Android phones and tablets are getting these great free feature upgrades

Google has announced some useful new features that should reach your Android phone, Android tablet and WearOS smartwatch imminently.

The most important of the new features, as confirmed by Google, is a new system-wide app called Reading Mode. This is a great accessibility feature as well as a very useful annoyance eliminator. When you visit a page that's hard to read, Reading Mode can strip out adverts and other unnecessary page furniture and display it in a much more legible way.

Reading Mode is very customisable, enabling you to adjust the font and colours, line spacing and font size, and whether to display in light or dark mode. You can also use Android's text-to-speech to read it aloud. It's on the Play Store now.

Android improvements and WearOS updates too

As SamMobile reports, Google has also introduced some new collage styles in Google Photos from artists DABSMYLA and Yao Cheng, improved reply functionality in Google Messages, and added private car key sharing to Google Wallet. That latter option is also available in the iOS app. Keep has been updated for Wear OS to bring across the same colours, photos and co-authors as on your Android phone, and Emoji Kitchen returns with new sticker combinations in Gboard.

Google has also introduced safety alerts for your Google Account. Now when you see your Google Account profile picture you might also see a notification warning you of possible threats to your account security. The alert isn't just there to scare you; it'll tell you what to do to make your account secure.