Google has updated its Hangouts messaging and voice calling app with support for Apple’s CallKit, the iOS 10 feature that enables VoIP services to use the iPhone’s built-in dialer and phone app to both make and receive calls. Once the new feature is enabled within Hangouts, users can initiate phone calls using the iPhone’s built-in Phone app or with Siri voice commands, and also receive incoming calls form Hangouts using the stock iOS call UI. You can enable CallKit support for Hangouts while navigating to Settings within the app and switch the toggle for “Answer on lock screen.” That will make...

How hot will it be today? What is the traffic for my commute to work? Where’s the nearest grocery store? Every day we use data about the world around us to make decisions. One useful dataset is air pollution data, which contains much-needed information that can help us understand how to live healthier lives, build smarter and more sustainable cities, and reduce climate-changing greenhouse gases in both urban and rural areas. Today, with our partners at Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Aclima, we’re sharing the first results of an endeavor we started in 2015: to measure air quality using Aclima equipment mounted on Google Street View cars. You...

It has already been 10 years since Google Street View, a 360-degree map of the world, was first introduced. Google Street View car officially hit the road in 2006 and the first imaginary was published on Google Street View in May 2007. Today Google Street View provides panoramic views of every continent in 83 countries, covering about 10 million miles of the world. Google Street View made its official debut in Thailand in September 2011 and has started accumulating images of places around the country since. Six months after the debut, images of the first three provinces – Bangkok,...

Whether you’re a commuter reading the news with a spotty network, a farmer looking up crop prices with no service in the fields, or just driving through a tunnel, all is not lost when your search is interrupted by a bad connection. Now on the Google app for Android, even if your search fails, Google will deliver your results as soon as a connection is available—so you can keep searching with a single tap. Mobile networks can sometimes be inconsistent or spotty, which means that even if you have a connection when you start your search, it might fail...

Google’s AR platform Tango is going to let museum visitors explore exhibits Ever seen an ancient mummy in a museum and wanted a closer look? I mean a much closer look. Google said Monday it is letting you do that and more through partnerships with museums around the world using its augmented reality platform Tango. By tapping the location and augmented reality capabilities of Tango, part of Google’s ambitious plan to map the indoor world, museum visitors will soon be able to learn more than exhibit signs and audio tours can offer. How about using an AR overlay to peer beneath a mummy’s sarcophagus...