Weekly Update - June 2, 2018: Project Fi, Hangouts Meet & More

There aren’t many updates this week. After the excitement of Google I/O and the mad rush to comply with the GDPR, June looks like it may be a quiet month.

• All G Suite domains are being migrated from Hangouts Video Calls to Hangouts Meet for new Google Calendar events. Hangouts Meet has an updated user interface, and some additional features for Education and Enterprise accounts, including video recording and up to 50 people in a meeting. The down side of the change for some folks is that it requires an updated Chrome browser or Firefox version 60 or higher on desktop. Older computers won’t be able to use Meet.
• Project Fi announced that it supports three new phones, the budget moto g6, and the high end LG G7 ThinQ and V35 ThinQ. That’s in addition to the moto x4, and Google’s phones: Pixel, Pixel2 and the older Nexus 5X, 6P, and 6.
• Google Photos turned three this week. No cake, just stored memories.
• If you need to get away, or have the urge to explore, AR tours are now available to anyone via the Google Expeditions app on both Android and iOS

Read on for links and more tips and updates for webmasters, YouTubers, Google Plussers, and more.

Image: Green June Beetle by Insects Unlocked on Flickr (Public Domain)

Upcoming

• 11 June: Deadline for filmmakers to apply for Google’s JumpStart VR program
• June: Update to YouTube matching against known copyrighted content
• 18 June: Google Voice XMPP interop capabilities migrated to new platform
• 20 June: AdSense on Air: Speed up your website.

YouTube and Video Creation

• Your top questions about YouTube Music answered (TeamYouTube)
• Give YouTube feedback on Top Comments (Creator Insider)
• GIF lord Imgur caves to video to hasten profitability (TechCrunch)
• Deep Video Portraits transfer facial expressions and movement to a target video portrait (via John Nack)

Go Live

• A new look for Twitch Developers (Twitch blog)

Google+

• Be the best Google+ Community member you can be - and avoid the Google+ Community Trap (Robert Wallis)
• Top tips for running special interest themes on Google+ (Margaret Tompkins)

Other social media

• Facebook finally killed its controversial Trending section, which no one was using (Recode)
• These Are Facebook’s Policies for Moderating White Supremacy and Hate (Motherboard)
• Reddit surpasses Facebook to become the 3rd most visited site in the US (The Next Web)
• The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same: Teens Still Love YouTube, Snapchat (Tubefilter)
• Twitter Is Banning Anyone Whose Date of Birth Says They Joined Before They Were 13 (Motherboard)

Google Photos and Mobile Photography

• Google Photos launched 3 years ago last week!

Bloggers and Webmasters

• Google Webmaster Central Office Hours Hangout (May 29) (Google Webmasters)
• Google Webmaster Central Office Hours Hangout (June 1) (Google Webmasters) 
• .app is open for general registration (Android Developers)
• Copy a site in the new Google Sites (G Suite Updates)

AdSense and advertising

• Deliver more relevant experiences with Optimize and AdWords (Google Analytics blog)

Hangouts and Messaging

• All GSuite domains are being migrated from Classic Hangouts Video Calls to Hangouts Meet (G Suite Updates)
• “Google Voice with Sprint” integration disabled (Google Voice)
• How to transition from using Google Hangouts to Hangouts Meet (TechRepublic)

Made by Google, Android, Project Fi

• Three new phones for Project Fi: Project Fi: the moto g6, LG G7 ThinQ, and LG V35 ThinQ (Google Blog)

Productivity

• Google Maps adds keyword search for filtering location reviews on Android and iOS (9to5 Google)
• Making it even easier to join Google Calendar meetings from more third-party clients (G Suite Updates)
• Include a message when changing meeting details in Google Calendar (G Suite Updates)
• The Google Docs voice typing hack (MentalFloss)
• Just like Twitter, Gmail lets you ‘@’ mention people (The Next Web)
• Stable Channel Update for Chrome OS: Chrome 66 (Chrome Releases blog)
• Chrome for Android Update (Chrome Releases blog)
• Internet-Scale Deep Learning for Bing Image Search (Bing blog)

Privacy and Security

• Insider attack resistance: Encryption on the Google Pixel 2 (Google Online Security Blog)

More around the web

• Google launches Neighbourly app beta in Mumbai to share local expertise and keep up in your neighborhood (Google India blog)
• Google Started a Political Shitstorm Because of Its Over-Reliance on Wikipedia (Motherboard)
• Expeditions AR tours are now available to anyone via the Google Expeditions app on both Android and iOS (Google Blog)
• Report: Google to abandon Project Maven after government contract ends (The Next Web)
• 10 things to expect from Apple WWDC this year (The Verge)

Updated March 2019 to remove Google+ links