Google announces new Android features including a trio of useful new widgets

Google today announced new features for Android devices that are designed to get information to you faster, protect your devices, and more importantly, allow you to have fun. First, for those learning to read, is a new feature in Google Play Books available now called Reading practice. You'll find Reading practice on Children's ebooks marked with a "practice" badge in the Google Play Books app and it will read aloud certain hard-to-pronounce and unknown words. The child reading the book gets to say the word and receives feedback from the device in real-time.

Hey widget fans, Google is adding a trio of new widgets to Android phones and tablets that are designed to help you track your stocks through Google Finance, view headlines from Google News, and get recommendations for movies and television shows to view from Google TV. I'm looking forward to adding all three to my Pixel 6 Pro home screen. To install a widget on your Android device, long-press on an empty bit of your home screen, tap Widgets, find the one you want, and add it to your home screen.

You'll soon be able to press play on your Wear OS-powered watch and hear Spotify's DJ "spin" your favorite music, play episodes of your favorite podcasts, and more thanks to new tiles from Spotify for Wear OS. In addition, commuters in Washington D.C. and San Francisco can access their SmarTrip and Clipper cards via Google Wallet via their Wear OS smartwatch. All they need to do is "tap and ride" to start their commute.

Speaking about Wear OS smartwatches, the always useful Google Keep app is being made available for your wrist with Google Keep for Wear OS. You'll swipe through your tiles until you come to a shopping list, or anything else you've pinned from the app.

I don't know about you, but I enjoy using the Emoji Kitchen which mixes up two different emoji to create a weird-looking new sticker. Google is adding aquatic-themed combinations that will have you screaming "shark" on a hot day at the beach (actually, you better not do that!).

Lastly, most Android users with Google Accounts in the U.S. can now use the Google One website or app to see whether their email address has been exposed on the dark web. Google will also give you advice about what to do if a scan shows that your email address appears as part of a data breach. Google says that "Google One members in the U.S. are able to scan for additional personal information, such as their social security number. Access will also expand to more than 20 countries in the coming months."

And Pixel users should be looking forward to next Monday when the next Pixel Feature Drop is due. Those running the QPR3 Beta will be able to exit the Beta program without a penalty once they have installed the final version of the June Feature Drop on their compatible Pixel handset.