Google offers a variety of different apps on Android, but no app single app from the company is as versatile as the Google App. The app offers several services and is home to Google Search, Google Discover, Google Podcasts, Google Assistant, and Google Lens. And as a bonus, the company keeps adding more new features and design changes with every update. More often than not, we're able to spot these upcoming features in teardowns of the app and, at times, we're even able to manually enable them before they're officially released. For instance, an APK teardown of the latest version of the Google App (v10.93.8.29) revealed a new feature that would allow you to train the Google Assistant's pronunciation for contacts. And now, our Editor-in-Chief, Mishaal Rahman, has managed to unearth even more unreleased features in the same update.
An APK teardown can often predict features that may arrive in a future update of an application, but it is possible that any of the features we mention here may not make it in a future release. This is because these features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by the developers in a future build.
In-app Incognito browser
Google has been working on adding an in-app browser to the Google App for a few versions now and it appears to be more or less functional now. In the Settings menu of the latest version, Mishaal spotted a "Hide Explicit Results" button that opened an in-app browser. This new in-app browser said that it wouldn't save any data. While it's possible for Google to just launch Chrome in Incognito mode, the in-app incognito browser is most likely aimed at less tech-savvy users who only wish to search the Internet using the Google App.
As you can see in the screenshots above, the in-app incognito browser is quite barebones and only offers a Favorite button, a Share button, and a three-dot menu button that only has two settings. The menu includes a toggle to turn on the in-app browser and an option to clear browsing data.
Household contacts
The app also includes a new Household contacts feature that was first announced earlier this year at the CES 2020 trade show, alongside the Household notes feature. This new feature, as the name suggests, will allow you to add your most important contacts on "speed dial" on your Assistant-powered smart speakers or displays.
Once set up, Household contacts will allow anyone to dial one of the included contacts by saying "Hey Google, call (contact name)" or by tapping on the name in the household contacts list on your smart display. The record pronunciation feature, which was earlier discovered in the APK teardown, was also spotted in the Household contacts feature, allowing you to train the Assistant to pronounce the names of your family members or other important contacts.
Quick actions in the Google App Updates tab
Along with the upcoming record pronunciation feature, in-app incognito browser, and household contacts, the update also hints at new quick actions in the Updates tab. If you tap on the "Updates" tab in the Google app, you'll see a feed of things from your commute, calendar, reminders, etc.
Mishaal managed to surface a floating action button that, when tapped, had shortcuts to useful Google Assistant features, including shortcuts to set a reminder, create an event, add an item to a shopping list, and take a quick note.
As of now, none of the aforementioned features are live on the Google App and there's no information from the company regarding their release. It's worth noting that since these features are currently still a work in progress, Google might make some significant changes before they're released to the public.
Thanks to PNF Software for providing us a license to use JEB Decompiler, a professional-grade reverse engineering tool for Android applications.