Unwanted calls are a constant annoyance, and scam calls have become a major concern for many phone users.  While the Google Phone app already offered some caller ID features, Google has now added a new “Lookup” button to make identifying unknown callers even easier.

Currently, when you encounter an unknown number, you have to decide whether to answer it or risk missing a legitimate call. If you choose not to answer, you might then resort to manually copying the number into Google or phone directories like Truecaller to see if any information comes up. 

That hassle will soon go away with the Lookup feature on Google’s Phone dialer. Now when you get a call from an unidentified number, you can simply tap the Lookup button within the Phone app itself. It will trigger the app to automatically search for information about the number without you needing to switch to another app or manually copy and paste.

The results of the Lookup can vary depending on the number’s activity. Ideally, for scam calls, a search should reveal the type of scam being perpetrated. This confirmation can help you decide whether to answer and if a scam, you can report the number.

Even if the “Lookup” button doesn’t provide definitive answers, it can still be helpful. In the case when the caller is legitimate and you didn’t pick up the call, they can leave a voicemail message for you to listen to later. And for less important calls they can also follow up with a text message.

The Lookup feature was initially announced alongside the June Feature Drop for Pixel devices. However, according to Android Police, the update now appears to be rolling out independently. This means it may not be immediately available on all devices, even those that received the Pixel update.

The good news is that the Lookup button doesn’t seem to require any user activation. It should simply appear within the Phone app at some point during the ongoing rollout. So, keep an eye out for the new feature and take advantage of the additional information it provides when dealing with unknown callers.

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Google Phone is the default dialer application on Pixels and Android One smartphones. This app along with Google Messages later started coming pre-installed on select devices from different OEMs. It was even made available to install on most handsets earlier this year. As a result, it has now reached over 500 million downloads on the Google Play Store.

Phone by Google is a simple and clean dialer application. It is an easy-to-use and straightforward app, unlike certain dialers apps found in Android skins by different OEMs.

Hence, select companies, mostly Chinese like Xiaomi and OnePlus started shipping their devices in certain regions with Google Phone and Google Messages, instead of their own solutions. The search giant added support for more smartphones so that interested users can directly download these apps from the Google Play Store.

Hence, the userbase of Google Phone started increasing with the help of Pixels, Android One devices, select devices from different OEMs, and users who installed them manually on supported phones. Thus, it has now finally hit over 500 million installs on the Play Store.

With more OEMs opting for Google Phone on their devices, we can expect the download figure to reach over 1 billion in the coming months or years.

UP NEXT: Google Photos hits 5 billion downloads on the Play Store; Google Keep reaches 1 billion

(Via)

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In just a couple of months, we’ll enter the year 2020. For some reason, 2020 has always been a significant benchmark for a lot of people, including tech enthusiasts. If you try to recall what you imagined 2020 to be, around 10 years back, I’m sure it would involve a lot of fancy things like flying cars, widescale commercial electric vehicles, the cure for cancer and whatnot.

But the past few years have more or less been about a bunch of trending apps and fancy software features. As for phones, I personally would have imagined most of us to have a foldable smartphone by now. After all, Samsung demoed its first flexible ‘Youm’ display 6 years back! And what about modular phones? That could have been the future of smartphones, right?

The fanciest smartphone that we have today is the Galaxy Fold which isn’t exactly durable. But the Fold could have had an even fancier competitor today – a modular smartphone – if only Google had managed to bring Project Ara to life.

Before we take a look at what happened to Project Ara, let’s first see why it’s worth remembering?

1. Project Ara was not a fancy idea from a startup. It came from Google, one of the world’s most resourceful tech companies.
2. Project Ara would have enabled smartphone users to upgrade their smartphones just by replacing a module. Imagine adding 5G to your phone by replacing the 4G module! No need to spend hundreds of dollars buying a new model.
3. Project Ara smartphone would have facilitated extremely easy repairs. It would have been as simple as sliding out a component like a display and replacing it with a brand new module.
4. A modular smartphone would have also helped reduce the growing e-waste problem.
5. Also, imagine the countless fancy modules that would have been available for our smartphones. Right from a projector module to one with a microscope, a regular smartphone could have been a lot more distinctive than what it is today.

So what happened to Project Ara?

Project Ara was probably too good to be true.

Google’s first real interest in a modular smartphone was revealed back in 2011 after it made a special purchase. The search engine giant acquired a bunch of patents from the struggling Israeli modular phone company, Modu, for $4.9 million. We knew something was in the cards back then but the first real announcement from the company came in October 2013, more than two years after this purchase.

Google officially revealed the Project Ara on October 29, 2013, further adding that it was working with Phonebloks to develop a modular smartphone. This was a really big deal back then, mainly because it was Google behind the project and modular smartphone as a concept was still in its nascent stages. After all, with Google on board, a modular smartphone concept didn’t look far fetched.

Things started moving quickly after this announcement. Next year, at Google I/O 2014, Google nearly showed off the first working modular smartphone prototype dubbed ‘Spiral 1’. In fact, we can actually see the phone booting up Android and working in a subsequent video shared by the Project Ara team.

The Spiral 2 prototype was revealed by the company in January 2015. The phone came with eleven different prototype modules that would act as a reference design for third party manufacturers. The Spiral 2 had Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth, and other basic smartphone modules. The best part of the prototype was that the modules were hot-swappable, which means you could replace a module while the phone was in use.

Things looked really promising at this point. In fact, Google also revealed that it would test out a better version of this prototype in Puerto Rico later in 2015.

But in August 2015, Google suddenly announced that it had suspended its plan to test the phone in Puerto Rico indefinitely. But it wasn’t all bad since Google revealed that it would test these prototypes in a few locations in the U.S. in 2016.

Then in May 2016, at Google I/O came some good news. The company announced the first ‘Developer Edition’ of Project Ara and promised to ship them by the end of the year. Notably, these ‘Developer Editions’ were very different than the initial prototypes shown off by the company.

This edition came with a few fixed components like the antenna, battery, display, sensors, and system-on-chip, with an option to swap or add in modules such as a secondary display or a speaker. The design was a lot more limiting than what was conceptualized initially, but it was at least a working model. Google also announced that it was looking forward to the consumer launch of this model in 2017.

However, all of a sudden, in September 2016, Google officially announced that Project Ara was dead or rather suspended.

Editor’s Pick: ZTE files Design Patent for a Smartphone with Rotating Display Module

Why Was Project Ara Killed?

Well, killing off Project Ara was probably a result of the insurmountable challenges that the team had to face along with leadership changes and Google’s change in policy towards experimental ventures.

As I mentioned before, the Project Ara concept was simply too hard to implement back in 2016. It was probably way ahead of its time. And with smartphones becoming slimmer, lighter, and smarter, it would have taken years for the prototypes to be good enough to compete with the existing smartphones of 2016.

Do you remember what happened to modular phones like the LG G5 or the Moto Z3 Play? Did they get the reception they deserved? I mean these phones offered something experimental to its users (they weren’t perfect though) and the reception it received wasn’t exactly phenomenal. Heck, it wasn’t even close to what a Nexus or a Samsung flagship got back in its time.

While I agree Google could have better implemented the modular concept than these companies, the lack of enthusiasm for third party modules revealed that people were not ready for a modular phone yet.

For those who are looking for more information about what went wrong with the project, do read this wonderful piece by VentureBeat’s Harrison Webber on the rise and fall of the Project ARA.

Google probably made a HUGE mistake by promising deadlines too early. They should have worked on the project at their own pace and should have revealed more details about the project only when they had something close to commercial launch.

Making something revolutionary requires years of research, development, and testing. But even more than that, it requires companies to be persistent. Google could have brought a modular phone to life by now, but it would have had to pump in a lot more money as well as time for that to have happened.

As of today, Project Ara is dead. But maybe someday, either Google or some other company will bring this revolutionary idea to life.

So do you think modular smartphones have a future?

UP NEXT: Samsung plans to shift focus to Quantum Dot display technology with $11 billion investment

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According to a new report, Google seems to be preparing its own smartphone to take on the Apple iPhone in the market. It is said that “Google wants more control over design, manufacturing, and software”. Up till now, the company’s reach has been limited to software, but if this turns out to be true, Google soon could make its entry into the smartphone hardware. While this won’t be the company’s first hardware product (remember Google Pixel C?), it will be the first self-made smartphone.

This move by the company could be a result of the fragmentation of the Android platform. There are millions of smartphones in the market today that’s based on Google’s Android OS, however, most of them feature a tweaked version by their respective manufacturer. This has adversely affected the consistency of the software on different models as well as the adoption rate of the new versions of Android.

With Google’s self-made smartphone, the company will have greater control over the software as well as the hardware, much like the Apple iPhone. This would be the best move to take on the iPhone models which are usually considered more stable and premium than other Android handsets.

Previously, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai had hinted that the company plans to add some new features to the Android Nexus lineup. We could see such special features on the new Google smartphone as well.

The report states that this Google made phone could release by the end of this year, which means we won’t have to wait for too long to meet this iPhone killer.

So, what do you think about a Google-made Android flagship?

(source)

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The Onliner.by website recently launched a review of the latest products of the LG Optimus G Nexus. It is quite surprising especially the LG and Google had not yet officially announced the latest Nexus phone.

But the smartphone are reviewed by Onliner.by is still in the prototype stage. They say that the Android operating system is embedded in mobile phones is still quite slow and less smooth.

In terms of design, this phone has a resemblance to the Galaxy Nexus which is the production of the Samsung. But the mobile phone screen is flat, not curved like the Galaxy Nexus. In addition, they also mentioned that the smartphone has a more short and wide. This mobile phone also will not have LTE connectivity, just GSM only.

In terms of specs, this phone does not have a lot of differences with the LG Optimus G. IPS screen is 4.7 inches with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM. And, for the internal memory, this phone only offers 8GB capacity.

This phone also comes with an 8MP camera on the back. Not to forget, in the front of the phone also has a secondary camera for video call. Regarding the price, Onliner.by estimates will has $ 399 USD pric tag.

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