Google Kicks Off MWC With Grab-Bag of Android, Wear OS, Chrome OS Updates

BARCELONA—Google is once again refraining from taking up much floor space here at MWC, but it is making a bid at the start of the wireless industry’s biggest gathering to occupy a little more screen real estate on Android, Wear OS, and Chrome OS devices. 

The company announced Monday(Opens in a new window) a set of new features coming to gadgets running those operating systems, with four of these updates rolling out now:

Other new features fall under a “Coming soon” heading in Google’s press release:

• The Google Pay app will start showing more animations at the conclusion of tap-to-pay transactions, which Google says will include “some cheerful penguins and other characters.” They may not be as convincing as the small bribes Google has offered to users willing to correct its records about Pay transactions.

• Chromebooks will be able to set up Bluetooth headphones with the Fast Pair quick-connect feature introduced last June, which we thought would drop later that summer.

• Google Keep will ease note and to-do management with a new home-screen widget for Android phones and tablets and new Wear OS shortcuts for smartwatches running Google’s operating system. 

• Wear OS will add accessibility modes to simplify its audio output with monophonic sound and let users cut down its visual output with “color-correction and grayscale modes.”

Google’s MWC-opening news dump also includes the UK carrier Vodafone announcing that Google’s Messages app will become the default texting app on its Android phones, meaning its customers will switch their messaging to the Google-backed RCS standard and get its “chat features” including both typing indicators and message encryption.

And Google touts an upcoming “eSIM transfer capability” coming to Android phones later this year, with Deutsche Telekom due to introduce whatever this addition to Android’s support for the card-free service sign-up feature will look like.