The Google I/O keynote could have been all about AI, however there have been a handful of different significant updates that didn’t make it to the principle stage. Along with updates coming to Google Pockets, the corporate’s developer periods additionally revealed helpful options that may roll out to smartwatches, the Google Play Retailer, and Google TV.
Listed here are a number of the updates Google didn’t spotlight through the keynote.
Stay Updates are coming to your smartwatch
Google is making ready to deliver Stay Updates — a function that lets customers track the status of certain activities in supply, rideshare, and navigation apps — to your smartwatch. We already knew about Google’s plans to deliver it to smartphones with Android 16, however in a developer session noticed by Android Authority, Google’s Aaron Labiaga confirmed that it’ll additionally work on wearables “later in 2026.”
Apple already has an analogous function, referred to as Stay Actions, that shows at-a-glance status information on watchOS devices.
Google Pockets can take out your boarding cross once you get to the airport
Google announced a bundle of upgrades for Google Pockets, together with a brand new “Close by Passes notification.” When you allow the function, Google Pockets will immediate you to take out your cross once you attain a location the place you may want to make use of it, like a espresso store, airport, or gymnasium. “This notification serves as a direct gateway, permitting customers to seamlessly entry the related cross with a single faucet,” Google says.
Moreover, Google revealed that it’s increasing digital IDs to Arkansas, Montana, Puerto Rico, and West Virginia, and can be including assist for UK passports. It is going to additionally permit airways with loyalty playing cards to “robotically push” boarding passes to customers’ wallets upon check-in.
Google Play will allow you to ask somebody to pay for you
The Google Play Retailer is adding a new “Ask another person to pay” button. The function is strictly what it seems like: it can let customers “request purchases” from people outside their Google Family by sending them a cost hyperlink. It launched in India first, however now it’s coming to the US, Japan, Indonesia, and Mexico.
Google can be trying to streamline checkouts by letting customers purchase subscription add-ons with a base subscription with “one value and one transaction.”
Moreover, Google is making an attempt to make it simpler to cease the rollout of buggy apps as effectively. The corporate says it can let builders “halt fully-live releases” to stop “the distribution of problematic variations to new customers.” The Play Retailer can be letting builders improve their listings with a content material carousel and YouTube playlist, together with audio samples for well being and wellness app builders.
There are new matter pages, too, that may let customers flick through “well timed, related, and visually participating content material” for exhibits, films, and sports activities on the Play Retailer.
Google and Samsung’s audio codec is coming to Google TV
Android 16 is coming to Google TV, introducing some Materials 3 Expressive design modifications, according to 9to5Google. It additionally provides new options like MediaQualityManager, which can let apps robotically “take management over deciding on image profiles.” Google TV will assist the Eclipsa Audio codec, the spatial audio format that Google and Samsung are working on, as effectively.