Today we’re seeing a quick update for the somewhat popular but still in beta game from Google called Ingress. Google’s Niantic Labs released the game back in November in a very limited beta, and the game is still in that same state today. However, for those lucky enough to be enjoying the game it received quite the update today with lots of improvements. Sorry, it will still drain your battery faster than the speed of sound. Read on for more details.
The few times we’ve enjoyed Ingress the continuous GPS access and other always-on aspects absolutely kills your battery life, and hopefully that will somehow be addressed before this ever gets a public release. Ingress had a big showing at Google I/O this year, but they didn’t announce anything specific for the game.
So for those in the resistance (since that’s how I roll) here’s what’s new for Ingress today. The update will bring the game to version 1.26 and Android notifications are a big part of it. You’ll now be warned in a notification when your portal is under attack, or you’ve neutralized the threat and more. Here’s the full changelog.
• Portal health and faction control info on Portal Keys in the Inventory carousel.
• Android Notifications for “Portal under attack,” “Portal neutralized,” and “@” messages.
• Support for Jarvis Virus and ADA Refactor objects.
• New Recharge visual animation.
• Bug fixes
In case you didn’t catch that near the end of the notifications part. You’ll now get notified when someone in-game sends you a message to your codename. Instead of just getting it in-app, you’ll receive these notifications right in the standard Android pulldown bar.
Sadly with many phones going to full 1080p lately we thought that would get addressed, but sadly it did not. There’s still a few issues with the GALAXY S 4, HTC One, DROID DNA, and all those other 1920 x 1080p full HD smartphones. You’d think someone at Google would be all over that, but I guess they all use 720p Nexus 4 phones instead. Get the latest update right now and let us know what you think of the new recharge animations and more.
SOURCE: Play Store
Anyone who is addicted to Ingress may be annoyed by the battery drain. But for us it is a non-issue as those in the group I play with all carry Anker external batteries.