Google's Play Services update drops a big boost to media swapping, Find Hub sharing

What you need to know

• Google recently started rolling out its big Play Services update this week, which brings new features for media controls and Find Hub.
• Google states it's rolling out "one-tap transfer" suggestion chips for quickly swapping your media when near your other devices.
• This Play Services update also starts preparing an "item location sharing" feature in Find Hub in a secure way with encryption.

Usually, every month Google updates its Play Services software to bring new features to Android users, and November's no different, but it might be more helpful.

Google recently updated its Play Services changelog to reflect its newest update this week, which features a few updates for devices, security, developers, and more (via 9to5Google). The update is rolling out already, but there are a few new features to note, beginning with how your Android devices connect with other devices. Google says it's rolling out a new feature for Android that brings "one-tap transfer" suggestion chips to users.

Google says users will find these suggestions within their media output switcher. Users can find this by fully expanding their Quick Settings menu on their Android devices and entering the "Media Output" menu after tapping it.

The company's Play Services patch is additionally solving issues with Device Connectivity-related problems, while giving developers new support for such features in their apps.

Google is additionally rolling out an update for Find Hub under its security section. The patch notes state this update brings support for the app's new "item location sharing" option, "by providing a service to manage the encryption and aggregation of item locations shared by URL." The publication speculates that this could be the foundation for Google's previously teased Bluetooth tag sharing function, where users could give airlines access to help them find lost luggage.

A few more key points from November's big Play Services update are as follows:

• Bug fixes for Device Connections related services
• Bug fixes for System Management & Diagnostics related services
• Updates to system management services that improve Security
• Game developers can now choose a better time during gameplay to show the Google Play Games profile setup
• With this update, you get a link to new settings on the Google Wallet website

Making the best of it

This media output switcher update, which 9to5 called back to, was originally teased during Google's appearance at CES 2023. Google said it planned to make "switching content between devices seamless with apps like YouTube Music and Spotify." Additionally, this feature was supposed to be present within your notifications. Once in proximity with your other devices, you'd receive a "suggestion" or an alert to swap your tunes or podcast over to that device.

Now, what's being prepared to in the same vein, but tucked away in your Quick Settings output switcher.

For Find Hub, the app's gone through quite an eventful 2025, as the company revamped its design for Android in May. The redesign (and complete rebrand) updated things to Find Hub from Find My Device. This update also brought the "People" tab out of beta, meaning users can find people they'd like to share their location with through that interface. Google also teased two new features headed for Find Hub later this year: precision finding with UWB and satellite connectivity.

An update just a couple of weeks ago brought the ability for users to choose their desired unit of measurement, as well as an updated list of supported trackers.