Android

Samsung's foldable phones could look considerably different in 2027. A new leak suggests the company is preparing six Galaxy Z devices, including three versions of the Galaxy Z Fold 9, a second-generation TriFold, and a phone with a screen that slides outward instead of unfolding.

Moto Tag 2 was sitting in stock on Motorola's own store when HotAirTag checked in August, and Google says its own tracker won't go on sale until November 11, 2026, a date confirmed in Google's launch announcement two months ago. That's the should-you-wait-for-Pixel-Tag question at the center of this comparison: buy the Moto Tag 2 now if it's actually available, or hold out for Google's hardware.

Google's 120x Pro Res Zoom on the Pixel 11 Pro sounds like a spec-sheet gimmick, and in a literal sense, it is one. Point the camera at something far enough away, and the image increasingly reflects AI reconstruction rather than resolved lens detail. Reviewers who spent real time with the mode landed in a similar place: it's a genuinely useful way to inspect distant, static subjects, but the AI-enhanced output shouldn't be treated as proof of what's actually there (Android Authority, yesterday;...

Google is bundling free AI Pro trials into several hardware and carrier deals right now, including the Pixel 11, the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Chromebook Plus, and select Verizon plans. Those free accounts don't match the paid $19.99-a-month plan feature for feature. Google AI Pro trial restrictions are in Google's own product documentation.

Apple spent this week shipping something Google has only sketched out in app code. On October 13, Apple announced HomeView, a $299 smart display built for shared households, with facial recognition for up to six family members, Siri AI, and controls that adapt as someone walks closer. Pre-orders are open now, and the device starts shipping November 13.

The Exynos 2700 story has moved from early chip leaks to reported factory production. Samsung has started front-end mass production of the processor expected to power at least part of its 2027 Galaxy S27 lineup, according to industry sources.

Google's Pixel VIPs widget redesign started rolling out last month, and if that Contacts app widget is already part of a daily routine, it's worth checking for the update now. Shipping as Pixel VIPs version 2.0.97, the redesign brings one-tap calling and texting to the widget for the first time (Android Authority, last month). The changes landed alongside the September 2026 Pixel Feature Drop, which also added notification badges for urgent messages and a new way to swipe between VIP profiles...

A Pixel 10a owner reported low audio recording volume during video capture, describing it as "extremely low and faint" in a complaint posted on the Google Pixel Community three weeks ago. A day earlier, a separate Pixel 11 Pro owner said recordings in any app sounded roughly half as loud as recordings made on an iPhone 17 Pro, according to a post on the Google Pixel Community.

Samsung representatives confirmed earlier this year that the Galaxy S26 series uses 480Hz PWM dimming, with no higher-frequency mode, no DC-like dimming option, and no dedicated flicker-reduction setting, according to Android Authority.

Google began rolling out Universal Cart across Search and the Gemini app in the U.S. yesterday, giving shoppers a way to save products from different retailers in one running list instead of juggling browser tabs and screenshots. The feature also sends alerts when saved items drop in price or come back in stock, built on top of Google's Shopping Graph of more than 60 billion product listings.

There's no universal best time to charge a Samsung Galaxy Watch. Generally, an optimal charging schedule is something you have to monitor yourself, and that premise holds up here: the right window depends on whether you track sleep, how much battery you're carrying into the evening, how fast your specific model refills, and when you're reliably inactive during the day. The four-question framework below turns that idea into something you can actually use.

Google Pixel Connected Camera support is rolling out to 11 additional apps, including Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Slack, through an update to Pixel Camera Services spotted by Android Authority.

Google is testing a redesigned Help Me Write flow for Android that could cut AI email drafting down to two steps, according to an APK teardown of Gmail version 2026.10.05.993506826 from Android Authority. The tested build swaps the current multi-step process for a default "Describe your message" box that drafts an email and drops it straight into the composer, no preview screen required.

If "Switch to Google Assistant" has vanished from the Gemini app's account menu, you may have been moved to Gemini as part of Google's mobile migration. Google still publishes switch-back instructions, but 9to5Google found that the option had disappeared on devices it tested in September.

Google has announced YouTube background playback for cars with Google built-in, allowing users to watch YouTube videos while parked and continue listening to the audio when they shift into drive. The feature needs an active YouTube Premium subscription.

Searching "new YouTube app icons" turns up a story that sounds bigger than it is. The reported change isn't a platform-wide redesign of YouTube's icon library. What's actually circulating is narrower: on a limited number of Android phones, YouTube was testing watch-page buttons, including Like and Share, with their text labels removed when Android Authority reported the change in June 2026.

Samsung has started pushing the Galaxy S26 October 2026 security update to the Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+, and Galaxy S26 Ultra, marking the first update for the lineup since One UI 9.0 (Android 17) went stable, according to SamMobile. The patch addresses 62 security issues, per the same report.

If your texts are going through fine but photos, videos, GIFs, or other media sit there unsent, you're not alone. Google has confirmed a bug causing disrupted RCS message delivery for a subset of Google Messages users and says a fix is rolling out now.

Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra battery life test results are in, and they complicate the easy spec-sheet story. The phone jumped to a 5,000mAh battery using silicon-carbon technology, the biggest capacity increase in the Fold line's history, and it beat last year's model in nearly every Android Authority test scenario. It didn't improve by as much as the extra 600mAh might suggest, though.

Learning how to use AI Network Guard on Samsung One UI 9 won't turn your phone into a systemwide ad blocker, but it can quiet ad requests inside certain offline-capable apps. The feature works by cutting an app's internet connection completely, and it lives inside a hidden Wi-Fi menu called Connectivity Labs. Ads vanish only because the app can no longer reach a server to fetch them in the first place (Android Authority, yesterday; Techritual, today).

Google Wallet is rolling out a vertically stacked card redesign on Android, and it has quietly created the Google Wallet card stack design problem: a layout that makes similar cards nearly impossible to tell apart. The server-side update, spotted since mid-September and now reaching more phones, swaps the old horizontal carousel for a scrollable vertical stack, according to 9to5Google. Along the way, Google hid the card numbers and nicknames that used to make picking the right card a glance...

Samsung's stable One UI 9 update, built on Android 17, started reaching US Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 units on Oct. 2 following an earlier stable release in South Korea. The rollout began with select carrier models and has since expanded to unlocked phones and additional US carriers.

Samsung announced a new SmartThings platform update on October 5, 2026, built around a feature called SmartThings Now that moves automation suggestions to the top of the Home tab instead of leaving them buried in menus and submenus. The Samsung SmartThings Now update also redesigns the Home tab layout, adds a Floating Bar for one-handed use, and expands local hub-to-phone control.

Hidden code for a "Focus Peaking" toggle has turned up inside Snapseed's Android app, but the Snapseed focus peaking feature doesn't actually work yet, even when testers force it on. Android Authority found the code while tearing down Snapseed version 4.1.10.992428248 in a report published yesterday, and only got the toggle to appear after modifying the app directly, not through any setting Google has shipped or announced.

Google's Pixel 12 lineup is still a long way from launch, but an early leak may have revealed the first concrete clues about the screens coming to all four expected models. The reported specifications show only small resolution changes for Google's three conventional phones, while the next Pixel Fold could be in line for a considerably larger jump.

If you're still emailing yourself a screenshot or dragging a photo into Drive just to get it onto a laptop, you're doing more work than the phone requires. This guide covers how to use Quick Share to transfer files on Android, whether the destination is your own Chromebook, a Windows PC, or someone else's phone standing next to you. Quick Share comes built into Android and ChromeOS already. Windows needs a separate app installed before it can take part in a transfer.

A new Wear OS app called Now On Wrist takes Pixel's ambient song-recognition feature and puts the result on your wrist instead of your lock screen. The Now On Wrist Wear OS app is live now on Google Play and works with any Wear OS 3.0 or newer smartwatch, not just the Pixel Watch.

Google Photos code suggests its 2026 Recap could let people replace individual photos and swap out the background music track, rather than relying only on the current hide-and-regenerate workflow. The findings come from an Android Authority teardown of app version 7.96.0.993165104, built on unreleased code strings rather than a feature anyone has actually used. Despite the "retouch" label attached to this story, the strings don't describe an image-retouching tool: nothing points to exposure,...

Fantastical, the calendar app that spent 13 years as an Apple exclusive before reaching Windows two years ago, is reportedly rolling out to early Googlebook users today. Techritual reports that access is already live for a limited group, while Android Authority describes the broader Fantastical Googlebook launch as an announced plan rather than a finished release (Techritual, today; Android Authority, today).

A small shield sitting next to your battery percentage looks exactly like the kind of alert you shouldn't ignore. It isn't one. If you're wondering what the shield icon means on Samsung Galaxy phones, the answer is simple: Battery Protection is active. Samsung says a Battery Protection indicator may appear in the status bar while the feature is limiting charging.

Open a tablet or foldable app and get a stretched phone-sized window with blank space on either side, and that's the problem a reported Play Store badge is intended to address. Android Police and Digital Trends both reported in late April 2026 that an upcoming Google Play Store update, which Digital Trends identified as version 51.2, would add Google Play Store large screen app labels marking apps "built to utilise large screens."

Samsung raised official US prices on every Galaxy A phone it currently sells: the A17 5G, A27 5G, A37 5G, and A57 5G. Notebookcheck reported yesterday that Samsung's US site now lists higher prices across the full lineup, putting the Samsung Galaxy A series price increase into effect for anyone shopping Samsung.com right now.

A fresh APK teardown suggests the Pixel Search app coming to older Pixels might finally go official, though Google still hasn't said a word about it. Code inside Pixel Search version 1.0.983036833 points to support for Pixel 6 and newer, a Gemini-powered suggestions feature, and new privacy controls, Android Authority found. Only one of those three things is actually live right now: the privacy toggles. The rest is still buried in code.

On the same day Google's new Googlebook laptops went on sale, the company admitted that Intel-based models may stumble on certain Android apps (The Verge). In a statement to Android Authority, Google described the affected group as a "small handful of complex apps or games" that need developer tuning to run their best on Intel platforms (Engadget).

YouTube freezing on Samsung Galaxy phones is turning into a recurring complaint, and the reports cluster around three recent models: the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, the standard Galaxy Z Fold 8, and the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Two rows on a spec sheet, two names with "Android" in them, and a lot of shoppers who assume they're the same feature wearing different labels. They're not.

Samsung recently unveiled the Galaxy SmartTag3, and for the first time in the SmartTag lineup, the tracker supports iPhone finding and sharing alongside Galaxy devices. T

Samsung budget Galaxy phone price hikes in the US have landed on four models that are already on sale, not a new generation revealed at launch. The Galaxy A17 5G, A27 5G, A37 5G, and A57 5G all carry higher Samsung.com prices this week than they did before, according to SamMobile and Engadget, which both reported the new figures.

Samsung's stable One UI 9 update is now reaching the Galaxy S25 series, Galaxy Z Fold 7, and Galaxy Z Flip 7, with the rollout confirmed live in South Korea, according to Android Authority. It's the next phase of a staged rollout that started with the Galaxy S26 family, and it puts Samsung's 2025 flagship lineup on the same Android 17 build already running on the newer S26 and Z8 devices.

Some Pixel owners are still waiting for the Google Wallet fix that should have landed automatically. If your phone is showing a "Device doesn't meet security requirements" warning every time you open Google Wallet, it hasn't been compromised and your cards are fine. A stalled update rollout left a specific group of beta opt-outs stranded on a software build that Wallet's security checks no longer recognize as certified.