Android gains new features for the 2022 holiday season 

It’s the time of year for celebrations, and Google is ringing in the holiday season by giving us a slew of new features that we can expect to hit Android very soon. These new features will impact several areas of the operating system, such as Google Photos, the home screen, Wear OS and more. It’s a pretty big list of new stuff on the way, so let’s dig into it all!

Festive Google Photos Collages

Building upon the Google Photos collage editor that rolled out back in September, Google is now adding unique collage designs by two new artists, allowing you to create shareable and stylish collages of your chosen pictures. The new artists are a husband and wife team from Australia known as DABSMYLA and watercolor artist Yao Cheng Design. The new designs will be available when you select multiple photos and choose to add them to a collage. You can even rearrange the layout to your liking with the available drag-and-drop controls.

More Emoji Kitchen Options

In another addition for the holiday seaseon, you can now add your own holiday-inspired touch and flair to your messages with customized emojis. Gboard’s Emoji Kitchen has added new emojis you can use and combine to make your messages unique and festive for the end of the year.

Android Reading Mode

With a bit more time off work and school in the upcoming weeks, its a great time to get caught up on the material you love in the way that works best for you. Those who are blind, have low vision, or are dyslexic may find that the new Reading mode on Android delivers an accessible reading experience that they may use to their advantage. You can install it from the Play Store to add text-to-speech capabilities with adjustable speed, and customizable display choices, like contrast, font style, and size.

To get started with Reading mode, install the app, open it up, and go to the in-app settings and choose to turn on the shortcut. Next, tap on “Reading mode shortcut” to choose whether you want to tap a button, use a gesture, or hold the volume keys. Reading mode will be part of your Android’s Accessibility settings, and you can invoke it with the chosen shortcut when reading an app or website.

YouTube Home Screen Search Widget

Next up, YouTube is finally getting a home screen widget, and it will have search functionality built-in. Additionally, you’ll be able to access your YouTube home page, Shorts, Subscriptions, and Library with just a quick tap. This widget addition is one we’ve all been waiting on for a long, long time, so it is great to see it finally arriving.

Casting from the Google TV app

We all know that it is much easier to search for content to watch on your phone versus your TV. Google recognizes this, and they are making it easier for us to use the Google TV app for discovery and then cast that content directly to a compatible TV. Starting next week, you should start seeing a “cast” button on the bottom right corner of the app, letting you know how many compatible screens are available for you to cast to. This also opens up the ability for you to continue browsing for other options on your device while you’re watching and to use your phone as a very convenient remote control.

Shareable Digital Car Key

Using only your phone and the new digital car key, you will be able to lock, unlock, and start a compatible vehicle. Additionally, you can also let your friends and family use their iPhones or Pixels to access your digital car key as well – coming soon to select phones with Android versions 12 and up. The digital wallet app on your phone will be the hub that will allow you to view and modify the list of people who have access to your vehicle.

Wear OS

Google has some special treats for Wear OS users this holiday season, starting with the addition of new tiles to help you get more things done from your watch. Like what users already have in the Google Maps tile that gives you one-touch navigation to begin navigation to work or home, these improvements include a new tile with your favorite contacts listed for quicker connections and a simple sunrise/sunset tile that helps you plan your day.

Additionally, the Google Keep app has been improved so that any notes or to-do lists that you create on your phone will appear similarly on your watch. You will be able to view labels, collaborators, backgrounds, images, and even drawings that you may have made when creating your note.

Finally, starting next week, you will be able to use Google Assistant to instantly begin any one of more than 30 different types of workouts from the adidas Running app. Simply saying something like, “Hey Google, start a run with adidas Running,” will cause the app to open and begin recording your exercise session. It will take note of your speed, distance, and heart rate using the sensor that is already integrated into your smartwatch.

That’s a ton of new stuff arriving in very short order, and as a Pixel and Pixel Watch user, I’m excited for most of these changes for sure. Not only are they nifty features; they are worthwhile updates that should actually add to the usability of Google’s hardware. Be on the lookout for each of these new features rolling out in the coming weeks.