Google Play Music, Gmail Android apps both land helpful updates
With Google Play Music, version 6.0.1995S now supports gapless playback when streaming over a Chromecast. The changelog also indicates no more stoppage of playback between songs and if your phone turns off or you leave while casting.
Your phone will now send the playlist information to the Chromecast, which knows to pull it down from Play Music, according to an APK teardown by Android Police.
With Gmail, version 5.6 is mostly under-the-hood changes, though there are hints of more to come. The code reveals rich text formatting may be in the future, so you’d be able to add bold, italics, strikethrough, colors, and other changes.
The other code strings indicate some type of interaction with Google Calendar. Google can already add events automatically into your Calendar with services like Google Now, but perhaps more collaborative or more connected capabilities are coming.
Why this matters: The playback updates are pretty nice, as it’s pretty annoying when someone takes their phone with them to grab more drinks and the music stops. Music streaming is quite the competitive landscape right now, so Google needs to throw all it can at Play Music to get people to tune in.