Google is introducing three worthy enhancements to Android for free, and one of them significantly improves the way you listen. That bundle encompasses smarter typing in Gboard, a more creative Emoji Kitchen, and new audio sharing that takes advantage of modern Bluetooth tech—all arriving as app and services updates rather than a full operating system refresh.
Smarter writing tools, all processed on device, in Gboard
Notable quality-of-life tweak: That would be Gboard, an AI-assisted writing helper that can clean up tone, trim your wording and even help get your grammar sorted, all without your typing traveling to the cloud. The tool comes up on the keyboard as a small panel, with suggestions such as formal, expressive, or concise — or quick changes if you just want a minor touch-up.
Your drafts don’t leave the phone because processing occurs on-device, a privacy-forward design Google has been leaning into with its mobile AI stack. If by app standards that still sounds old-school, take a practical view: You can buff a marketplace listing for added professionalism, soften a chat response or streamline a work message, in whatever app the keyboard arises in — no copy-paste gymnastics needed.
Scale is part of the issue: Gboard has been installed billions of times, so even marginal efficiency gains flow out to an enormous user base. For anyone who types a great many words while on the move, the friction this takes away is immediately apparent.
Emoji Kitchen gets a creative reboot
Emoji Kitchen, a fun little tool that allows you to take two emoji and combine them to create a custom sticker, is getting a much-needed new canvass. A redesigned browse experience allows you to more easily find duos, and Google is introducing more pairs that can be remixed. The payoff: faster access to the kind of clever mash-ups — a sneaker with butterfly wings, say, or a coffee mug wearing sunglasses — without browsing through menus.
Why it matters: visual subtlety is something human beings reach for. According to Adobe’s Emoji Trend Report, a strong majority of emoji users find them to be a more friendly and efficient form of communication, and believe that they help to transmit tone that plain text just can’t convey. ^ The expanded Emoji Kitchen embraces that type of behavior, delivering quick, private expression with a couple of taps.]
Audio sharing arrives with LE Audio support
The most interesting upgrade, meanwhile, is audio sharing for Bluetooth LE headphones — enabling two people to listen from one phone simultaneously. It’s perfect for flights, workouts or late-night streaming, and it’s powered by the LE Audio standard and the LC3 codec that the Bluetooth SIG has been pushing.
LE Audio is not some new checkbox. LC3 is engineered to offer a perceived quality improvement over legacy SBC at the same bitrate resulting in higher efficiency and better battery life. Multi-stream is also useful for maintaining connection stability to each earbud and lessening lip sync when you pair two devices. That should improve day-to-day use with less dropouts and more reliable lip-sync when watching a video together.
There is one catch: Your phone and earbuds both have to support LE Audio. Many recent Android flagships do — those with Bluetooth 5.2+ hardware running modern Android builds — and earbud lines like the Pixel Buds Pro and Galaxy Buds2 Pro have firmware that supports LE Audio features. Check to see by searching in Bluetooth settings for an LE Audio or LC3 indicator, and update your earbuds’ companion app firmware if it’s available.
Bonus polish: Quick Share just got harder
And joining the headlining trio is Quick Share—the conduit for files and links to move between nearby Android phones, Chromebooks and Windows PCs—which features a less cluttered design. You can now switch sending and receiving more easily and get a direct look at the progress of transfers, which cuts down on the “did that send?” guesswork. A tiny bit of smart UI work that makes everything you notice faster.
How to obtain the features
These capabilities are rolling out via a combination of Google Play services, Gboard updates, and server-side switches, so you won’t need an entire system upgrade. To try to nudge things along, update Gboard and Google Play services, install any pending Play system updates you see in Settings and then reboot. Emoji Kitchen updates should just start showing up in the keyboard automatically; audio sharing choices will show up under Bluetooth or connected devices when compatible gear is connected.
Android’s global reach — more than two-thirds of the smartphone market, according to most analyst estimates — means that incremental improvements land at large scale. This round is an excellent instance: smarter text, richer expression, and looser listening, all for free, all immediately useful. If you haven’t seen the changes yet, you’ll likely see them soon as your apps refresh.