Following Android back in July, Google Maps is now rolling out a sheet-based redesign that replaces most fullscreen UIs in the iPhone app.
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Apple yesterday released the latest iOS 18.4 beta and it enables support for RCS on Google Fi. iPhone users on the Google MVNO have been waiting for this improvement to Android-iOS messaging since September.
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Following last week’s homescreen redesign, the Google Gemini app on iPhone has been updated with lockscreen widgets and direct access in Control Center.
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Increasing Gemini app usage is said to be Google’s “biggest focus” in 2025, with the company recently buying podcast ads to drive downloads.
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Following Android in January, the Gemini app on iPhone has received a homescreen redesign that will auto-open the keyboard on launch.
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Google is more deeply integrating Lens visual search into Chrome for iOS with a new Screen Search capability that takes after Circle to Search on Android. Meanwhile, Google Lens can now recognize more unique images.
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Google is informing iOS users that it will be removing Gemini support from the main Google app as it pushes users over to the full Gemini app.
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Third-party ebook apps on iPhone and iPad have historically not let users make direct purchases. Google Play Books for iOS is now supporting Apple’s “reader” apps exception for providing external links to buy ebooks.
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Compared to Android, only some of Google’s iOS apps use the latest version of Material Design. Gmail for iPhone and iPad was finally updated with a Material 3 redesign today.
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Following Android, Google is rolling out an update to the Gemini app on iPhone that lets users select 2.0 Flash Experimental.
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Since launch, Gemini on iOS has been part of the Google (Search) app. That’s about to change with at least one iPhone user today spotting a standalone “Google Gemini” app on the App Store that also lets you access Gemini Live.
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With RCS rolling out on the iPhone yesterday, Google is looking ahead on new features including cross-platform end-to-end encryption (E2EE) between Android and iPhone.
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The Search widget offered by the Google app on iPhone and iPad now offers customizable shortcuts, including to Gemini.
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iOS 18 is rolling out today with RCS to improve the Android-iPhone messaging experience, but support is not yet enabled for all carriers, including Google Fi Wireless.
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Apple today is rolling out iOS 18 with support for RCS in a huge boost to the iPhone-Android messaging experience.
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After coming to Android in late July, the Google Maps bottom bar redesign, which aims to make the app a bit cleaner, is now on the iPhone.
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Back in 2019, Google Maps for Android gained a speedometer that simply “shows you how fast you’re driving on the road” and it’s now coming to the iPhone.
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In a curious change, Google Messages no longer shows that end-to-end encryption (E2EE) isn’t available in iPhone RCS conversations.
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Earlier this week, Apple rolled out iOS 18 Beta 2 with support for Rich Communication Services (in the US). The experience of using Google Messages to talk to someone with an iPhone over RCS is pretty straightforward, though it’s clearly the first take.
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With iOS 14.5, Apple required app developers to tell users about and have them opt-in to broader tracking. In 2021, Google apps stopped certain tracking methods (IDFA) to comply and not have to show that prompt. YouTube will soon ask iOS users if they want to opt into “more personalized advertising” with an App Tracking Transparency (ATT) prompt.
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Customization was a big focus of Apple’s reveal of iOS 18 this week, and that includes updating the homescreen to be truly customizable. That includes Apple bringing a version of Android’s themed icons to iOS, but despite Apple’s being more customizable, it feels like Android made the better choices here.
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At WWDC 2024, Apple demonstrated how it’s infusing AI into the iPhone with iOS 18. Google said it wants to do the same with Android a month earlier at I/O and that this would be a multi-year journey.
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As expected, Apple announced RCS support for the iPhone’s Messages app with iOS 18 at WWDC 2024. This was first teased last November.
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In recent weeks, GIFs sent by iPhone users to Android devices running Google Messages have turned into distorted still images with missing dots/pixels throughout.
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