Google app beta teardown hints at support for third-party note apps

Google’s newest beta for its Google app is available now, and a teardown revealed new features under development.

Those new features include work on support for third-party list and note apps, a new ‘General’ settings page and more.

As always, it’s important to remember that teardowns break open an app and glean information from bits of code. These work-in-progress features aren’t guaranteed to come out, or even look like what they do now.

With that said, let’s dive in. First and foremost, it looks like Google is working on supporting third-party note and list apps in Assistant.

While this isn’t the first time code for this feature has surfaced, it does indicate the feature is still in development.

A new settings page

Along with the work on notes and lists, there’s also evidence of work on a new ‘General’ settings page. While the page isn’t visible in the Google app yet, there is code showing three new options under this new page.

The first, called ‘Show feed,’ should provide stories based on your interests. ‘Data saver’ is also on the settings page and will stop the feed from being updated. Finally, there is an ‘Autoplay’ option that lets you preview videos automatically over WiFi. These features are all currently available in the Google app, but are also on this unreleased ‘General’ settings page too.

Finally, it looks like Google is working on an option to allow users to create albums in Google Photos. It’s not entirely clear how this feature would work or why it exists.

My guess is it’s destined for a Google Assistant command to create albums with your voice. However, I’m not sure why Google would add this to the Google app in the first place.

You can get the Google beta app version 8.24.6 from the Play Store by registering for the beta on the Google app page. Alternatively, you can download it from a third-party website and install it yourself.

Source: Android Police