Google is working on a ‘lookup’ button for unknown callers on Android

Illustration: The Verge

Google is working on a feature that is so simple and so useful that I’m shocked it hasn’t been part of our lives for a decade: a way to look up a phone number that just called you, right from your recent calls screen. X user AssembleDebug tipped off PiunikaWeb to a new “Lookup” button in the beta version of the Google Phone app that, when tapped, brings up a Google Search with the number already entered for you.

Although the Google Phone app is the default for Pixel phones, other Android owners can download it. The new Lookup button lives with other options, like “Block” and “History,” that you see when you tap on a recent call in the Phone app. In an age where so much spam comes from spoofed phone numbers made to look like local calls, it almost feels like the feature is about five years too late.

Google Pixel Phone app to get 'Lookup' feature to identify recent unknown callers and some UI tweaks for the emergency in-call screen

Read - https://t.co/QSHpOqzlV1

️ Flags are shared in the post for rooted users ✓#Google #Android pic.twitter.com/gIMJhT8dNX

— AssembleDebug (@AssembleDebug) April 5, 2024

Even so, I’m sure I’m not the only person who still goes through the painstaking process of copying unknown numbers that pester me and pasting them into a Google search. These days, I only do it after I see the same number more than once, but that happens often enough that I would love to stop messing with the clunky smartphone copy / paste song and dance.

Gmail app readying 'Summarize this email' feature powered by Gemini AI on Android

Read - https://t.co/clWBLuQs1p#Gmail #Android pic.twitter.com/TVtylD37ZH

— AssembleDebug (@AssembleDebug) April 5, 2024

AssembleDebug also sniffed out that Google is working on adding Gemini email summaries to the Android version of the Gmail app. As you can see in the screenshot above, the feature exists as a button just under the subject line of an email. Tap it, and it will give you a summary. At least, that’s the presumed idea. PiunikaWeb writes that the button doesn’t do anything quite yet, but that there is also a new Gemini menu option in Gmail’s three dots menu.

In the meantime, the Android Gemini app can summarize emails for you (provided you have a Google Workspace account). It would obviously be a lot nicer to have Gemini do this in Gmail directly, which is already how it works on the web.

Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Power Automate.