14 DAY TRIAL // Google is getting ready to open up the Glass Explorer program in a few hours and the company has rolled out a big update for the device and has made some big announcements ahead of the event.
The company has gone months without rolling out an update for Google Glass, making users antsy for what was to come and curious about the delay. Well, Google is finally giving people what they want and then some.
The most exciting piece of news is that from now on, Glass will be running Android KitKat. It’s not a change that you’ll be able to see as much as you did on smartphones, but it should improve battery life for the wearable tech and make Glass more reliable and easy to use, as well as easier to update.
From now on, developers can write Glassware using the latest Android SDK, along with new features from the GDK.
Since this was a constant request from members of the Explorer program, Google is also rolling out photo bundles. Basically, when using Glass and scrolling through the timeline, photos, videos and vignettes, they’ll be organized in bundles so users won’t have to scroll so much.
Another update coming to Glass is related to photo replies for Hangouts. “Photo sharing has been really popular amongst our Explorers, so we’ve added new ways to send photos in Hangout messages. The next time someone asks ‘what’s up,’ tap ‘Reply’ and then take a photo to show them. (If you already took the perfect photo, you can still tap to ‘Send’ it in a Hangout message),” reads a post from Google.
Since the voice command menu has grown pretty long since the device reached developers, Google is making things a bit easier for everyone. So, from now on, tapping on the touchpad or saying “Ok Glass” will bring up the list of available voice commands. They’ll now be sorted by how recent they were used and with what frequency.
Another huge update is the fact that video calls will no longer be available. This is only a temporary move, Google said.
“We hold ourselves to high standards for the features that we build, and video calls aren’t living up to these standards. Explorers have told us so directly, and fewer than 10% of them use video calls. For this reason, we’ve made the hard decision to remove video calls from Glass until the experience is better,” the announcement reads.
So, from now on, if you’re a Glass user, you’ll have to make do without video calls.