Google Wallet update brings Maps integration and keyword search

Google Wallet is adding a few small, but pretty worthwhile new features in the Google Play Store today. Announced on their Google+ page, Wallet won’t just tell you where you bought something, they’ll actually show you. This is done using Google Maps which has now been integrated into the app and viewable in the transaction details.

Now the next feature is even more useful. Imagine it’s several weeks later and you can’t for the life of you remember where it was you had those amazing tacos during a drunken night out with your friends. You could scroll through all your transactions like an animal, keeping an eye out for anything related to Mexican eateries.

Or, like a future-man, you can simply search through your transaction history by merchant name, item of purchase, or any other keywords. Type in “bomb tacos” and you’ll pull up a transaction — now with a handy Maps location — of that amazing hole-in-the-wall.

The update should already be waiting for you in the Google Play Store, so make sure you update and happy shopping.

Google Wallet (Playboard) | Google Wallet (Play Store)

PSA: Here’s what happens when you delete Google+ photos from Drive after new integration

Earlier today Google announced that they were taking a huge step toward finally emancipating their users from Google+’s shackles. They were doing this by finally integrating Google+ photos into Google Drive. It’s a slow move, one that will take a few weeks before you see all your current photos and albums appear in Drive (but is instant should you upload anything new from here on out).

Android users were excited because this meant that soon, all of their photos backed up from their Android device to Google+ (Google’s officially supported photo backup method) would be easily accessible — and more importantly, manageable — from Google Drive folder on the web. That, or your desktop if you have the application installed on your computer.

While this may sound pretty cut and dry, it’s important that everyone understand how photo deletion will work from here on out. Since the Drive folder is essentially mirroring all the photos and videos stored on your Google+ account, deleting photos/videos from Drive will delete them from Google+. The same goes for when you delete a photo from your Google+ Photos, it’ll no longer be found in your Drive’s Google Photos folder. Make sense?

With all your Google+ photos making their way to Google Drive in the coming weeks (where they should be), we wanted to shed a little light on this in case anyone was thinking it was time to clear out everything stored on Google+ (or vice versa). Cheers.

[Google Drive Help]

Cyanogen OS to get caller ID integration thanks to Truecaller partnership

Cyanogen Inc today announced a new partnership. They’ve teamed up with Truecaller, the makers of a caller ID app that’ll show you unknown callers or identify phone numbers known to be spam. The integration will come at the OS level, says Cyanogen, so there will be no need to download a separate app if caller ID is something you fancy.

That deep integration will also allow the company to integrate the information you’re looking for in a way that makes sense. Whereas a standalone caller ID app might require going into their app to see information about calls that were already placed, you will be able to see that information right from Cyanogen’s built-in dialer.

Cyanogen says the deal will apply to all future mobile devices that ship with Cyanogen OS globally, and will also be available to tens of millions of existing users via an over-the-air update. We don’t have an exact timeline on when to expect these features to arrive to existing customers, but we imagine it shouldn’t be long if they’re already promising it to be ready for all future Cyanogen devices.

Have Shazam listen for a song straight from the Google app with new 3rd party app integration

Google is looking to super charge the voice command functionality on your Android device by integrating 3rd party apps with the usual “Ok Google” commands. Announced today on Google+, you can now launch applications with nothing else but your voice using the Google Search app.

Right now only a few select apps are available in Search, but many more are on the way. You can get started with Shazam by simply saying “Ok Google, Shazam this song,” to have it search for a song immediately. So it’s not so much just launching an app, but having it open and performing an action as well. For instance, speaking the command “Ok Google, open TuneIn in car mode,” will do just that. Pretty convenient if your hands are tied or your phone is just out of reach.

Google says you’ll need to have the latest version of the Google app — as well as the most up-to-date versions of these 3rd party apps installed on your device — to make sure everything is working properly. For a small list of some of the 88+ things you can do by voice with the Google app, check out their landing page here.