Android Marshmallow users can now tap and hold the home button for package and flight info

By Robert Nazarian December 15, 2015

mophie galaxy s7 edge juice pack news looking at phone shutterstock 281153945 — Shutterstock / Antonio Guillem

Google has updated Now on Tap with a bunch of new stuff today in an effort to make things a little easier for the holiday season and the rest of the year.

There’s a very good chance that family might be flying in for a visit this year, and Now on Tap will be a big help, especially if you’re picking someone up at the airport. If your uncle sends you a text message with his flight number, you will now be able to get the flight status with a simple tap and by hold on your phone’s home button. There’s no need to do a separate search.

Now if you’re like me, you probably ordered a bunch of gifts online this year. Tracking them isn’t always easy, and it’s important to know when that BB-8 will get delivered. Now a quick tap and hold on your confirmation email will show the tracking info and status of your package.

Google also added six new languages as part of the update: French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and Korean.

If you’re not familiar with Now on Tap, it’s an extension of Google Now for users on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Tapping and holding the home button will reveal more information about what’s on your display. If you’re listening to a song on Spotify, you can tap and hold to get more information about the artist. If you see a post on Facebook about a movie, you can get showtimes and information about the actors in it. It works with virtually any app that’s installed on your device.

Google recently updated Now on Tap to make it easier to take screenshots on your phone. Forget pressing the power and volume button down simultaneously, that’s so cumbersome. The new share button will not only capture a screenshot, it will open the sharing menu right away.

Unfortunately Now on Tap is still very limited since Android Marshmallow is required, and it’s only on a handful of devices. That will hopefully change as more devices get upgraded.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Robert Nazarian

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Robert Nazarian became a technology enthusiast when his parents bought him a Radio Shack TRS-80 Color. Now his biggest…

Mobile

You can now download the first Android 12L Beta on your Google Pixel

Android 12L shown for a larger display.

Google announced on Wednesday the first beta release of Android 12L, the next feature drop for the recently released Android 12 operating system. Aimed primarily at tablets and larger-screened devices, Android 12L will focus on changing the Android experience from the much-critiqued blown-up-phone look to a discrete experience that takes the larger canvas of tablets into account.
What's new?
Today's beta release includes the refreshed interface for larger screens, including a column view for the notification shade and lock screen. A new multitasking dock is being introduced to allow faster access to split-screen and drag-and-drop, and Google's now done work to allow every Android 12 app to work with split-screen mode regardless of whether developers have built for it.

The big problem with big-screen Android
Unlike iOS, the Android experience on tablets and larger-screened devices has been abysmal. It's a little understandable when one considers that Google shifted its tablet focus from Android to Chrome OS a few years ago. While Chrome OS currently has a decent tablet experience, one that the current Android 12L seems to want to replicate when looking at the dock and split-screen multitasking, the app experience for both has remained lacking.

News

Calls for Google Fi users on Android are now end-to-end encrypted

google fi call encryption android users end to jpg on

Google Fi is getting a nice security and privacy boost today, as the rollout of end-to-end encryption for Google’s mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) officially begins. The search giant announced the new initiative in late October, but at the time only said that it would be bringing end-to-end encryption to Android users in the coming weeks. Today, Google finally turned the key, revealing on Twitter it was now automatically securing all Fi calls on Android devices with end-to-end encryption.

End-to-end encryption means that your phone calls on Google Fi will be secure and private from the moment they leave your smartphone to the time that they arrive at the other end. Best of all, there’s nothing you need to do to turn it on — if you’re a Google Fi user on an Android device, it just works automatically in the background. Google Fi will let you know right away when your calls are eligible for end-to-end encryption with a unique ringing tone as soon you place the call. Once the other party answers, you should both see a lock symbol to confirm end-to-end encryption is in place.

Computing

You can now install any Android app on Windows 11 with a single click

Android Apps on Windows 11.

Android apps arrived on Windows 11 not too long ago, but there's still one big issue: Windows only supports the Amazon Android app store, which has less than a fourth of the apps that can be found on Google Play. But there's a solution in the form of WSATools, a utility from engineering student Simone Franco that not only allows you to install any Android app, but also makes the process much easier.

Around the time of the announcement of Windows 11, we received confirmation that users would be able to sideload, or unofficially install, any Android app on Windows 11. The problem is that the process is tedious. It requires multiple downloads from separate sources, a lot of tweaking, and some time in the command line.