Google outs important updates to its apps on iOS devices

Google launched a new feature drop update for the Pixel phones, which brought a lot of new features and improvements to its lineup of Android handsets, so the few updates made to its iOS app might have gone unnoticed.

If you’re using the “iPhone device / Google apps” combo, then you’re probably not fully content by the level of functionality some of these app offer in comparison with their Android counterparts. But Google is generous, so here are some of the nifty improvements some of the company’s apps will receive this month.

First off, a new Google Translate widget is now available for iOS users to make it easier to take a photo to translate text or use conversation mode to chat in two languages. If you ever wanted to improve your language skills, having a Google Translate widget on your iPhone’s Home Screen will greatly help with that.



Now, if you’re using an iPad instead, there’s a new XL widget for Google Drive that will allow you to access whatever files you need on the fly. The new widget has been specifically designed for the iPad and is supposed to be released next week. It should have more shortcuts to help users quickly access everything from Priority files to Shared drives.

Last but not least, Google announced it will update both the Gmail and Chat apps to add a sender’s profile photo in the chat notification, thus allowing users to easily see who sent that message. Additionally, the upcoming updates should provide users with more control options over which Chat and Gmail chat notifications to appear on the iPhone or iPad’s homescreen.

To set new filters that will allow certain notifications to go through your iOS device’s Focus, you must choose the contacts you want notifications from when Focus is enabled. The rest will be handled by Google’s Gmail and Chat apps.