Most Android phones and tablets come with Google’s News & Weather app and widget pre-loaded. But Google hadn’t bothered to update the app for years… until today.

Say goodbye to the Android 2.3 Gingerbread-style app, and hello to a new app with an improved layout, a cards-style user interface, and a resizable home screen widget.

news weather_01

Normally an update to a weather and headline widget wouldn’t be all that exciting. But this one kind of took me by surprise since it’s been so long since Google updated its official News & Weather app.

There are now two home screen widgets to choose from. The first is the old-school 4 x 1 widget, but the black background has been replaced with white. The second is a 2 x 3 widget that shows a multi-day forecast above the latest headlines.

You can also resize the widget to take up more space or less. Make it wider and you can see more days in your forecast. Make it taller and you get more headlines.

Tapping any of the news stories will bring up the original article in your default web browser. But if you tap the headline you’ll get a Google Now-style card view that shows a detailed forecast as well as large news headlines and thumbnail photos.

news weather_02You can also swipe side to side to switch between news categories so you can see local, world, business, or tech news, among other things.

If you don’t get the update automatically you can try download the app from the Google Play Store to update the app installed on your device.

via Android Central

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5 replies on “Google News & Weather app for Android gets first major update in years”

  1. This needs a dark theme. Also, I’m sad they took away the wind and humidity forecast in the weather portion (especially the hour by hour slider).

    I do appreciate being able to see more days forecast on the widget itself, though. Google just needs to add back some functionality, and it will be perfect.

    1. Just buy a International Phone I Bought DOOGEE 2014 for 150$ Best purchase for ME No contract supports all spectrum Android4.2 Upgradable to 4.4 easily rooted

    2. You’re kidding, right? Gingerbread is 4 years old, bro…. Chrome doesn’t even support it. Gingerbread doesn’t even support processors with more than 1 core.

  2. Not so sure I’m going to want the white background. Might have to remove news and weather soon.

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