At its annual IO convention Wednesday, Google unveiled a slew of recent merchandise, options, and companies that may roll out over the next months. We bought a peek at a brand new Pixel pill, watch, and telephone, a brand new finances Pixel 6a, the primary Android 13 public beta, and thrilling search, AI, and app updates.
However right here at Macworld, we couldn’t assist however discover how acquainted most of the bulletins sounded. There have been various options unveiled at IO which might be seemingly ripped straight from Apple’s playbook. Listed below are 5 options coming to Google and Android units that Apple customers have been having fun with for years:
Google Pockets
One of many greatest app bulletins at IO was the conversion of Google Pay to Google Pockets. Granted, Google Pockets was a factor earlier than Apple Card, however this newest iteration takes various cues from the iPhone app. The brand new Google Pockets, launching quickly, is your one-stop place on your digital life, storing digital IDs, boarding passes, live performance tickets, vaccination playing cards, loyalty playing cards, automobile keys, and naturally, bank cards. Talking from expertise, Android customers will adore it.
Higher pill apps and multitasking
To place it mildly, Google’s tablets aren’t precisely in the identical league because the iPad. With Android 13, Google is trying to change that by stealing somewhat from Apple’s superior pill expertise. Among the many new options coming to Android tablets is straightforward multitasking that allows you to use apps facet by facet and new interfaces “to take full benefit of the additional house together with YouTube Music, Google Maps, Messages and extra.” We’re undecided if that’s gonna put a lot of a dent in Apple’s pill dominance, however hey, higher late than by no means.
Copy and paste from telephones to tablets
Apple customers have lengthy had the power to repeat one thing on their iPhone and paste it on their Mac because of the facility of Handoff and iCloud, and now Google is bringing the identical factor to telephones and tablets in Android 13. In accordance with Google, “you’ll quickly be capable of copy a URL or image out of your telephone, and paste it in your pill.” The system (seen beneath) appears a bit clunkier than Apple’s totally seamless Common Copy and Paste, however hey, it’s a begin.
Pixel Buds Professional
Google unveiled and teased a bunch of {hardware} bulletins throughout its IO keynote, together with the brand new finances Pixel 6a, however probably the most intriguing was the Pixel Buds Professional. Whereas nobody would confuse the Pixel Buds A-Sequence wi-fi earbuds with AirPods, the Pixel Buds Professional have a really related characteristic set to AirPods Professional. You get noise-canceling, transparency mode, spatial audio, and ‘discover my’ monitoring, and an in-ear design that appears awfully much like the rumors of the AirPods Professional 2. Name them rivals in the event you should, however we’ll simply name ’em copycats.
Digital Crown
Google stopped somewhat in need of releasing its first-ever wearable at Google IO, but it surely did lastly affirm the existence of the Pixel Watch. Like different Android Put on OS watches, it has a round design with a reasonably sizable bezel and a brand new “tactile” crown that seems to be Google’s model of the Digital Crown on the Apple Watch. We don’t know if it’ll be as clean as Apple’s or have a built-in ECG sensor, however the idea and the look is virtually similar.
