The “search box” in Circle to Search in Android will now use your whole screen to “generate suggestions and results.” Previously, launching Circle to Search and tapping the pill-shaped field would let you enter a new text query, like any other Search box on Android. Google is now changing the behavior so that CtS will capture your entire screen and automatically add it to the upcoming text query. Instead of a general text search, you’ll now “Ask about this image.” If you just want to “Search anything” (like before), you have to first remove the image by tapping on it twice in the box. Some users might not like the extra step to perform a regular search from anywhere on your device. This new approach complements Circle to Search’s targeted queries without users having to manually expand the capture area, though this update appears to make that easier by letting you just tap anywhere to cover the entire screen.
Study shows only 18% of US consumers are comfortable with AI-driven features, while 71% are uncomfortable with AI tools
Only 18% of US consumers are comfortable with AI-driven features, while 71% are uncomfortable with AI tools. The study also revealed that one in three consumers prioritize price over brand loyalty. While shoppers are open to AI being used for customer service and product discovery, only 8% believe convenience will impact their buying experience. Loyalty programs are valued at 49%, with 36% wanting added incentives like free shipping or buy now, pay later options. Additional findings include: 67% of Gen Z consumers (ages 16-26) are likely to sign up for subscription services from retailers they shop with. When shopping on a marketplace, 30% of millennials (ages 27-42) are looking for new brands to try, compared to 18% of Gen X and just 9% of Baby Boomers. 40% of Baby Boomers express discomfort with AI chatbots, compared to 24% of millennials (ages 27-42) and 25% of Gen Z.
Apple is now requiring developers to list their app’s accessibility features; new accessibility features include live captions, personal voice replication, improved reading tools, braille reader improvements, and “nutrition labels”
Apple has announced new accessibility features for iOS, focusing on people with vision or hearing impairments. The company downplays the notion that the price of Apple hardware means accessibility comes at a cost, stating that it is built into its operating system for free. The new features include live captions, personal voice replication, improved reading tools, braille reader improvements, and “nutrition labels” in the app store. Developers will be required to list the accessibility features their app has, such as voiceover, voice control, or large text. Apple’s senior director of global accessibility policy and initiatives, Sarah Herrlinger, said that the nutrition labels would encourage developers to enable more accessibility options in the future. The company also improved its magnifier app, allowing users to zoom in on screens or whiteboards in lectures to read presentations. New braille features include note-taking with a braille screen input or a compatible braille device, and allow for calculation using Nemeth braille. The new personal voice feature can recreate a user’s voice using just 10 phrases, and the voice replication will be password-coded and remain on the device unless backed up to iCloud.
Gemini app’s redesign on Android and iOS moves away from ‘minimalist’ to match web UI; includes rounded rectangle prompt bar, shorter menu with four pill-shaped buttons
Following the web redesign and other changes, Google is introducing a new prompt bar for the Gemini app on Android and iOS. Gemini is going from a pill-shaped text field to a rounded rectangle (even before you enter text). Underneath the “Ask Gemini” field, you get a row of actions, starting with the ‘plus’ menu that’s now much shorter. You just get Camera, Gallery, Files, and Drive in this bottom sheet. Next up are pill-shaped buttons for “Research” and “Canvas.” Tap the three-dot icon in a circle to see those items in list form with brief descriptions, as well as “Video” (Veo 2 generation). Chips will stay highlighted upon tap. Deep Research: Get in-depth reports; Canvas: Create docs and code; Video: Generate with Veo. If you open the model picker, Google has removed Deep Research and Veo 2 (for Advanced subscribers). They are better thought of as Gemini capabilities than general-purpose models, with the new chips having the benefit of being always visible. As such, the menu is now down to four models: 2.0 Flash: Fast all-around help; 2.5 Flash (preview): Our next reasoning model built for speed; 2.5 Pro (preview): Reasoning, math & code; Personalization (preview): Based on your Search history. The voice input microphone and Gemini Live button round out this prompt bar redesign. Overall, it’s not as minimalist as before, but allows Google to introduce more features and matches the web UI. It’s also rolling out to the Gemini app for iPhone and iPad. Google is using this redesign to switch to standard iOS menus.
Onboarding metrics- Time To First Value, Onboarding CSAT, Customer Outcome Achievement, and Onboarding Risks, should regularly be reported in leadership meetings and board decks
Onboarding is a critical metric in software companies, often overlooked in discussions about annual recurring revenue (ARR), churn, customer acquisition cost (CAC), and customer lifetime value (LTV). It is the first step in the customer journey and defines every subsequent experience. A great onboarding experience can reinforce customers’ decisions, while a confusing one can erode trust. Great onboarding creates upstream value, as it leads to expansion, retention, and referrals. Positive customer metrics are often downstream of onboarding, such as expansion, retention, and referrals. Companies should regularly report onboarding performance in leadership meetings and board decks, as it is an important leading indicator of customer health, revenue growth, and operational efficiency. Some onboarding metrics suggested by the author include Time To First Value, Onboarding Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), Customer Outcome Achievement, and Onboarding Risks. These metrics are not vanity metrics but early warning systems for potential issues. Onboarding should be a cross-functional effort that spans product, sales, marketing, and leadership. Product needs to ensure an intuitive experience, sales set realistic expectations, marketing supports post-sale engagement, and leadership invests in tools, processes, and people to make it work at scale. Ignoring onboarding can lead to wasted CAC, delayed launches, and dissatisfied customers. Companies that nail onboarding often see faster time to revenue recognition, higher net retention, new champions, and use cases. Treating onboarding like a mirror can help companies identify misalignment, friction, and missed opportunities. By investing in onboarding, companies can become growth engines and revenue levers, leading to better financial outcomes.
Siro’s AI-driven coaching for in-person sales teams offers real-time transcription, performance analytics, and industry-specific training models
Startup Siro has secured $50 million in a Series B round led by SignalFire with participation from Dick Costolo and Adam Bain’s VC firm 01 Advisors. Siro transcribes sales meetings via an app. Features include a company-wide dashboard where sales folks can submit successful calls and sort them by engagement from peers, allowing other reps to listen to top calls and get insights about improving on-ground sales visits. Siro trains models for specific industry verticals — for example, for HVAC sales coaching. The company also uses a general-purpose model to gauge how a salesperson is building rapport and handling rejections. Wayne Hu, a partner at SignalFire, said that the VC firm always wants to invest in companies that have a strong business advantage in data for particular segments. “Siro’s solution is helping digitize the ‘dark matter’ of offline conversations comprising field sales engagements, which has broad extensibility across verticals and depth in downstream actions that can be instrumented from this data, such as customer and product insights,” he told.
Over 2/3rd of Gen Z respondents are memorizing card numbers to make online shopping easier, while 20% of baby boomers are doing so to specifically avoid using digital wallets
A survey from Western & Southern Financial Group found that nearly a third of Americans surveyed have memorized at least one debit or credit card number. What’s more, 20% of respondents who know their card numbers spend more than $500 per month online, compared to just 13% of those who haven’t. They also carry, on average, 10% more debt than non-memorizers. The survey found a significant generation gap, with almost half of respondents who memorize their card numbers falling into the millennial group. Overall, more than a third of millennials have memorized at least one card number. The reasons people gave for memorizing their numbers also varied across generations. More than two-thirds of Gen Z respondents said they did so to make online shopping easier, while, 20% of baby boomers memorized their card numbers specifically to avoid using digital wallets. Gen Z was also the most likely to feel that knowing their card numbers led to more impulse buying and overspending. In contrast, a third of the baby boomers were the most likely to report that memorizing their card numbers had improved their financial discipline. There is some evidence that memorization goes hand in hand with responsible behavior. A total of 70% of memorizers checked their credit card or bank statements at least weekly, compared to 61% of non-memorizers. However, impulse buying was also slightly more common among memorizers. Roughly 26% made unplanned purchases, compared to 23% of non-memorizers. Memorizers were also somewhat more likely to shop when stressed.
Gmail’s new ‘Manage subscriptions’ page lists out email addresses and names for your email subscriptions and allows users to unsubscribe from email subscriptions with a single clickout
Gmail is rolling out a handy new “Manage subscriptions” page that allows users to unsubscribe from email subscriptions with a single tap, though it appears to only be on Android so far. A notice in the app shows to inform users of the new option, with a “Manage subscriptions” button in the overflow menu. The new page, which was previously spotted just over a year ago, lists out email addresses and names for your email subscriptions. It also shows how many emails were sent “recently.” A button to the right side of the display then allows users to quickly unsubscribe from emails from that sender. In our testing so far, this generally works in a single click, though a small number of the ones we tried did pop up a browsing window to complete the process. Google adds that it “can take senders a few days to stop sending messages” after you use the unsubscribe shortcut.
Gboard’s new design to feature iOS keyboard’s version of ‘flicking’ keys to enter symbols in the form of a toggle
According to an APK teardown done by Android Authority, an upcoming beta version of Gboard looks to be bringing on a few new features. The biggest one is something we see in Apple’s version of a digital keyboard. When typing, swiping down or “flicking” a key will pull down a symbol or number, allowing you to easily select a secondary character without having to break up momentum to tap and hold. The action comes naturally after some practice and works phenomenally well, if executed correctly. In Gboard, this new feature is found in a toggle labeled “flick keys to enter symbols.” It’s unclear whether this feature will work with numbers in the top row of the keyboard or only symbols. It’d be a little nonsensical to allow for only symbols to be “flicked” into the text bar. It’s also strange that this feature borrows terminology from iOS, though “flicking” would imply an upward swipe, not a downward one as described. Gboard is also adding a toggle for keeping the number row active in password layouts. This is accompanied by prompt entry in the writing tools tab, as well as rounded keys in Gboard.
Customer engagement platform for banks adapts to each bank’s policies, user roles and app structure, and transforms natural language requests into direct in-app action by instantly linking user intent to the right screen, step or solution
WaveCX, provider of personalized, digital product engagement solutions for financial institutions, launched Curator Command, a major advancement in digital banking user experience (UX) that transforms natural language requests into direct in-app action. Built as an extension of the Curator platform, Curator Command expands on its AI-driven, semantic search capabilities, moving beyond simply understanding user intent to acting on it. Digital banking users often face friction when trying to complete basic tasks, including navigating complex menus, disconnected flows and overloaded support teams. Curator Command eliminates this friction by instantly connecting user intent to the right screen, step or solution, streamlining task completion and reducing reliance on manual navigation. The system enables customers and employees to type requests in plain language, understands the intent, reads app structure and real-time context, and activates the appropriate response. Curator Command adapts to each financial institution’s policies, user roles and app structure, rather than relying on prebuilt workflows or manually tagged flows. The platform reads the interface, understands user context and delivers accurate results from day one. Key benefits for financial institutions include: Reduced support volume and faster resolution; Increased adoption of digital tools and services; Faster onboarding and lower training costs; and A more responsive and intuitive user experience.