It looks like Microsoft’s Windows 10 April 2018 update is set to add a variety of time-saving features the company hopes will help users save more time.
The update is available to users to download on April 30th and will roll out to all Windows 10 PCs starting on May 8th.
The largest feature that’s being added to the Windows experience is called ‘Timeline.’ The new feature monitors user activity for 30 days and present it in an organized page.
The idea behind this is to make it easier for users to double check an email, or go back to look at a web page from a few days ago. The feature will work across Windows 10 along with Microsoft’s Edge browser and Office 365 on mobile devices.
Users will now be able to control their smart home gadgets with their voice directly from their computer through a new Cortana feature. The option for Windows 10 users to control some of their smart home devices has been part of the OS since mid-2017 — now it’s set to be easier with the addition of voice commands.
The company is also adding a ‘Focus Assist’ that limits the number of notifications a user views when the setting is enabled. Users will be able to add specific routines for ‘Focus Assist’ that turn on at a specific time every day, or whenever the display is being used for gaming.
The setting can turn off notifications completely, or users can create a list of ‘Priority’ notifications that they’d like to see even when ‘Focus Assist’ it turned on. When the feature is disabled users will receive a summary of all the notifications they received during the time period that the feature is turned on.
In terms of Focus, Microsoft Edge is getting a few new updates that will bring it up to modern web browser standards. Users will now be able to mute individual tabs and open PDF documents in fullscreen. Edge will be able to securely save user payment information to make it more streamlined when making online purchases.
One of the more interesting Edge updates is called ‘Grammar tools.’ With this new feature readers are able to highlight words and Microsoft’s algorithms will break them into syllables. The tool can also highlight different parts of sentences to show verbs, nouns and adjectives.
The April Update also brings enhanced dictation to the Windows platform. In Windows 10 users can hit ‘Win+H’ to start the dictation software. From there it’s as simple as talking and Windows will start transcribing your words for you.
There are a few smaller scale updates coming in this build as well, which users can check out here.
Source: Microsoft
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