazon Alexa

Google Home is taking the fight to Amazon Alexa with a slew of new features including its own calling feature (as we reported earlier). What’s more, Google Home now also gets access to the free tier service of Spotify and support for SoundCloud and Deezer, among other music and radio services. The smart speaker now also supports HBO Now, Crackle, and Hulu. Google also adds Bluetooth connectivity from any compatible device, including the iPhone.

Aside from these, one of the new big features is what the company calls Proactive Assistance. Google Home will identify important information you might want to know and as the name suggests, it will light up on its own to let you know that it has something to tell you. An example shown at Google I/O demo was that it’ll alert you if you need to leave a bit earlier because of traffic in your area. Google promises to roll out these features slowly and will add more capabilities over time.

Source: BGR

Google tipped to be introducing iOS version of Assistant, launching in US first

With Google I/O just a few days away, it seems this new rumour leaked at an appropriate time. According to Android Police, Google plans to launch a standalone Google Assistant app for iOS platform. It’s said the app might combine the chat functionality of Google Assistant, which we’ve seen on the Google Allo app, and the voice-controlled version seen on Android. There aren’t that many details yet about this supposed launch but it’s said the app will first be available in the US.

It seems ideal to launch at the company’s developer’s conference as they just released Assistant’s SDK late last month. If this rumour is true, it might entice more developers to integrate with the app’s functionality.