Weekly Update - June 27, 2020: Google Photos, Meet, Mixer

As we roll into summer, your bored kids can find entertainment (and education) at Camp YouTube. Google Photos has a new logo, redesigned app, and a new interactive map. You can Duo or Meet group video call on smart screens with Google Assistant, and Meet announced a bevy of new features they are working on. And Microsoft’s live streaming platform Mixer is shutting down, with creators encouraged to move to Facebook Gaming. Plus more for business, security, live streaming and more.

YouTube and Live Streaming

• As you may (or may not) know, I am a YouTube Contributor, which overlaps with the Google Product Expert Program. YouTube Contributors answer questions in the YouTube help community, create tutorials and otherwise help other users. You can meet some of the other YouTube Contributors from around the world in this nice video the Creator Insider channel.
• YouTube Brandcast is an annual event aimed at advertisers. Most years there is an in-person event, featuring YouTube stars. This year it was online, of course, with a twist: attendees each got a customized and personalized presentation, along with a pizza making kit and swag mailed to their home.They touted “YouTube Select” content and promoted current advertising options. Successful and innovative ad campaigns were given awards. But there was some useful information even for smaller businesses, including this year’s content trends, and viewership stats. Notably there are significantly people watching YouTube content on their TVs. Make your content look good on the big screen!
• How YouTube Works is a new site created by YouTube as part of its transparency efforts, with information about how it handles child safety, copyright, search, monetization, and more.
• Camp YouTube is a new destination to help parents create the “fun of summer camp” from home. For two weeks there will be new content every day, for kids who love adventure, sports, arts, science and more. Probably not as much fun as swimming in a lake, hiking in the woods, or singing around a campfire, but it does sound entertaining, in an educational way.
• In a surprise announcement, Microsoft will be shutting down Mixer, their gaming-focused live streaming platform, on July 22. They have teamed up with Facebook Gaming, where they are facilitating moving their streaming community, and will be offering Xbox Cloud gaming. At The Verge Bijan Stephen looked at why Mixer failed, and notes that they neglected to promote their home-grown creators. It will be interesting to see whether YouTube and Twitch can scoop up that talent.
• Browser-based live streaming platform StreamYard now lets you go live on iOS and Android devices. Previously you could join a broadcast from a mobile device, but couldn’t start a live stream there.

Photos

• Google Photos has undergone a major redesign. There’s a new fan-line logo, and new simplified navigation in the mobile app. “Photos” is your photos and videos, plus more types of “Memories” stories, including automatic creations. “Search”, which now has an interactive map tool (which looks very cool). “Conversations” for shared content. And “Library”, with albums, favorites, trash, the print store, and everything else.

Communicate

• Now Google Fi and Google Voice work together. You can have separate Google Fi and Google Voice phone numbers on the same Google account, and you can forward your Google Voice calls to your Google Fi phone number.
• You can now make group video calls on your home smart display with Google Assistant. Just say “Hey Google, make a group call” to start a Google Duo group call. Duo uses auto-framing, so you can move around while staying centered on screen. You can also say “Hey Google, start a meeting” or “join my next meeting” for a Google Meet call (only available on the Nest Hub Max).
• Google Meet announced a number of new features that will be available in the “coming months”, including blurring or replacing your background, breakout rooms, hand raising, meeting attendance, polling, a Q & A channel, Jamboard integration and additional moderator controls. Some of those features, like hand raising, look to be aimed specifically at Education users.
• While Microsoft’s Mixer live streaming platform will shut down next month, Microsoft Teams will benefit. They will be using their technical expertise with “ultra-low latency video streaming, real-time interactivity, and video distribution technology to accelerate our ability to support a variety of video-first, virtual experiences from meetings to live events to other broadcast scenarios.”
• Microsoft also launched a personal version of Microsoft Teams. In addition to text chat and video calling, it will include shared lists, documents, calendars, and location sharing. This sounds more like a direct competitor to Google’s Meet, plus Docs, Calendar and other apps, than Zoom.

Security, Business Tools and more

• Google will now default to auto-deleting your account activity after 18 months. The first time you enable Location Settings, auto-deletion will be enabled. Auto-deletion of Web & App Activity will be enabled for new accounts. And soon, when you enable YouTube History, auto-delete will be set for 36 months. Note that if you have history for your locations and activity currently enabled, your settings will not be changed.
• Google’s Password Checkup looks for leaked passwords you may be using. That tool will not be part of Google’s Security Checkup. Google does that without actually “knowing” your passwords. How does that work? “Google stores a hashed and encrypted version of every known username and password exposed by a data breach. Whenever you log into an account, Google will send a hashed and encrypted version of your login info against that database.” If there is a match, you will see a notice.
• Google is now adding fact check notices to some Google Images.
• Google offers free online tools for small businesses.
• Google is “expanding Business Messages in Maps and Search to support all kinds of businesses, and giving them the ability to integrate Business Messages directly with their customer service platforms.”
• Google has formed partnerships with news publications in Germany, Australia and Brazil, and will be paying for content to be used in a “new news experience” coming this fall. They will also be paying for users to access content behind a paywall.
• Google also wants everyone to know they believe the value of news is “not economic—it’s societal” and they “compensate publishers fairly in a number of different ways.”

Upcoming

• On Sunday, June 28, join OnEBoard on YouTube for the premiere of our discussion with employer brand expert and Women Techmakers Organizer Sofia Lyateva. Set a reminder to watch!
• VidCon continues through July 2. Register for free to attend sessions and access the VidCon Discord server.
• Web.dev live is June 30-July 2. Join Google's Web Platform team to learn the latest in web development.

That’s all the updates for this week. Subscribe to get the Weekly Update in your email inbox or favorite feed reader every week. Miss last week’s update? Get it here.

Image: Photos by Lisa Fotios from Pexels. Free to use.