Early last month, Google started releasing new iOS versions of the YouTube app family after a long unspecified break. Gmail, Google Calendar, Docs and other apps were updated today in an apparent return to normal for iPhone and iPad owners.
Update 14/03: Since the beginning of March, Google updates have continued to be implemented. Notable releases in the past two weeks include Google Duo, Meet – new Tile, Voice and Ads view.
The latest update is for the Google app. Launched on Sunday night (PT), this app is home to Search, the Discover feed and Google Lens visual searches. The release notes for version 149.0 (from 137.2 on December 5, 2020) are quite generic:
Bug fixes and performance improvements.
We fixed issues reported by users and added new features to provide a better search experience.
3/1 original: In the past few weeks, YouTube and YouTube Music have seen several patches. Last Friday, the Google Podcast got a new version and Monday saw a trio of major iPhone updates: Google Calendar, Gmail and Documents / Spreadsheets / Presentations.
For the email application, it is the first new update since December 1st. The release notes for version 6.0.210124 specify only “bug fixes and performance improvements”. It follows a bug in which iPhone owners encountered a message “This application is out of date” when trying to sign in with a new Google Account.
The change records for these other productivity customers are just as vague. All of today’s updates feature privacy details for the app, although they were added some time before these new versions. Some originally speculated that the lack of updates was due to Apple nutrition labels, but – whatever the reason – this was not a normal winter break, as app development continued on the Android side.
Drive was last updated in December, along with Google Search, Photos and Maps. These applications do not yet have privacy labels. Meanwhile, Chrome remains at version 87, even with the 88 released 41 days ago for all other platforms. The next browser update is scheduled to launch later this week.
That said, the lack of new application versions has not affected feature releases, as Google often takes advantage of server-side updates.
| Desktop version | iOS update | Difference | |
| 78 | October 22, 2019 | October 22, 2019 | None |
| 79 | December 10, 2019 | December 10, 2019 | None |
| 80 | February 4, 2020 | February 5, 2020 | +1 |
| 81 | March 17, 2020 | April 7, 2020 | COVID + delay |
| 82 | Skipped | ~ | ~ |
| 83 | May 19, 2020 | May 21, 2020 | +2 |
| 84 | July 14, 2020 | July 14, 2020 | None |
| 85 | August 25, 2020 | August 25, 2020 | None |
| 86 | October 6, 2020 | September 30, 2020 | -7 |
| 87 | November 17, 2020 | November 18, 2020 | +1 |
| 88 | January 19, 2021 | +41 |
FTC: We use affiliate links for cars that generate revenue. Most.
Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news: