More than a million people now have Alexa Plus

Alexa Plus was announced in February 2025 and is now rolling out to users in an Early Access program. While a smarter Siri may have been a no-show at WWDC, Alexa Plus, the generative AI-powered overhaul of Amazon’s voice assistant, is finally appearing in the wild. No one at The Verge has access yet, but…

Read More

Google is offering employee buyouts in Search and other orgs

Google is starting to offer buyouts to US-based employees in its sprawling Search organization, along with other divisions like marketing, research, and core engineering, according to multiple employees familiar with the matter. The buyouts, which Google is referring to as a “voluntary exit program,” are currently not being offered to employees in DeepMind, Google Cloud,…

Read More

Android 16 is here, but its big redesign isn’t ready

Google rolled out a bunch of new features with Android 16 on Tuesday, but the company appears to be saving its big Material 3 Expressive redesign for a future update. The update doesn’t feature the design language’s revamped elements, and a source tells Android Authority’s Mishaal Rahman that Google is planning to launch the new…

Read More

Google just soft-launched nine cool Home app features

Widgets surround me, and I am happy. | Image: Google Google has launched a bevy of noteworthy additions to its Home app, most of which are available now in public preview (which you can enroll in here). The biggest news, according to The Verge’s smart home expert Jen Tuohy, is that picture-in-picture support has arrived…

Read More