Google announces useful new features coming to Android, Chromebooks and Wear OS devices

Google announced a host of new features for Android OS, Chromebooks and Wear OS at MWC 2023 in Barcelona, with support for the Fast Pair protocol for Chromebooks, shortcuts for the Google Keep app on smartphones and smartwatches, and new accessibility modes for Wear OS standing out.

Thanks to the Fast Pair protocol, you'll soon be able to connect your Bluetooth headset to a Chromebook with one touch, and if you've already set your headset to an Android device, the Chromebook will automatically connect to it. For Google Meet users, it will soon offer noise cancellation on more Android devices so you can enjoy crystal clear audio on your conference calls.

In addition, the company said that you will soon be able to enlarge content on web pages in the Chrome browser (e.g. text, images, videos) up to 300% without affecting the skeleton of the web page and you will even be able to specify how you want the content to appear by default to avoid doing the same process every time.

Another useful addition is that of widgets for the Google Keep app on smartphones and smartwatches, which will give users the convenience of managing notes and to-do lists directly from the home screen and with simultaneous syncing to the smartwatch.

Equally important is the ability to keep notes onto PDF files within the Google Drive app for Android devices, and with complete freedom, but also the ability to save specific parts of the PDF in separate files or copy content (e.g. text) to paste it into another file.

Elsewhere we list the two new sound and display modes for Wear OS specifically designed for visually impaired users, new emoji combinations in Gboard's Emoji Kitchen, as well as new animations in the Google Wallet app that indicate that you've successfully completed a transaction.