After years, Google finally has brought in a major overhaul to its Android Auto infotainment system.

Android Auto has been around for almost a decade with ever growing acceptance amongst the users and car manufacturers alike. Simply connect your phone to your car display – your Android apps show up onscreen, just like that. Tap to get driving directions or talk to send a text. Even call your mum, hands-free. Also, because Android Auto is compatible with all major carmarkers, the split screen layout is also adaptable to different screen sizes, so it looks great whether your car has a widescreen, portrait or another size screen.

New Design

Now Android Auto, has a new experience that is rolling out to everyone. The new design prioritizes three important goals for drivers: navigating where you’re going, communicating with friends and family, and playing your music or podcasts.

Frequently accessed apps

In addition to the new design, it is now easier than ever to complete some of your most frequent needs in the car. Google Assistant now provides smart suggestions including missed call reminders, quick arrival time sharing and instant access to music or podcasts. On-screen shortcuts speed up message replies and calling favorite contacts.

WhatsApp calls

You can now make even WhatsApp calls, directly from your car’s mic and speakers, so you are no longer limited to only the regular network calls.

Share your digital car key with friends and family

You can already share your digital car key across Pixel and iPhone to make it easier to give trusted friends and family access to your car. Key sharing is coming soon to Samsung phones, and Xiaomi users.

And more…

• High-quality maps and navigation.
• The Waze app is now available on select Renault vehicles.
• Google’s new HD map is now available in select new cars with Google built-in, starting with the Volvo EX90 and Polestar 3.
• Tubi and MGM+ already available to download on your car infotainment and Youtube is coming soon.
• Honda joins a growing list of brands offering cars with Google built-in that includes Volvo Cars, Polestar, Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac and Renault.

WhatsApp has rolled out a feature where you can now message yourself!

Have you been amongst those people, who would simply send your friends and family members a message or share a link, just so it stays noted for you to refer back to later? Well, looks like WhatsApp has noticed that and made it simple, by now allowing you to simply message yourself and stop bombarding others WhatsApp threads!

Messages sent to yourself will be visible on all of your linked devices, and they will continue to remain end-to-end encrypted as per the USP of WhatsApp security.

Simply open a new chat, and when you’re selecting a contact to message, you’ll see your own contact right at the top of the list. Additionally, a different chat caption shows up when opening this chat – Message yourself.

This feature had been around for quite some time in most of the messaging platforms including Slack and Telegram where you can message yourself. Even most of the Email clients allow you to do this. WhatsApp seems to have taken note of this, and tried to offer it the easier way… Simply chat with yourself!

Whatsapp, with its latest update, rolled out a much hyped feature – Whatsapp Communities. The feature lets users connect multiple groups under one umbrella to help them better organize group conversations on the platform.

Designed to help organizations, clubs, schools and other private groups better communicate and stay organized, Communities bring a number of new features to the messaging platform, including admin controls, support for sub-groups and announcement groups, 32-person voice and video calls, larger-file sharing, emoji reactions and polls. Communities themselves can support groups of up to 1,024 users.

Over the past few months, there have been unofficial rumors that WhatsApp will soon be getting a feature to be able to have upto 1024 members on a call, which began ever since they had launched the WhatsApps Conference Call feature. With the launch of communities, WhatsApp has now increased the number of members in a Group to 1024 as well.

You will be able to access your communities from the link at the top of your chats on Android and at the bottom on iOS, and it will include options to help admins start new Communities or add existing groups to a Community.

While hilighting the best of the feature, WhatsApp has managed to push a few more features under the hood. You can now share files of upto 2GB size. Also you can now create in-chat polls! Want to check with your group which restaurant should your next meetup be at!

Hoping we see some healthy chatter in the communities and they don’t end up getting exploited for illegal activities.

Whatsapp finally debuts a much awaited feature, the Whatsapp call links. A feature that has been existing in Zoom, Google meet and Microsoft teams, and maybe even since the days of Webex, where you’d create a call link, traditionally known as call bridge, and share it with people you would like to invite to participate in the meeting.

The feature will be available soon for group calls of upto 32 people!

One main advantage of Whatsapp call links over and above the already existing group calls is that anyone having the access to the link can join the call. They don’t necessarily have to be in your contact list. Though with one caveat that they should be having a Whatsapp account.

This has been a feature long missed on Whatsapp, specially during the Pandemic days, when most of the enterprises moved to Work From Home culture, and different companies would subscribe to different services like Google suite or Microsoft Teams, or Skype. Now, considering the wide acceptance of Whatsapp, they surely are bound to make a dent in the Work From Home industry as Whatsapp becomes more common a platform that most of us are acquianted to.

The feature is being slowly rolled out and if you don’t already have it, don’t feel left out as you could expect it in one of the upcoming Whatsapp updates.