5 New Things That Android Can Do

Android has been receiving interesting updates in the past several months. Google has been steadily pushing out new features that aim to provide consumers with a better user experience. Now, it has introduced 5 more of them, that can prove useful in an emergency or when you’re looking forward to a restful night of sleep.

Here’s what’s new:

Improved Emergency Reporting
Android Emergency Location Services, (ELS) which is available in 29 countries, now has as a shorter response time, by offering more accurate location information. It can even share a user’s language preference with emergency operators, so that the right translator will be on the phone with you. ELS is available for Android 4.1 and above.

Get Earthquake Alerts
We’ve covered this feature in a previous post. Android phones can now detect earthquakes through the use of their accelerometers. It will be available on devices running Android 5.0 or higher. And if you live in California, Google will send you earthquake alerts powered by ShakeAlert.

Do More While In Your Car
Through the use of Android Auto, your phone can now push information directly to your car’s infotainment system such as your daily schedule, messages and calls. The feature will help reduce the need to glance at your phone while driving. Drivers can also act on these notifications by either initiating a call or accessing the Maps app for directions.

Rest At Night
The Bedtime tab in the Clock apps ensures that you get a good night’s rest. Google says that it will remind you of your bedtime and limit interruptions by keeping the phone dark and quite. It will also help you maintain a consistent sleep schedule by tracking your screen-on time at night and help you fall sleep by playing soothing sounds from your favorite music apps.

Better Accessibility with Lookout
Now Android is friendlier to those with visual disabilities. Lookout can scan long form documents into readable text, identify products from their food labels, and is even more compatible with screen readers. Lookout can be downloaded from the Google Play store for Android devices with more than 2GB RAM and running Android 6.0 or higher.