When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. TV apps can now poke users for in-app ratings and reviews, thanks to Google Aditya Tiwari Neowin @TheLazyAvenger · May 21, 2025 06:32 EDT It has been years since apps and services have relied on user feedback to improve themselves. Android, one of the biggest operating systems out there, already lets you submit Google Play ratings and reviews through pop-ups displayed inside mobile apps. At its I/O 2025 developer conference, Google announced that the same functionality is now coming to TV apps. The search giant is extending its In-App Rating and Reviews API to TV, allowing developers to prompt users for ratings and reviews directly from Google TV apps. "Ratings and reviews are essential for developers, offering quantitative and qualitative feedback on user experiences," Google said in a blog post. "Users can now see rating averages, browse reviews, and leave their own review directly from an app's store listing on Google TV." When interacting with in-app ratings and reviews, you can select a rating using the remote's D-pad or send a notification to your mobile device and complete the review. You can post an optional written review through your TV using Gboard's on-screen voice input or by typing from your phone. You can submit reviews for other device form factors using your phone by selecting the desired device chip when posting an app rating or writing a review. Lastly, the "Not now" button comes to the rescue if you aren't in the mood to pen down your thoughts about an app. Since the new change is optional for developers, you might not see review prompts in all the apps right away. Google said it is crucial to "first carefully consider the best time to request a review prompt" and figure out "optimal moments within your app" to request user feedback. Prompts for in-app ratings and reviews should appear when the "UI is idle to prevent interruption of ongoing content." Developers should identify successful user journeys, such as finishing a TV show season or a movie. On the flip side, they should avoid bad experiences like playback errors and buffering. Google also announced the Android 16 update for TVs at the conference, and its latest beta is now available to developers. The new update brings improvements to media playback speed, HDMI-CEC reliability, and performance optimizations for 64-bit kernels. It also supports the open-source spatial audio format Eclipsa Audio and MediaQualityManager API, which gives developers control over selecting profile pictures. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Google's NotebookLM gets Video Overviews and duration control for Audio Overviews Aditya Tiwari Neowin @TheLazyAvenger · May 21, 2025 04:24 EDT At I/O 2025, Google announced a new AI-powered feature for NotebookLM, its research and note-taking tool. The feature is called Video Overviews, and as the name suggests, it adds visual elements to the AI-generated summaries. In other words, NotebookLM's Video Overviews feature can generate video summaries and educational videos from the files and images you upload. Google used the feature to create highlight videos of the I/O 2025 consumer keynote and Developer keynote, which are about 9 minutes long. These videos feature AI-generated summaries similar to Audio Overviews, where natural-sounding digital voices explain major announcements from the events. However, they are topped off with graphics, images, and other visual elements. Google also demoed Video Overviews by generating a minute-long recap of a field trip at a national park in California. It has created a new notebook focused on Google I/O 2025, which includes YouTube videos of keynote speeches and product demonstrations, blog links, and press releases. You can use the notebook to visualize I/O announcements in a mind map, get a text briefing, and listen to an AI-generated summary. Google said that Video Overviews will soon be available to users in English. In a separate update, you can now change the length of Audio Overviews in NotebookLM. "With short (~5+ min), long (~20+ min), and default (~10+ min) settings, try fully customizing the depth and length the AI hosts discuss your sources!" Google said. It has been two years since NotebookLM was first announced to the public, starting its journey as Project Tailwind. The AI tool lets you research and analyze content from various sources such as uploaded files, YouTube videos, audio files, URLs, and more. NotebookLM primarily uses information from the provided sources, potentially reducing the risk of hallucination and inaccuracies. However, you should still proceed with caution. The tool was initially available on the web and has recently arrived on Android and iOS. Google also added the ability to search the web in NotebookLM and expanded its Audio Overviews feature to more than 50 languages. On a lighter note, people have tried to have fun with NotebookLM and tried to send its AI podcast hosts into an existential crisis. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. These are the new AI features coming to Google Search Aditya Tiwari Neowin @TheLazyAvenger · May 20, 2025 17:32 EDT Google is back with a truckload of announcements at the Google I/O 2025 developer conference. This year's I/O is primarily focused on AI, as Google hosted a separate event to talk about several Android updates. New AI features are coming to Google Search. Moving on from past blunders, the search giant calls AI Overviews "one of the most successful launches in Search in the past decade." For starters, AI Mode is now rolling out to everyone living in the US, and no Labs sign-up is required. The feature is now powered by a custom version of Gemini 2.5, similar to the updated AI Overviews. Google is beefing up AI Mode with Deep Search, which uses the same query fan-out technique but raises it several notches. The feature can perform hundreds of searches to refer to multiple sources and generate a fully cited report within minutes, the company said. Project Astra's live capabilities are also coming to Google Search to improve its multimodal experience. Similar to Gemini Live, a feature called Search Live will let you have back-and-forth conversations with Google Search about what you see using your phone's camera. AI Mode will soon be updated to offer personalized suggestions based on past searches. You will get the option to connect other Google apps like Gmail. For instance, AI Mode will be able to suggest events near your stay, based on your hotel and flight bookings. Agentic capabilities in AI Mode will help with time-consuming tasks like booking event tickets, restaurant reservations, and local appointments, where you need to browse multiple sites to check prices and other details. Google said it will partner with companies like Ticketmaster, Resy, StubHub, and Vagaro to improve the agentic AI experience in Google Search. Apart from that, AI Mode will be updated to analyze complex datasets and create custom charts and interactive graphs for your sports and finance queries. A new shopping experience in AI mode will help with various stages, such as finding new products and trying clothes on yourself virtually. Google said these new features will be available to Labs users for AI Mode in the coming weeks and months. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed