The Google I/O keynote may have been all about AI, but there were a handful of other meaningful updates that didn’t make it to the main stage. In addition to updates coming to Google Wallet, the company’s developer sessions also revealed handy features that will roll out to smartwatches, the Google Play Store, and Google TV.
Here are some of the updates Google didn’t highlight during the keynote.
Live Updates are coming to your smartwatch
Google is preparing to bring Live Updates — a feature that lets users track the status of certain activities in delivery, rideshare, and navigation apps — to your smartwatch. We already knew about Google’s plans to bring it to smartphones with Android 16, but in a developer session spotted by Android Authority, Google’s Aaron Labiaga confirmed that it will also work on wearables “later in 2026.”
Apple already has a similar feature, called Live Activities, that displays at-a-glance status information on watchOS devices.
Google Wallet can take out your boarding pass when you get to the airport
Google announced a bundle of upgrades for Google Wallet, including a new “Nearby Passes notification.” If you enable the feature, Google Wallet will prompt you to take out your pass when you reach a location where you might need to use it, like a coffee shop, airport, or gym. “This notification serves as a direct gateway, allowing users to seamlessly access the associated pass with a single tap,” Google says.
Additionally, Google revealed that it’s expanding digital IDs to Arkansas, Montana, Puerto Rico, and West Virginia, and is also adding support for UK passports. It will also allow airlines with loyalty cards to “automatically push” boarding passes to users’ wallets upon check-in.
Google Play will let you ask someone to pay for you
The Google Play Store is adding a new “Ask someone else to pay” button. The feature is exactly what it sounds like: it will let users “request purchases” from people outside their Google Family by sending them a payment link. It launched in India first, but now it’s coming to the US, Japan, Indonesia, and Mexico.
Google is also trying to streamline checkouts by letting users buy subscription add-ons with a base subscription with “one price and one transaction.”
Additionally, Google is trying to make it easier to stop the rollout of buggy apps as well. The company says it will let developers “halt fully-live releases” to prevent “the distribution of problematic versions to new users.” The Play Store is also letting developers enhance their listings with a content carousel and YouTube playlist, along with audio samples for health and wellness app developers.
There are new topic pages, too, that will let users browse through “timely, relevant, and visually engaging content” for shows, movies, and sports on the Play Store.
Google and Samsung’s audio codec is coming to Google TV
Android 16 is coming to Google TV, introducing some Material 3 Expressive design changes, according to 9to5Google. It also adds new features like MediaQualityManager, which will let apps automatically “take control over selecting picture profiles.” Google TV will support the Eclipsa Audio codec, the spatial audio format that Google and Samsung are working on, as well.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
