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Google has released its latest monthly update for October, bringing a slew of improvements to Android phones, tablets, Wear OS devices, Android TV, Auto, and PCs. The update mainly focuses on bolstering security measures and enhancing the functionality of Google Wallet. It also seeks to improve Play Store recommendations while fixing bugs in key system apps. The latest update for Google Play services (v25.41) brings a host of user-facing security enhancements. Now, Android users can complete reCAPTCHA web verification directly on their phones, making online identity verification easier. Also, hidden passkeys can be viewed and deleted in the Google Password Manager for better control over stored credentials. A new Advanced Protection page also shows which apps request sensitive security access, ensuring greater transparency around data protection. The October update brings a major upgrade to Google Wallet. Users can now add cards directly through supported banking apps, without having to enter card details manually. If you are on Android 12 or earlier and have loyalty passes imported from Gmail, you will get notifications if the Wallet app is installed. The most useful addition is Live Updates for travel, which brings real-time information for flights, train journeys, and events directly into the Wallet app. The October update brings new APIs for ads-related processes, improving the integration between Google and third-party apps. A previous update (v25.40) had already expanded support for the Maps-related functions and enabled LE Audio device pairing across multiple components, paving the way for better Bluetooth audio experiences. With the latest version (48.5), Android users can now find personalized content based on their installed apps. This feature, located in the Play Collections section, recommends similar titles and media for deeper engagement. Plus, users in Mongolia can now buy in-app products/subscriptions on phones, TVs, Wear OS devices, and PCs, expanding Google's payment ecosystem to a new market. Other system components like Android System Intelligence (v39) and Private Compute Services (v35) also got maintenance updates to improve stability. These include fixes for the LLM (large language model) interaction crashes, improved database reliability, and animation performance improvements. As always, the company warns that features listed in the changelog may not be immediately visible to all users as some capabilities are introduced gradually over weeks or months.
