Google will\u00a0let users of its Android mobile operating system set up custom calling cards and share their live location in messages, catching up with\u00a0features that\u00a0Apple already offers to iPhone owners.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People who use Google Messages can share their location in a real-time map view while texting, the Alphabet-owned company said in a blog post on Tuesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Users can also set their own photo, font and colour for a calling card that will be displayed when their call is received.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As part of the announcement, Google is also launching an option for users to share details of their luggage tracking tag with partner airlines to help identify its location. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 10 air carriers, including\u00a0Air India, China Airlines, the Lufthansa Group and Turkish Airlines, will accept that tracking information as part of their baggage recovery process, Google said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even though Apple\u2019s iOS system\u00a0has had<\/a>\u00a0these features for over a year, Google\u2019s latest additions will reach a massive number of users\u00a0on the Android platform, which powers more than more than three billion devices\u00a0around the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While Apple dominates the market for premium smartphones, Android is the most popular mobile platform globally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The software enhancements also come at a time when consumers might be holding onto their phones longer as a\u00a0global memory chip crunch\u00a0contributes to rising phone prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, Google is rolling out artificial intelligence-related enhancements to its line of Pixel devices, paving the way for its Gemini assistant to tap into personal data so that it can\u00a0complete more tasks on users\u2019 behalf. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Apple has been working to launch an improved version of its Siri virtual assistant this year, but that effort has run into fresh\u00a0snags, Bloomberg\u00a0reported\u00a0last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The AI features that are\u00a0available on the latest Pixel devices, as well as the newest\u00a0Samsung Galaxy S26 smartphone line,\u00a0include the ability to\u00a0delegate tasks to Gemini<\/a>\u00a0such as hailing an Uber ride and ordering takeout from\u00a0DoorDash Inc. or groceries through\u00a0Instacart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Other tools\u00a0include the ability to\u00a0identify<\/a>\u00a0individual pieces of an outfit from images and to see\u00a0how they fit<\/a>\u00a0based on a full-body image that users upload themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Among the new features are custom calling cards and the ability to share live locations within Google Messages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":537167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17934],"tags":[397,71950,103577,167,59913,103576,103575],"class_list":["post-631808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-smartphones","tag-android","tag-android-smartphones","tag-android-trackers","tag-google","tag-google-messages","tag-smart-tags","tag-tracking-tags"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631808"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631808"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":631820,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631808\/revisions\/631820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}