Google is working on a feature that’s so simple and so useful that I’m surprised it hasn’t been a part of our lives for a decade: a way to look up the phone number that just called you right from the recent calls screen. X user AssembleDebug learned piumica.com A new “Find” button in the beta version of the Google mobile app that, when clicked, will pop up a Google search with the number already entered for you.
Although the Google Phone app is the default app for Pixel phones, other Android users can also download the app. The new Find button joins other options like Block and History that you’ll see when you tap on a recent call in the Phone app. In an age where so much spam comes from spoofed phone numbers disguised as local calls, it almost feels like this feature is about five years too late.
Even so, I’m sure I’m not the only one who still goes through the painstaking process of copying the unknown number that bothers me and pasting it into a Google search. Nowadays, I only do this after seeing the same number multiple times, but it happens often enough that I no longer want to fiddle with my clunky smartphone to copy/paste songs and dances.
AssembleDebug also discovered that Google is working on adding Gemini email digests to the Android version of the Gmail app. As you can see in the screenshot above, the feature exists as a button below the subject line of the email. Click on it and it will give you a summary. At least, that’s the speculative thought. piumica.com writes that the button doesn’t do anything yet, but there’s also a new Gemini menu option in Gmail’s three-dot menu.
Meanwhile, the Android Gemini app can aggregate email for you (provided you have a Google Workspace account). It would obviously be much better to have Gemini do this directly in Gmail, which is how it already works on the web.