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Google Archive

Archives for May 2026

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Google Drive’s upgraded document scanner can capture multiple pages at once.

Android president Sameer Samat says the update also includes a feature that detects whether the page you’re about to scan is a duplicate, while automatically switching blurry scans to “the highest-quality frame.” The new scanner operates on-device and is available to Android users with 8GB of RAM or more.

1/3Screenshot: Sameer Samat via X
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Google is adding a feature for sharing your Gemini chats through Drive.

The new Google Workspace feature, rolling out to users starting June 3rd, adds an option to share a snapshot of Gemini conversations using Google Drive’s sharing interface. As Neowin reports, whoever you share Gemini chats with can continue them, but “those new changes do not alter the owner’s original thread.”

A screenshot of the Google Drive sharing window in Gemini
Image: Google
Lauren Feiner
Lauren Feiner
Court lets Texas’ app store age verification law take effect, for now.

In a brief order, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals allowed Texas to move forward with implementing its App Store Accountability Act while the case seeking to block it plays out. It’s an early test of a method that is being considered across several states, and in Congress.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
The Pixel Buds app is getting in on Google’s icon redesign.

As spotted by Android Authority, the Pixel Buds app is getting updated with a new icon in the same style as the recently-updated Google Workspace icons. Google is also tweaking the app’s landing page, which will now show all the Pixel Buds headphones paired with your phone on one screen.

The redesigned Pixel Buds app icon
Image: Google
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Your preferred sources for Google will now be highlighted in AI searches.

If you’ve set up preferred sources — like, say, The Verge — they’ll be labeled in AI Overviews and AI Mode, according to Google. The company says that “people are twice as likely to click through to a Preferred Source.”

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

A screenshot of Google’s AI Mode showing Preferred sources.
Image: Google
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
An update on Google’s “disregard” issue.

Since Friday, Google hasn’t shown an AI Overview for the word “disregard.” The term was making AI Overviews “disregard” instructions instead of giving an AI search result summary.

As of this morning, however, when I search for “disregard,” Google shows an old-school featured snippet with the definition, sourced from vocabulary.com. I prefer this, but I assume the AI Overview will return soon enough.

A screenshot showing the Google search result for the word “disregard.”
Image: Google
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
People sure do hate Google’s AI Search updates.

Since Google announced its Search box overhaul at I/O last week, DuckDuckGo says its own iOS installs have increased by an average of 33 percent week over week in the US. Visits to the “No AI” version of DuckDuckGo’s search platform also jumped by up to 27.7 percent compared to the week prior.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Google is officially talking about the new Workspace app icons.

We started seeing them in our apps earlier this month, but Google said Tuesday that it’s rolling out the icons over the “next several weeks.” I’m not a fan of the changes — the Gmail and Sheets ones look particularly bad to me — but I suppose I’ll get used to them over time.

What do you think?

An image showing new Google Workspace app icons.
Image: Google
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Google’s AI is sometimes confused if 2027 is next year.

As noted on Bluesky, if you search “is it 2027 next year,” Google’s AI Overviews occasionally state that 2027 is two years from now. But this apparently isn’t even a new issue: when I got AI Overviews to mess up, it cited old Instagram and Reddit posts making fun of wrong responses to the same query.

By the way, Google still isn’t showing an AI Overview when you search “disregard.” AI Overviews are going just great!

A screenshot of the Google Search query, “is it 2027 next year.”
Here’s the Instagram post that Google is sourcing from.
Image: Google