Google Launches Shoploop App for Shopping

Google's introduced a video shopping platform "Shoploop" for mobile that highlights products by creators and brands in clips of 90 seconds or less.

The idea for the app is to help people experience the look and feel of products they are shopping for without going to a physical store. Shoploop helps brands get product reviews from real people who know and use the products.

Also, Google explained that the idea for Shoploop came after its research showed that people often follow a very specific path to buying products.

Shoploop

Once they come across something that catches their eye, they’ll often seek reviews from real people on other platforms like YouTube, and then circle back to an online shop to complete the purchase.

Google is the latest of many tech media giants to introduce video shopping features. Facebook and Instagram added online shops to their social media platforms earlier this year.

Amazon uses its livestream platform, Amazon Live, on its retail site. YouTube, which is owned by Google, also added shoppable advertisements to its videos last month.

Later, Google launched Android 11 beta for Pixel phones after it cancelled the June 3 unveiling event due to the ongoing protests. After multiple developer previews for the upcoming update to Android, the OS has reached beta phase and brings a number of new features that Google has categorised into three groups: People, Controls and Privacy.

Android 11 beta brings chat bubbles, improved media controls, and improved control over sensitive permissions. Additionally, Google also released several new features in Android Studio 4.1 Beta and 4.2 Canary.

Google explained it is making Android more “people-centric and expressive” so that it can recognise and prioritize certain conversations.

The notifications in Android 11 beta are pided into three categories namely, conversations, alerting notifications, and silent notifications.

Android 11

As the name suggests, the conversations section that is on top shows all the chat related notifications. The alerting notifications section shows information like emails while the silent notifications section shows social media updates. The conversation section also allows users to create a conversation shortcut on their home screen or set a reminder.

Android 11 beta introduces chat bubbles similar to what we’ve previously seen with apps like Facebook Messenger. This bubble feature has now been integrated into the OS. Google says this is better for multi-tasking and keeping conversations in view.

Essentially, these bubbles will help users respond to conversations without having to switch between the current app and the messaging app.

Android 11 beta adds improved and consolidated keyboard suggestions that offer “context-specific entities and strings” in the suggestion strip. This means users will get more relevant suggestions while typing, according to Tech news.

However, it is unclear whether this will be exclusive to Google’s Gboard or work with third party keyboards as well.

https://youtu.be/IEPeQ4GT3xI