Google Assistant: Everything you need to know

There’s a lot going on with the Google Assistant — let’s break down the important stuff.

In May 2016, we got our very first taste of the Google Assistant with the debut of Allo. The Assistant was a big draw to Allo at the time, with Google marketing it as a helpful bot that could make restaurant reservations, search the web, and more within your conversations.

Since then, the Assistant has gained heaps of new features and expanded to smartphones, tablets, speakers, and more. Google’s shown no interest in slowing down development for the Assistant, meaning that it’s likely here for the long-haul.

Whether this is your first encounter with it or you just need a quick refresher, here’s everything you need to know about the Google Assistant.

The latest Google Assistant news

July 17, 2018 — New Google Assistant page shows commute times, packages, upcoming flights, and more

Starting today, the Assistant on your phone is getting a big visual overhaul. After prompting the Assistant, tap the icon near the top right that previously opened up the Explore page for finding new Assistant actions and it’ll now show a visual overview of your day.

Similar to old Google Now cards, this page shows things like your commute to work, the current weather, upcoming flights, packages that are on their way from recent online orders, calendar appointments, and much more.

In the near future, Google says it’ll let you see a quick overview of notes/lists from Google Keep, Todoist, Bring!, and more, a discovery page that’ll help you find nearby events/activities, reminders of where you last parked your car, and recommendations for songs and podcasts the Assistant thinks you’ll like.

This new interface is rolling out today and is available on Android and iOS for all languages the Assistant supports.

July 10, 2018 — Google updates the UX for selecting the Assistant’s voice

During Google I/O this past May, four new voices were added to the Assistant’s existing male and female voices to help give it some more personality. Starting today, English users in the United States will see a new user interface when changing the voice.

With the new UX, users will now see a horizontal row of colors that denotes each voice rather than a vertical list of Voice 1, Voice 2, etc. The colors are entirely random and consist of Red, Orange, Amber, Green, Cyan, Blue, Purple, and Pink.

Google says the new look should be live for everyone by the end of the week!

All the important details

Google Now paved the way for Google Assistant

The Google Now page compared to the new Google Feed.

Before there was the Google Assistant, we had Google Now. Google Now was introduced to the world all the way back in 2012, offering contextual info through the Google Now page and helpful answers to random questions with an “OK Google” voice command.

A lot of what made Google Now so great can still be found in the Google Assistant today, with the exception of the Google Now page. The Google Now page used to be home to cards showcasing the weather, information on packages that had shipped from online orders, boarding passes, and more. It’s since been replaced by the Google Feed – a collection of news stories Google thinks you’ll be interested in – and it’s definitely the biggest departure between the two services.

The Google Assistant as a whole is still more powerful than Google Now ever was, but long-time Android users like myself are still mourning the loss of that Now page. RIP, old friend.

Read more: Google Now is being left to wither and die as Google Assistant takes the focus

It’s available on just about everything

In just a few short years, the Google Assistant’s gone from being exclusive to a now-failed chat app to being integrated into just about anything you can think of.

You’ll find Google Assistant built right into most Android phones, it’s the star of the show for the Google Home lineup, and it’s even making its way into sound bars.

Here’s the full list of devices with Google Assistant

Setting up the Google Assistant is as easy or complex as you want

When you set up a device for the first time that has the Assistant, getting started is pretty simple. Accessing it is just a voice command or tap away depending on what gadget you’re using, but if you want to really fine-tune your experience, Google’s got you covered.

Take a quick dive into your Assistant settings and you’ll find options for just about everything – including your weather preferences, changing the Assistant’s voice, retraining your voice model, picking out preferred news sources, and much more.

How to set up and customize Google Assistant

Google Assistant is available in multiple regions and languages

Of course, a smart voice assistant isn’t any good if you can’t actually use it. Fortunately, Google Assistant will be available in 52 countries —adding 38 countries this year — and 17 languages by the end of 2018.

More: Google Assistant will expand to 38 countries and 17 languages in 2018

Google Home’s the premier way to get the Assistant in your house (at least for now)

It’s great to have the Google Assistant on your phone, but if you want to truly experience just how helpful it can be, you’ll want to consider picking up a Google Home.

Google Home is Google’s line of smart speakers that put the Assistant on full-display, allowing you to control smart devices, ask random questions, set timers, play music, and more by just using your voice.

You can spend as little as $49 for the Google Home Mini, $129 for the original Google Home, or a whopping $399 for the Google Home Max.

However, as great as the Home series is, don’t forget that Smart Displays are just on the horizon.

Announced at CES 2018, Smart Displays are essentially smart speakers with the Google Assistant and a touch screen display that can show you helpful visuals when talking to them. It’s basically Google’s answer to the Amazon Echo Show and Echo Spot, and we can’t wait to see more from them.

Everything you need to know about Google’s Home speakers

Then again, is an always-listening speaker the right fit for your home?

However, the convenience of a Google Home (or any smart speaker for that matter) does come at the cost of privacy. Speakers like the Google Home are “always listening”, meaning they’re constantly on the lookout for a hot word to know when you’re talking to it (such as “Ok, Google” and “Hey, Google”).

This means the microphone on a Google Home is always active, but it’s not necessarily storing all the audio it hears when it doesn’t detect its hot word.

Most all speakers allow you to restore some privacy by being able to mute the microphone, but if you want to start asking the Assistant questions, you’ll need to unmute it first.

To learn more about these “always listening” speakers, I’ll pass the mic over to Jerry

Big upgrades are coming to the Assistant on Wear OS

Switching gears for a second, the Google Assistant on Wear OS (formerly Android Wear) is about to get a big upgrade.

In the near future, the Assistant on Wear OS will support Assistant Actions (basically apps for the Assistant) and give you the option to hear its responses through your watch’s speaker or a pair of connected Bluetooth headphones.

Along with this, Google will be adding something called “smart suggestions.” After asking the Assistant for the weather, for example, you’ll see little bubbles for “weather tonight”, “use celsius”, and more so you can continue the conversation with just the tap of your finger. Google Assistant on Android offers something similar, and it’s a great tool to have.

IFTTT supercharges the Assistant’s usefulness

IFTTT (If This Then That) is a powerful online tool that allows you trigger something (that) if a certain event (this) happens. You can connect IFTTT to the Google Assistant to create your own recipes using this formula, and it can allow for some incredibly helpful combinations.

Some of our favorite uses for IFTTT and the Assistant include adding contacts to your Google account, setting your Google Calendar status to Busy for a certain period of time, and much, much more.

Getting started with IFTTT can take some time and patience if you’re new to it, but once you’re all set up and ready to go, it can prove to be a lifesaver.

How to connect Google Home and IFTTT to do amazing things with your connected tech

You’ll get the same experience no matter what devices you use

With so many devices capable of running the Assistant, it’d be easy to think that the experience you get on one gadget would be different from another. This is something that Google struggled with for a while at first, but we’re finally in a position where the Assistant experience you get on a smart speaker, for example, is the same you’ll get on your phone.

There are a handful of features here and there that still create for some discrepency, but for the most part, the Assistant you use on your Pixel 2 is the same one found on Google Home.

Google Home and Google Assistant finally offer the same experience

Google Duplex is actually going to be a thing

Google showed off Duplex — Google Assistant making natural-sounding phone calls on your behalf — at I/O 2018, but quickly noted that it was just an experiment. Flash forward a couple months, and Google announced that certain users have started testing Duplex, and a public release will be here in the next few months. Before you know it, Google Assistant will be able to book hotels, dinner reservations, hair appointments and more without you lifting a finger.

More: What is Google Duplex?

Updated July 2018: Added the Google Duplex and language support sections, as well as links to recent Assistant news.

5 things YouTube Music needs to fix in offline playback before it can be worth paying for

When you pay for YouTube Music Premium, you pay for three things, and one of them doesn’t work properly right now.

Since streaming music can chip away at your data plan — and streaming video will eat your data cap alive — offline music is especially important to YouTube Music and the users who pay for YouTube Music Premium. There’s just one problem: offline playback on YouTube Music has more pitfalls than an Indiana Jones soundtrack, Downloaded music downloads and redownloads and redownloads itself at the most inopportune times, and the app doesn’t handle offline mode or offline playback consistently. No matter how careful you are, chances are one of these traps is going to put a thorny poison dart in your side.

How to download music for offline playback on YouTube Music

Always be downloading

Over half a dozen times in the last few weeks, I’ve gotten in the car, opened YouTube Music to get my Offline mixtape going, and been greeted by YouTube Music kicking into “Looking for incomplete downloads” mode. While looking for incomplete downloads, YouTube Music makes all of your offline music inaccessible as it re-downloads it all, meaning whenever this happens during a drive, I’m stuck listening in silence or kicking back over to Google Play Music via Android Auto.

Rather than downloading your music once and keeping it downloaded the way Spotify or Google Play Music do, YouTube Music redownloads all offline content regularly, just as the main YouTube app does. While there are some understandable reasons for YouTube Music to do this, having YouTube Music randomly kick into that mode and randomly dump all your offline music until it reaches Wi-Fi again isn’t just an annoyance; that is a a service killer.

If you can’t depend on your music to be there when you’re offline and need it the most, then why would you trust YouTube Music enough to switch to it?

Downloaded copies aren’t the defaut

If you’ve downloaded an album for offline playback, you’d expect YouTube Music to play that downloaded copy instead of streaming it whenever you play that album or a song on it, right? Unfortunately, YouTube Music does not default to the downloaded copy, which was a very alarming discovery for users on capped data plans.

So, when does downloaded music actually play?

• If you play a downloaded playlist or album from the Downloads section of My Library, it plays the downloaded version.
• If you play music from anywhere else in the YouTube Music app, YouTube Music will stream the music rather than playing the downloaded version.

I’m not sure if this is a bug — goodness knows YouTube Music has plenty of those — or an intended behavior, but it is one that all users should be aware of, especially if you don’t have “Stream via Wi-Fi only” turned on.

Offline mode is jarring and incomplete

Speaking of Wi-Fi only, when YouTube Music loses the data it needs to stream — be it from airplane mode or “Stream via Wi-Fi only” — that the transition to Offline mode is abrupt and more importantly renders all but one submenu of one tab of YouTube Music utterly useless. In Offline mode, Home Hotlist and Library are all inaccessible; you can only open, view, and play the Downloads section and the playlists and albums within it.

This is especially jarring when it combines with YouTube Music’s habit of streaming downloaded music when played elsewhere in the app. You can start a playlist you know you’ve downloaded from Recently Played or Playlists, leave Wi-Fi, and then the music screeches to a halt, telling you to go to Downloads and start your playlist over again.

Coming to YouTube Music from its predecessor Google Play Music, I’d love to see YouTube Music steal its Downloaded Only mode, which repurposes the Home tab for recently played downloaded and cached content.

Shuffle All — or just shuffle anything

One of the features most-used in Google Play Music’s Downloaded Only mode is Shuffle All, which starts a shuffle of all downloaded music. Shuffling all downloaded content is an easy way to get a mix going when offline, and it’s a useful tool for any music app to have. That said, I’d settle for a Shuffle Play option for anything in Downloads.

If you open a playlist in Playlists, there’s a Shuffle play option. If you open that same playlist in Downloads, Shuffle play is gone. Admittedly, you can start playing from any song, swipe up on the queue and turn on shuffle, but why are playlist options taken away when you open the downloaded version?

Get a cache going

Another Google Play Music feature that I think all music players should steal is a glorious little gem in its playback settings called “Cache music while streaming”. This feature allows Google Play Music users to build up an offline library without having to go manually download every song, album, or playlist individually; your offline library will build up organically while you’re streaming the music you like.

Cache while streaming could allow users to build up a sizable offline library — especially when using YouTube Music’s tentpole Your Mixtape radio station — and while caching video could indeed eat up a user’s storage more quickly than the audio-only caching occuring on Google Play Music, anything that gives users more and more consistent offline music to listen to would be a boon.

How do you get down(loaded music)?

Have you had issues with YouTube Music dumping your library in the middle of your afternoon commute? Do you live in the Downloads section when you’re outside the safety of Wi-Fi? Tell us how offline playback in YouTube Music has been treating you in the comments.

Read more: Everything you need to know about YouTube Music

The Schlage Z-Wave Connect Camelot touchscreen deadbolt is only $134

Upgrade your front door.

The Schlage Z-Wave Connect Camelot Touchscreen Deadbolt is down to $134.13 with the 20% off for Prime on the product page. This deadbolt has been regularly selling around $170 recently, and it was selling as high as $180 toward the end of last year. It has never dropped below $150 directly before, so this is a new low price.

While the Schlage will work with Alexa and other voice assistants, it uses Z-Wave to connect. You will need a Z-Wave compatible hub like the SmartThings Hub or the Wink Hub. Unfortunately, Amazon does not have any native devices with a Z-Wave radio. The deadbolt uses a touchscreen keypad and can store up to 30 user codes at a time. It has a built-in alarm with three settings and uses AA batteries. It is rated ANSI Grade 1.

You will need Amazon Prime for this deal.

See on Amazon

Google Assistant just got proactive – and a lot more useful

A bit of the old and a lot of something new are going to make Google Assistant seem more like an assistant.

One of Android’s killer features for a lot of us was Google Now. Google Now could tell you when your Mastercard payment was coming up, let you know that you might need to take an umbrella for your trip to Cleveland, and remind you about things like that dentist appointment you made 6 months ago and forgot about. Once given access to your Google account — and mind you, it needed a lot of access to everything you have stored in Google — it seemed like a real assistant.

Fast forward a few years, and the debut of Google Assistant proper left many a bit disappointed. Assistant is smart enough to turn on your lights or set your thermostat for you, and that’s really cool, but as an assistant, it just wasn’t as useful as Google Now. It seemed like a small regression to the dark days before Google was all up in your business, but being helpful about it. Today’s news about Assistant getting more proactive looks like it might change that up and make Assistant a bit more … assistive.

Assistant will do things a bit differently than we’re used to seeing. Before the age of smartphones, folks used planners or Dayrunners to lay out the days itinerary and activities. Pick up the dry cleaning at 9, then lunch with Susan at P.F. Changs. Meet with a business contact at 2, then take your little brother to baseball practice at 5. Whether your life is incredibly mundane or if you’re some sort of RockGod, a planner you carried around kept track of everything.

Google Now tried to recreate that but use a different format where cards would pop into view when and where they were relevant. That was really cool and really smart. Now you would have directions to the cleaners available at your fingertips or the menu for P.F. Changs on your screen (the Mongolian Beef is to die for). That was helpful information that we didn’t have to go looking for, and the fact that we didn’t need to search it out is what made Google Now great. Not the interface, nor the way it knew everything. How it presented that bit of extra information was the icing on the cake.

It looks like Assistant is going to give us that bit of extra information, but do it in a way that is a bit retro with a scrolling day planner style view. This allows for some nice changes from how things used to be by keeping everything there to see at a glance on the same screen or card, while still dropping those bits that make it special like a button to make a call or a live traffic map. It’s not anything new in itself — Google Assistant will already give you all of this through regular notifications if you provide it with the information — but it’s far more useful than a mess of notifications that we will probably end up dismissing by accident or a set of cards that we’ll inadvertently swipe away.

No more poking around because we mistakenly swiped the card with our boarding pass away.

I’m looking forward to seeing what I need to know in a modern take on the Today theme from an old Palm Pilot or BlackBerry, but the addition of some extra bits of information like a discovery section that can help me find something to do where I’m at when I’m there, or integration with apps like Google Keep or Todoist are the fascinating features. Allowing Assistant to suggest app actions and dig into an app’s data (with our permission, of course) mean that your daily overview will look very different from my daily overview, but we’ll both have what we need at our fingertips.

It’s the little things that separate a good piece of software from a great piece of software. Checking the traffic or reminding you to pick up a package are little things that we can use plenty of other apps to do, but now that they are bundled into Google Assistant, a good app might become a great one again.

Alto’s Odyssey for Android: Everything you need to know

Alto’s Odyssey is coming to Android next month — are you pre-registered?

Alto’s Odyssey has been out on iOS since February, and it’s AMAZING. Developed by the same group of folks responsible for the masterpiece that is Alto’s Adventure, Team Alto has taken everything we loved from the first game — the gorgeous graphics, beautiful atmosphere and butter smooth gameplay — and stepped it all up a notch while giving us a brand new story and a beautiful and diverse new environment for us to endlessly explore.

If I sound excited, it’s because Alto’s Adventure is hands-down one of the best free-to-play games ever released for Android. Period. Seriously, if you’ve never played Alto’s Adventure go download it right now. and then come back.

July 17, 2018 — Alto’s Odyssey Android release date confirmed for July 26!

Alto’s fans rejoice! We’re just over a week away from getting our hands on Alto’s Odyssey on Android with an official release date set for July 26.

The wait is almost over: Alto’s Odyssey is launching on @GooglePlay on July 26th 🎉 https://t.co/98uEkwJA3Y

— Alto’s Odyssey (@altosadventure) July 17, 2018

Follow the link below to be notified when Alto’s Odyssey is ready for download.

Pre-register at Google Play

What new in Alto’s Odyssey?

Alto and his pals have traded the snow-capped mountains of the original Adventure for the rolling sand dunes of a mystical desert complete with hot air balloons and other surprises to contend with.

Awesome features such as Zen Mode are included right out of the gate, and there are new tricks available and new ways to interact with the procedurally-generated areas. I mean, the developers drew specific inspiration from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 (which explains the emphasis on intuitive controls) and that era in the THPS franchise is celebrated for adding subtle improvements to the gameplay that opened up a new way to link tricks and explore levels.

By all accounts, Alto’s Odyssey is the perfect sequel to an amazing game that, too, took its time coming over to Android in 2016 after becoming a smash hit on iOS in 2015.

How much will it cost?

This is the other really interesting question that we don’t have an answer for yet.

Both Alto’s Adventure and Alto’s Odyssey were released as paid apps in the iTunes App Store, but when Snowman partnered with Noodlecake Studios to bring Alto’s Adventure to Android, they opted for a free-to-play model that included video ads to revive Alto and in-app purchases for premium upgrades. It was an experiment of sorts that offered a great game for free to Android users with minimal ads — and tens of millions of downloads from the Google Play Store.

Of course, the iOS and Android app markets are unique beasts, and while Team Alto has been hush on a firm release date, they also haven’t said anything about whether Alto’s Odyssey on Android will be free-to-play or require an up-front purchase.

Either way, we’re eager to hit the sandy slopes of Alto’s Odyssey just as soon as it’s available for download.

Pre-register at Google Play

Are you excited about Alto’s Odyssey?

Let us know in the comments!

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Mophie Announces New Apple-Exclusive Powerstation Portable Chargers With Lightning Ports

Mophie today announced the launch of a new series of iPhone-exclusive Powerstation models, which are equipped with a Lightning port to allow them to be recharged using a Lightning cable rather than a traditional micro-USB cable.

With the ability to charge over Lightning, customers who purchase one of the new Lightning-equipped Mophie Powerstations will be able to charge their iPhones and their portable charger using the same cable.

Mophie is offering several new Powerstation options, with varying battery capacities and price points:

• Powerstation Plus ($79.95) – 6040mAh with built-in Lightning connector and a single USB port. Available in heather gray, slate, and black.
• Powerstation Plus XL ($99.95) – 10,000mAh with built-in Lightning connector and a single USB port. Available in heather gray, slate, black, and deep blue. Qi wireless charging is included, allowing the Powerstation Plus XL to be recharged via a Qi-based wireless charger.
• Powerstation ($59.95) – 6,040mAh with two USB ports for charging two devices at once. Available in indigo blue and millennial pink.
• Powerstation XXL ($99.95) – 20,200mAh with three USB ports for charging three devices at once. Available in black.

The Powerstation and Powerstation XXL, designed for use with iPhone, iPad, and AirPods, offer up an extra 20 and 70 hours of iPhone battery life, respectively, and come in an aluminum design.

The Powerstation Plus and Powerstation Plus XL offer built-in Lightning connectors, alleviating the need to supply your own Lightning cable for charging purposes. Both of these models offer a fabric-covered design with fabric over the top and bottom plates and can provide up to 34 hours of extra battery.

All of the Powerstation options include an LED power indicator to provide details on charging status and battery life, along with Priority Charging capabilities that send power to your device before recharging the Powerstation when it’s plugged in.

The new line of Mophie Powerstations are available exclusively from Apple retail stores, the Apple online store, and the Mophie website.

Tag: Mophie
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Future iPhones Could Use Samsung’s Industry-First LPDDR5 DRAM

Samsung today announced it has completed functional testing and validation of the industry’s first 10-nanometer class 8-gigabit LPDDR5 DRAM.

Samsung says the prototype chip boasts a data rate of up to 6.4 Gbps, which is 1.5 times as fast as the LPDDR4X DRAM used in the iPhone X and other flagship smartphones. The chip also features an all-new sleep mode and other features that reduce power consumption by up to 30 percent.

AnandTech has a good overview of the chip’s technical details, but from a higher level, this development could result in future iPhones having even faster, yet even more efficient, memory. That would translate to maximized performance and extended battery life, which is good news all around.

Samsung said it plans to begin mass production of its next-generation DRAM lineups, including this LPDDR5 DRAM chip, but didn’t specify when. LPDDR5 is said to be so cutting edge that the JEDEC standards group has not yet finalized the specifications for it, so it could take some time.

Apple currently sources DRAM from multiple suppliers, including Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, varying by iPhone model.

Tag: Samsung
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Fourth Beta of tvOS 12 Now Available for Registered Developers

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of a new tvOS 12 operating system to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after releasing the third beta and more than a month after introducing the new software at the 2018 Worldwide Developers Conference.

Designed for the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV, the tvOS 12 developer beta can be downloaded onto the Apple TV using a profile that’s installed through the Xcode software. Subsequent betas can be downloaded via the software update mechanism on the Apple TV.

tvOS 12 introduces support for Dolby Atmos sound, which was activated in the second beta. Apple says that iTunes will be home to the largest collection of Dolby Atmos-supported movies anywhere this fall. Customers that have previously purchased movies that gain Dolby Atmos support will see free upgrades to their titles, much like the rollout of 4K support.

Building on single sign-on, a new zero sign-on feature will further simplify the cable authentication process. With zero sign-on, the Apple TV can detect a user’s broadband network and automatically sign them into supported apps they receive through their accompanying cable subscription.

Zero sign-on will be available for Charter Communications customers this fall and will expand to additional cable providers in the future.

Aerial screensavers now include location information and there are new screensavers captured in collaboration with the International Space Station. According to Apple’s release notes, location information for aerials should be available as of beta 4.

Other improvements tvOS-related improvements include AutoFill passwords from iPhone, an Apple TV Remote automatically added to Control Center on the iPhone or iPad, and Apple TV support on Home control systems like Control4, Crestron, and Savant.

tvOS 12 is available for developers and public beta testers to work out bugs and other issues ahead of a fall public launch.

Related Roundups: Apple TV, tvOS 12Buyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Neutral)
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Apple Releases Fourth Beta of New watchOS 5 Operating System to Developers

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of an upcoming watchOS 5 update to developers, two weeks after releasing the third beta and more than a month after introducing the software at the Worldwide Developers Conference.

To install the beta, you’ll need the proper configuration profile, which can be obtained through the Apple Developer Center. Once the profile is in place, the watchOS 5 beta can be downloaded using the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General –> Software Update.

To update, the Apple Watch needs to have 50 percent battery, it must be placed on an Apple Watch charger, and it has to be in range of the iPhone. It would be wise to install the beta on a secondary device instead of a primary device given that this is an early version of the watchOS 5 software that still has bugs to be worked out.

watchOS 5 is a major update to watchOS, introducing Activity Competitions so you can compete on workouts with friends, Walkie-Talkie with push-to-talk functionality for quickly communicating with the people you talk to most, and auto workout detection to make it easier to start and stop workouts if you forget.

Other new features include an improved Siri watch face with support for third-party apps through Siri Shortcuts, a dedicated Apple Podcasts app, new Workout types that include Yoga and Hiking, new features for runners, WebKit support for viewing some web content on Apple Watch, and enhanced notifications, which will make notifications on the Apple Watch interactive.

Early software betas often introduce new functionality, so we’ll update this post if anything new is found in the fourth beta of watchOS 5.

watchOS 5 is only available to developers and will not be provided to public beta testers (because there’s no way to downgrade Apple Watch software), so non-developers will need to wait until the software is officially released in the fall to try it out.

The watchOS 5 update runs on all Series 1, Series 2, and Series 3 Apple Watch models, but it is not available for the first-generation “Series 0” Apple Watch models.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 4, watchOS 5Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Caution)
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Apple Seeds Fourth Beta of iOS 12 to Developers

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of an upcoming iOS 12 update to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the third beta and more than a month after introducing the new software at the Worldwide Developers Conference.

Registered developers can download the new iOS 12 beta from Apple’s Developer Center or over-the-air after installing the proper certificate.

iOS 12 introduces major updates to the iOS operating system, with Apple revamping the system from top to bottom to make iPhones and iPads, especially older models, faster and more responsive.

On the iPhone X, there are new Animoji characters along with “Memoji,” which are customizable, personalized Animoji that can be used both in Messages and in FaceTime. Messages and FaceTime have also gained fun new camera effects, and Group FaceTime support allows for calls with up to 32 people.

Siri is smarter in iOS 12 with a new Shortcuts feature that lets you create custom automations using first and third-party apps that can be activated with Siri, with Shortcuts able to be created with the beta version of the Shortcuts app that was introduced earlier in July.

Apple also built a comprehensive set of time management and monitoring tools into iOS 12 with Screen Time, allowing you to keep track of just how much time you’re spending on your iPhone and iPad. App limits can help you cut back on iOS device usage, and robust parental controls are included for families.

Updated Do Not Disturb options make turning off notifications and distractions easier than ever, and a new Do Not Disturb at Bedtime feature cuts down on nighttime interruptions.

Group Notifications make incoming notifications easier to view and manage, while a new Instant Tuning feature lets you tweak your notification settings right on the Lock screeen on a notification-by-notification basis.

Apple News has a new Browse feature, the Stocks app has been redesigned, iBooks has been overhauled with a new look and a new name – Apple Books – and Voice Memos has been revamped with iCloud support and an iPad app.

ARKit 2.0 introduces new capabilities like shared experiences that let two people see the same AR environment on separate devices, and persistence, which allows AR experiences to be saved across multiple sessions. There’s also a new Measure app for measuring objects using AR capabilities.

iOS 12 includes a revamped and rebuilt Maps app that uses a new Apple-designed Maps engine that will display foliage, pools, buildings, pedestrian pathways, and other map elements more accurately. The new Maps also includes significant improvements to traffic, real-time road conditions, construction, and more, plus it will enable Apple to push out changes and fixes more quickly.

The revamped Maps app is available in the San Francisco Bay Area during the beta testing period, and when iOS 12 launches in the fall, it will expand to all of Northern California. From there, Apple will continue rolling it out to additional U.S. locations across late 2018 and 2019.

Tons of other small tweaks and features have been added to iOS 12, so make sure to check out our dedicated roundup for additional detail on what’s new in iOS 12.

Early betas of new operating system updates always introduce tweaked features and new functionality, and we’ll be outlining what’s new in the fourth beta below. We also rounded up all of the changes that were introduced in the previous betas, beta 2 and beta 3.

iOS 12 is available for developers and public beta testers, with a public launch planned for the fall alongside new iPhones.

Update: According to Apple’s release notes for beta 4, there are several new issues with features like Screen Time, the App Store, and Siri Shortcuts. Apps in the App Store might fail to download properly the first time, and the cellular signal status bar on the iPhone X could be inaccurate while on the Lock Screen or Home Screen.

Screen Time usage data and settings may not sync between devices, with Apple recommending a restart to fix the issue.

Siri Shortcuts may not work while using CarPlay, could result in an error message on HomePod, may not be restored from iCloud backup, may not work if a device is locked, and SiriKit queries could be delayed or result in an error message.

Related Roundup: iOS 12
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