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I hope you all guy good holiday rest because the 2024 tech news cycle is here in full swing, and Google of course showed up with some pretty big Android announcements to start off the new year. From what we have so far, there’s a ton of big Android news, new Pixel features, some major changes to the Chromecast side of the business, and Android Auto, all of which I’ll be able to give you a quick rundown of in this article. So, let’s start right away with the most important news first,

Rebranding nearby share

Big collaboration between Google and Samsung to rebrand the Nearby Share feature on Android. Currently, Samsung devices have Quick Share as an AirDrop competitor, which for the most part mainly works with other Samsung devices, while Google on the other hand has been pushing Nearby Share since 2020, which is an airdrop competitor that’s supposed to work with all Android devices. Since both services have similar overlap, Google’s answer is to integrate the two and rebrand the feature as Quickshare across all devices in an effort to unify the Android brand. This means over the coming months, nearby share on existing devices will get a new logo and some very minor aesthetic changes. Otherwise, there will be no changes to the settings or privacy they’ll be working with leading PC manufacturers to make the newly rebranded Quickshare available as a pre-installed app. So far, LG has made a commitment to support the software on their new feature.

Tap the cast

Tap the cast called Tap the Cast which will allow users to seamlessly cast media from your phone to the docked Pixel tablet and vice versa just by tapping the two devices together. From what we know now, this is only supported on Pixel devices, that being the Pixel 6 Pro, 7 Pro, 8 Pro, and Pixel Fold, not to mention YouTube Music and Spotify are the only supported streaming services at least at launch. On the bright side, Google did say it should be rather seamless for developers to get their cast short-form content to a Chromecast-enabled device with Autoplay enabled by default. And Google is pushing out new developer guidelines to require the Cast icon to be prominently displayed on the right-hand corner of playable media. These new guidelines will be coming to TikTok first, which more I assume will be on the way. Personally, I don’t know a single person that wants to stream TikToks on their television, but if for some crazy reason you want to, this feature should be live, actually, right now.

Chapters

Since we’re on the topic of casting, the Chromecast product line will also be getting some much-needed attention in 2024. For starters, the fast pair feature originally announced that CES 2022 will finally be rolling out to Chromecast and, later, Google TV devices. For those who don’t know, this feature should enable seamless pairing for fast-pair compatible devices like the Pixel Buds Pro for example, and this feature should be live sometime in But that is not all as there’s going to be a big change in the availability of built-in Chromecast options. LG has confirmed that Chromecast connectivity will be supported in their 2024 LG TV lineup. Thankfully, this does extend to the LG hospitality and healthcare televisions that you typically find in commercial settings like waiting rooms, hotels, or business centers, which is just a good look for the Android slash Google brand. To make things even more accessible, Google has stated they will be making it so that specific Android TV, Google TV, and LG TV models can’t be used as matter hubs for Google Home devices.

Android auto

Finally, in our last piece of Google News, there are some big changes happening in the Android Auto world as well that we’re going to cover real quick. First, Google Maps will now be able to pull battery stats for compatible electric vehicles. In practice, it looks like you’ll be able to see your estimated percentage upon arrival for a trip while also getting suggestions for charging stations in Google Maps with estimated charging times factored in as well. According to Google, these features should come first to the Ford Mustang Mach-E and the F-150 Lightning over the coming months. On the Android Automotive front, we’ll also be getting the ability to send pre-planned routes from your phone to your interface. support for unlocking your vehicle with the pixel device was briefly teased so maybe there’s a 2024 release for that and something a bit more unexpected Google has announced the Chrome browser will be coming to Android automotive alongside PBS kids and crunchyroll.