Welcome to the 420th edition of Android Apps Weekly. Here are the big headlines from the last week:
- Google added an iOS-like feature to its Pixel Launcher app. It now shows you apps as they’re installing on your home screen just like iOS. We think it’ll be part of the “play as you download” feature Google is eventually rolling out.
- Google Assistant had an issue this week where commands weren’t working properly for smart home users. Google fixed the problem after a few hours but didn’t really say what the problem was.
- Gmail is getting some fixes that it has needed for a long time. Google wants Gmail notifications to only show up on one device at a time. The feature is on a very limited test run at the time of this writing, but here’s hoping it works out.
- Google officially launched Privacy Sandbox for Android this week. The intention is to make ad-tracking more secure and private while still being friendly to developers. It isn’t the smoothest execution, but it should get better as time goes.
- There was quite a bit of news around Windows 11 this week. For starters, Microsoft is testing a live caption feature similar to Android’s and you can read more about that here. Additionally, the latest version of Windows 11 unlocks Android app support via the Amazon Appstore. Finally, it’s actually possible to run Windows 11 on Android 13 via its new virtualization support. Hit the links to read about all of those.
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