Sony Xperia XZ1 vs. Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact: Is bigger necessarily better?

Sony has finally taken the wraps off its big phone releases for the year — the Xperia XZ1 and Xperia XZ1 Compact phones. The new phones are Sony’s flagship devices, which means they boast the latest and greatest Qualcomm chip, the Snapdragon 835, as well as a decent amount of RAM and storage.

But how do the phones compare with each other? And which one should you go for? We put them to the test to find out.

Specs

Sony Xperia XZ1

Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact

Size
148 x 73.4 x 7.4 mm (5.83 x 2.89 x 0.29 inches)
129 x 64 x 9.3 mm (5.08 x 2.52 x 0.37 inches)
Weight
5.47 ounces (155 grams)
4.94 ounces (140 grams)
Screen
5.2-inch IPS LCD
4.6-inch IPS LCD
Resolution
1,920 x 1,080 pixels (424ppi)
1,280 x 720 pixels (319ppi)
OS
Android 8.0 Oreo
Android 8.0 Oreo
Storage
64GB
32GB
SD Card Slot
Yes
Yes
NFC support
Yes
Yes
Processor
Qualcomm Snapdragon 835
Qualcomm Snapdragon 835
RAM
4GB
4GB
Connectivity
GSM / HSPA / LTE
GSM / HSPA / LTE
Camera
Front 13MP, rear 19MP
Front 8MP, rear 19MP
Video
4K at 30fps, 1,080p at 60fps, 720p at 960fps
4K at 30fps, 1,080p at 60fps, 720p at 960fps
Bluetooth
Yes, version 5.0
Yes, version 5.0
Fingerprint sensor
Yes (Not in U.S.)
Yes (Not in U.S.)
Other sensors
Accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity, barometer, compass
Accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity, barometer, compass
Water Resistant
Yes, IP68
Yes, IP68
Battery
2,700mAh
2,700mAh
Charger
USB Type-C
USB Type-C
Quick Charging
Yes
Yes
Wireless Charging
No
No
Marketplace
Google Play Store
Google Play Store
Color offerings
Black, Warm Silver, Venus Pink, Moonlit Blue
Black, Snow Silver, Horizon Blue, Twilight Pink
Availability
September 19
October 4
Pricing
$700
$600
DT Review
Coming soon
Coming soon

The specs of the two phones are actually almost identical — which is good news for anyone who wants a powerful phone in a smaller package. They both feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 processor, and they both feature 4GB of RAM, which should be plenty for most users.

When it comes to the storage on the phones, the Xperia XZ1 offers twice as much as the XZ1 Compact, coming in at 64GB compared to the Compact’s 32GB. Because of that, we’ve awarded this one to the Xperia XZ1.

Winner: Sony Xperia XZ1

Display, design, durability

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

The display on these two phones will be one of the main points of difference. While the Xperia XZ1 Compact has a 1,280 x 720-pixel, 4.6-inch display, the standard Xperia XZ1 has a full HD, 1,920 x 1,080-pixel 5.2-inch display. Both of the displays are LCD, but while the XZ1’s display is larger, the resolution bump is enough to make it much sharper as well.

The design of the two phones is more or less the same, apart from the size. Sony has never gotten a lot of love for the design of its phones, but these new ones don’t look terrible. One interesting thing to note about the XZ1 Compact is that it’s quite a bit thicker than the standard XZ1, which might be a problem for some. Both phones feature a camera sensor on the top-left of the back of the phone. The design is relatively angular and minimalist, with big bezels framing the screen. There is a fingerprint sensor on the side of both devices, but sadly it won’t be functional in the U.S. variants.

Last but not least is durability, and the phones are the same here, too — both offer an IP68 rating, which allows them to last as long as 30 minutes in up to 1.5 meters of water. In other words, while you probably won’t want to take the phone swimming, if you drop it in the bath, it should be fine.

Both phones are almost the same here — but the better display on the Xperia XZ1 puts it ahead.

Winner: Sony Xperia XZ1

Battery life and charging

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

With one larger device and one smaller one, you might expect a pretty substantial difference in battery capacity — but in reality, it turns out that the batteries are exactly the same size. That’s not great news for the standard-sized Xperia XZ1 — not only does it have a larger display, but it also has more pixel-dense display, meaning it’ll be much more battery-intensive.

The batteries on both phones come in at 2,700mAh, which isn’t a ton, but they also both support Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0, which should be helpful.

We don’t have official battery life figures from Sony, but given the fact that the XZ1 Compact will almost certainly last longer because of the smaller display, it’s the winner here.

Winner: Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact

Camera

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Sony camera sensors can be found in smartphones all over the world — and not just in Sony phones. But does that translate into a great camera on the XZ1? We’ll need some time with it to find out.

The rear-facing camera on the phones is the same. It’s 19 megapixels with electronic image stabilization and predictive phase detection autofocus. Video, however, is where this camera really shines. It offers 4K recording at 30 frames per second, 1,080p recording at up to 60 frames per second, and 720p recording at up to a massive 960 frames per second. With that, you’ll be able to capture super slow-motion recordings, which will be great in certain situations.

The front-facing camera here is a little different — the standard XZ1 offers a 13-megapixel front-facing camera, while the XZ1 Compact is at 8-megapixels. That makes the XZ1 the winner here.

Winner: Sony Xperia XZ1

Software

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

The two phones are going to offer an identical software experience, so we’re not going to award a winner here. They both run Android, and they happen to be among the first to ship with Android 8.0 Oreo — which is good news for those who want the latest and greatest versions of Android. Currently, the Android experience on Sony phones seems to be pretty close to stock Android, which is good news for those who hate bloatware.

When it comes to software updates, Sony is generally decent at updating within a few months, but it’ll still take some time for your phone to get new versions of Android as they come out.

Winner: Tie

Price and availability

The Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact costs $600, and will be available online and in stores starting October 4. The standard Xperia XZ1 went on sale September 19, with prices starting at $700.

Because of the price difference, this one is going to the Xperia XZ1 Compact.

Winner: Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact

Overall winner: Sony Xperia XZ1

This one was probably obvious from the get-go — the Sony Xperia XZ1 is simply a better phone. It has a better screen, more storage, and a superior selfie camera. But the advantages of getting it may not really matter to you if you’re specifically seeking a smaller phone. The phones are equally powerful — and though the larger XZ1 offers more storage, they do both have a MicroSD card slot.

The Xperia XZ1 Compact is a better deal financially, and it’s also one of the few small phones on the market with a decent set of specs. The XZ1 offers most of the features that a flagship phone should (unless you’re in the U.S.), and it’s the first phone to ship with the latest flavor of Android on board.

Corel PaintShop Pro 2018 Review

Ask for a budget-friendly alternative to Adobe Photoshop and Corel’s PaintShop Pro is likely one of the first suggestions — and now that program is getting both faster and easier to use. On Aug 9, Corel announced PaintShop Pro 2018, the latest version of the photo-editing and graphic design software. Besides the move from the X9 name to an annual nomenclature, the latest edition of the affordable software includes a number of user-requested enhancements, including a simpler interface, new creative tools, and faster performance.

“Whether you’re looking for professional photo editing power or just getting started, you need software that lets you jump in and be productive right away. PaintShop Pro now lets you choose from two unique interfaces, plus it gives you the ability to customize them to build an editing and design environment that’s uniquely your own,” said Chris Pierce, Product Manager for Corel Photo. “With PaintShop Pro 2018, we’re delivering a dramatically faster, easier, and highly creative experience that’s even more accessible and of course, still subscription free.”

After walking through the program’s latest features, we put the new version to the test ourselves in a Corel PaintShop Pro 2018 review to see how the software stacks up.

Simplified User Interface

PaintShop has many of the same tools as Adobe Photoshop and anytime you open a program with that many controls, the result, for a newbie, is a feeling of being in way over your head. With PaintShop Pro 2018, however, Corel is introducing the Essentials workspace. Like the name implies, the interface pares the software down to the most basic options — crop a photo, fix red-eye, clone out a zit, or add some text without having to dig through every imaginable option.

In the Essentials workspace, the toolbox is reduced to a few basics and the options are all organized into a single tab. If the basic interface is missing a tool, clicking on the add icon allows you to customize the options, even without moving into the fully fledged version. Users can also customize the colors inside the interface if the light tones are a bit too distracting, as well as adjusting the size of the icons. We found Essentials an easy way to jump into learning a new program; commonly used edits are still there and easy to find, and it was a snap to adjust the interface to a dark design with which we’re better acquainted. For more advanced edits, switching to the full workspace is as easy as selecting the option under the File menu — there’s no need to close and re-open the same image to select a different workspace from the welcome screen. (The welcome screen also saw some improvements, by the way, including a gallery of work by other users and a section of video tutorials.)

With many of the tools in it available in free photo editors, the idea isn’t to live in the Essentials tab, but to learn in it — or maybe just do a quick edit.

The Essentials workspace is an easy way to jump into learning a new program.

Alongside the completely new Essentials workspace, the main workspace includes several improvements but is still largely a program X9 users can quickly jump into. While the previous version was organized into three tabs, the 2018 version includes just two. Corel removed the Adjust tab because most users spent their time in the manage and edit tabs. Edit is where all the editing options are, clearly, while Manage is a photo organizer that aids in finding the image files you need. The Manage option also includes features to search for faces, view EXIF data and geotags, and rate individual images.

Among the editing options, updates for 2018 include an entire menu devoted to customizing the interface, including colors and sizes. Besides just creating a workspace that’s more comfortable, it makes options easier to see and more touch-screen friendly, or lets them take less space on the screen. As in the Essentials workspace, you can customize the toolbox by clicking the plus icon to add or remove tools, including a search bar if you can’t find exactly what you are looking for. Different panels, including options for layers and an organizer that functions much like a time manager, let you determine the balance of image to tools onscreen by closing unnecessary options for that particular project.

While the full workspace is more crowded than the Essentials option, a learning center column that automatically opens at the side and a small box at the bottom that explains what each tool is eases the learning process.

Performance & Tool Enhancements

Much of Corel’s updating effort was concentrated on speed improvements. We can’t quite vouch for it, however: The beta program is Windows only, and we tested the program on a borrowed budget laptop with 6GB of RAM while our fast 16GB MacBook idled sadly nearby. While it’s impossible to determine what part of the performance is affected by the software and what is a result of the computer’s limited memory, some elements were slow while others were pretty fast considering the limited hardware and large RAW files.

Corel says it picked the most-used tools inside the program and their boosted speed, a statement that seemed to coincide with our experience despite the limited processing power: Along with quicker loading on start-up, the depth of field tool is four times faster, for example. The crop tool and text options also saw a speed boost.

Much change in PaintShop Pro 2018 is a direct result of asking a panel of users what they’d like to see. As a result, there are a number of small tool enhancements. “While some of these feature enhancements aren’t overwhelmingly new, they are very specific for the user, they are user requested,” Pierce told Digital Trends. “Our beta program is ecstatic about the program.”

PaintShop Pro 2018 is a result of asking a panel of users what they’d like to see, there are a number of small tool enhancements.

The crop tool now includes a number of different compositional guides besides the Rule of Thirds grid, including the golden ratio, golden spiral, and triangle. Text options now include superscript, subscript, and justified alignment. The clone tool will also now show a preview of the change before clicking, while the eyedropper will now pick up both color and transparency to copy over to another element in a design.

New brush options are also part of the update, and they’ll automatically adjust for the canvas size when opening a new document. Existing gradients can now be adjusted without going back to re-apply the effect.

The color options now include pre-selected palettes, making it easy to choose hues that complement each other inside the same project. Corel also added a new Creative Collection with 30 new gradients, 30 patterns, and 15 textures. The new options are free to download, but they don’t download automatically with the software to prevent slowing down the program for people who are primarily photo editors, rather than graphic designers.

Additional Tools

Corel PaintShop Pro can be purchased as a separate software, or as a bundle with additional programs.

While PaintShop includes a RAW tool, RAW photographers will want to opt for the bundle that includes AfterShot Pro 3. The built-in RAW tool has a few features missing compared to Adobe’s Camera RAW: Exposure sliders are reduced to two compared to Adobe’s six, color adjustments only include saturation, and while there are noise reduction tools, there isn’t a sharpness option. AfterShot Pro 3 includes those missing slider options.

The Ultimate Bundle also includes Painter Essentials 5 to edit brushes or convert photos to paintings, as well as Perfectly Clear 3 SE to restore an image’s lost details with more advanced sharpening and noise reduction.

A capable, budget photo editor

With PaintBrush Pro 2018, Corel remains a good alternative for users that balk at Adobe’s subscription-based model, which runs about $120 a year for both Photoshop and Lightroom. The software costs $80 by itself, or $100 in the Ultimate Bundle. AfterShot 3 makes that bundle worth the extra cost for photographers that shoot in RAW, since the built-in tool is a bit limited. The software will also be released in a bundle with VideoStudio Pro X10, released in February, for $160. All the bundles are one-time purchases, with discounts for owners of previous versions who want to upgrade to the latest option.

PaintShop Pro 2018 has much of the same features as Adobe Photoshop, including advanced options for both photography and graphic design. Photoshop still takes the cake for features, with elements like face-aware edits and a few more options in Camera RAW, but when paying a subscription is too much to ask, PaintShop Pro can easily step up. The updated interface and makes it easy for beginners to learn, while PaintShop veterans will see a speed boost along with some new user-requested features.

Footage of a racing drone zipping over the Swiss Alps will give you vertigo

Why it matters to you

This footage shows what is possible with drone photography in the hands of a skilled pilot.

In 2017, footage shot by drone is nothing new. But a spectacular new first-person drone flyover of the Swiss Alps will drop your jaw — and quite possibly give you vertigo, too. Titled Elevations, the short film was shot by Gabriel Kocher, a Swiss physicist living in Montreal, who moonlights as a racing drone pilot. Having finished second in the Drone Racing League’s Allianz World Championship earlier this year, Elevations is part of Kocher’s Gab707 YouTube channel — designed to focus on more creative uses of drones as a way of exploring rugged landscapes.

“This shoot came about while I was hiking in the Swiss Alps in early September this year,” Kocher told Digital Trends. “The drone is a small 220mm diameter custom-built racing drone made for long range that I built myself. It gets strapped to my backpack, along with all the photographic gear that I carry wherever I go. What makes this unique is that the drone is flown FPV [first-person view], through video glasses that allow me to see through a small camera placed on the drone. In contrast to regular camera rigs, this kind of machine brings through all the control movements made by the pilot, capturing much more of the sensation of flight. Its very high power-to-weight ratio — around 8:1 — allows it to get very close to obstacles and acrobatic flights.”

The footage is accompanied by a second video offering an uncut, lower resolution look at the material shot by Kocher. The final edit includes an added sheen — although the only thing that’s tweaked is the addition of driving background music and some footage stabilization to iron out wind-related wobbles.

“The biggest challenge in capturing this kind of footage is that it is shot at the edge of what the technology can do,” Kocher continued. “Not outrunning the battery capacity is a key factor, but the hardest one is keeping the drone in view from the ground station. While I’m looking for a maximum of proximity to the terrain, dropping behind an obstacle will result in a control loss and likely a crash — so this is a constant memory and mental 3D-mapping game.”

On this occasion, we think Kocher won this particular game!

Help scientists search for aliens with a customized exoplanet telescope

Why it matters to you

The ExoLife Finder could be the key to discovering alien life.

A team of astronomers and a number of outer space enthusiasts have joined forces to investigate whether we’re alone in the universe. As part of the PLANETS Foundation, these scientists are working to create a revolutionary exoplanet telescope designed specifically to search for nearby planets and scan them for signs of life.

In April, the team sought funding for the first of three phases of the telescope, and raised more than double its goal of $20,000 to implement features like advanced polishing and ultra-thin mirrors. Now, the team is seeking funding for its second phase, the ExoLife Finder.

PLANETS is short for Polarized Light from Atmospheres of Nearby Extraterrestrial Systems. Designed from the ground up, the new ExoLife Finder will be capable of seeing exoplanets some 24 light years (120 trillion miles) away.

“This is the world’s first telescope designed for direct exoplanet imaging,” Jeff Kuhn, an astronomer from the University of Hawaii who is leading the project, told Digital Trends. “It’s the only telescope with the power to map the surface of the nearest habitable zone exoplanet.”

Kuhn and his team have developed a unique algorithm designed specifically to identify continents, oceans, and perhaps even lifeforms on nearby exoplanets. In the process, it will search for important molecules like water, oxygen, and methane — vital to life as we know it — while looking out for large colonies of photosynthetic organisms. It may even spot massive landfills, a signal of an advanced civilization.

Assuming the team reaches its funding goal of $35,000 (they’ve raised nearly $23,000 with twelve days to go at the time this article was published) its first target will be Proxima Centauri b, an exoplanet orbiting in the habitable zone of the closest star to Earth. The discovery of Proxima b was just announced in August 2016. Although this year it was shown that the planet can’t maintain an Earth-like atmosphere, the relative newness of exoplanet discoveries has made this exoplanet and others a hot topic.

“Our generation is the first to find planets around other stars, and the next generation will be the first to discover and study life around these stars,” Kuhn said. “With this program we can transition the philosophical problems of the origins of life to truly scientific, and even experimental questions.”

Rewards for supporting the campaign include posters, pins, shirts, and “Cosmic Lights,” which are LED gifts featuring lifeforms found on Earth that may be capable of withstanding extreme conditions of outer space.

These are the 8 thinnest cases we could find for Galaxy S8

What’s the thinnest Galaxy S8 case?

You wanna protect your Galaxy S8 a bit, but cases make it look a li’l plump. Here are the thinnest cases we could find!

1. Impossibly thin

Impossible? Yeah! “Air Skin”? Like pudding skin? Sure, we’ll bite. You can find it for around $10.

2. Awwww mSnap!

Give your S8 a “Maxboost” (see what I did there?) with this thin’un. Only $10.

3. Thinness out the Ying yang

“Crystal” might be pushing it as far as clarity’s considered, but this one’s about as thin as they come and only $7.

4. Straight from the horse’s mouth

At 0.8mm thick, Samsung knows what’s up for thin cases for its phone. Check these out starting at $10.

5. Yihailu: Go ahead, we’ll wait while you try to pronounce it too

Yee… High loo? Meh. Thin case is *thin and $12.

6. Because nudity rules!

When it comes to phones. Put your pants back on, Steve. Check these out for around $30.

7. Highway to the Geekzone

That girl in the photo is crying tears of joy. Don’t worry; be happy. These are only $5!

8. Looking for thin cases? We have the Anccer for only $12!

GET IT? ANCCER???!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Love me.

Find anything thinner?

Sound off in the comments below!

Updated September 2017: Added pricing. These are still the thinnest cases you can get for Galaxy S8.

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The best Daydream apps for watching movies

There are many ways of watching movies on the daydream, here are our favorites.

There are 3 main styles when you watch a movie in VR, Full 360 video, 3D video, and regular movie format. When watching regular movies you really need something surrounding the video or you are just floating in space with a screen in front of you. This can get really disconcerting so most apps try to create a space for you to enjoy.

I haven’t mentioned video quality here as almost all the apps require an internet connection to stream and will dynamically alter the resolution as they go. However due to the nature of VR even low resolution videos look good as they are so close to your face.

Here are some of the best apps to watch standard movies on.

Read more at VRHeads

Verizon’s Wear24 Android Wear smartwatch is dead after just 4 months

Just 4 months after its initial release, Verizon has already killed its Wear24 smartwatch.

No matter how big of a Google fan you are, we can all admit that Android Wear isn’t in the prettiest of places at the moment. Mainstream releases like the LG Watch Sport and Huawei Watch 2 never truly cultivated much of a following at all, and aside from these two entries, the rest of the space has been essentially dominated by fashion brands.

Verizon’s Wear24 made a debut in February as a new Android Wear option to take advantage of the carrier’s 4G LTE network, but after being released in May, the watch is already dead.

It was discovered yesterday that the product page for the Wear24 had been replaced by its support page, and after Android Police reached out to Verizon for comment on this, a representative replied by simply saying “Yes wear24 has been discontinued.” No more, no less.

Well, that didn’t last very long.

When it was announced, the Wear24 offered an interesting proposition. The 1.39-inch AMOLED display, 450 mAh battery, IP67 rating, built-in GPS, and LTE connectivity packed into a fairly clean body sounded like a nice offering, but the price of $300 with a two-year contract and $349 outright likely kept most buyers at bay. I mean, obviously, it did if the thing’s already been discontinued.

Even though Android Wear as a whole is going through some serious growing pains, Verizon’s random axing of the Wear24 after just 4 months of being on the market is still pretty insane.

Software updates and customer support for the Wear24 will likely be ending soon after the halt of sales, but considering that Verizon probably sold about … 24 of these things, this shouldn’t impact many people.

How to set up Samsung Pay on your Galaxy Note 8

Samsung Pay is the most robust mobile payments solution available today.

Samsung Pay is one of the easiest ways to pay with your phone at thousands of retail stores. The service supports both NFC (Near Field Communication) and MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission), which means it’ll work with NFC-enabled payment systems as well as older card readers. MST effectively mimics a card swipe action, allowing you to use Samsung Pay anywhere.

Setting up Samsung Pay is easy, and shouldn’t take more than a few minutes of your time.

• How to install Samsung Pay on the Galaxy Note 8
• How to add your credit or debit cards to Samsung Pay

How to install Samsung Pay on the Galaxy Note 8

Open Samsung Pay from the app drawer.
Tap Install to download and install Samsung Pay on your phone. The installation takes up 101MB.

At the installation confirmation window, tap Install.

How to add your credit or debit cards to Samsung Pay

Once Samsung Pay is installed, you’ll see a short intro video highlighting its features. The service needs a Samsung account to work, so if you didn’t log in to your Samsung account while setting up your Note 8, you will be asked to do so here. And if you don’t have a Samsung account, you can register for one.

Once you log in to your Samsung account, you can start setting up Samsung Pay and registering your cards.

Tap Start to set up Samsung Pay on your Note 8.
Select the Verification method. You can choose from four options: iris and fingerprint, iris only, fingerprint only, or just a PIN.

Once you’ve selected the verification method, tap Next.

If you’ve selected iris + fingerprint, you’ll be asked to verify the iris and fingerprints you’ve registered on your Note 8.

Once you’ve authenticated your fingerprints and irises, you can add your credit or debit card. Tap Add card to continue.

Give Samsung Pay access to take photos and record video. You can add your card details manually, or use the Note 8’s camera to scan the card number (screenshots aren’t available for this part, but it’s very straightforward).
You can also add cards from the Samsung Pay home screen. Select the Credit/debit button to add your cards.

If you’ve previously added cards to Samsung Pay, they will be listed in the cards page. You’ll have to authorize them once again on the Note 8 before you can use them.

You can verify a card by either a text message or a call.

How do you use Samsung Pay?

Samsung Pay’s ability to work with both NFC and MST gives it a distinct advantage over the likes of Android Pay. The service is now live in 19 countries, and is making its way to more and more markets.

How was your experience with Samsung Pay on the Galaxy Note 8? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Emogi for Gboard brings thousands of animated stickers to Android

Thousands of new animated stickers are now at your disposal with Emogi for Gboard.

Virtual keyboards have come a long way since the days of mourning over the loss of their physical counterparts, and one of the best ones on the market is Google’s Gboard. There’s already no shortage of emojis or GIFs to choose from within Gboard by default, but a new addition from Emogi is now adding thousands of animated stickers for you to annoyingly send to your friends.

Google added the ability to use stickers in Gboard at the beginning of this month, and while Emogi isn’t the first sticker pack to be added, it does seem like an easy contender for one of the better ones we’ve seen so far.

The animated nature of Emogi’s stickers makes them considerably more interesting than static sticker packs, and although Emogi hasn’t said exactly how many are included, there are supposedly “thousands” to choose from.

Once you download Emogi for Gboard, open up Gboard, tap on the smiley face icon, and then the Sticker tab. From here, you’ll be able to scroll through the most popular Emogi stickers or search for specific ones that you’re looking for. Emogi says that its stickers are updated daily and come from “your favorite entertainers, brands, and cultural moments.” I was able to search “Harambe” and find an animated sticker of our late prince, so I can confirm that Emogi truly is staying on top of trends that are definitely not old or outdated.

Per Emogi’s CEO and Founder, Travis Montaque —

Google’s decision to integrate stickers into Gboard solidifies the keyboard as one of the smartest and expressive tools people use to message today. Starting today, Emogi is sharing its library of original sticker content with Gboard users. Emogi’s content enriches conversations – we’re here to help Gboard users express themselves better when text isn’t enough. We are excited to join Google in partnership.

Emogi for Gboard is free to download from the Google Play Store now.

Google Assistant gains a search bar for easier app searching

There are a lot of apps available for the Google Assistant, and a new search bar makes searching for them easier than ever before.

The Google Assistant is easily one of my favorite virtual assistants to date, and while I already call upon it to do a variety of things, finding new services/apps to take advantage of hasn’t always been very easy. That is, until now.

In a new update to the Google Assistant, a search bar has been added to the top of the Explore page to help you find specific apps that you’re looking for. For example, searching “lights” will show a list of apps that allow you control smart lights and previews of commands that you’d use for said services. Tapping on one of the results will take you to a page with more information on what it does, example commands that work with it, and a link for setting up the service with the Assistant.

You’ve previously been able to search through first and third party apps to download for Google Assistant, but before the search bar was added, you were forced to scroll through predefined lists that categorized apps by their main function. You can still search through apps in this manner if you prefer to do so, but the addition of the search bar is nice for hunting down a specific service that you’d like to use.

To access the Explore page and its new search bar, you have a couple options at your disposal. With the first method, you can hold down on your home button to bring up the Google Assistant and then tap the blue circle in the top right corner. Additionally, you can open up the Google Home app and tap on the Explore tab in the hamburger menu on the left.

This isn’t a drastic new addition to Google Assistant, but it’s one that should make navigating through its many functions considerably easier.