Android

Calling a contact with more than one saved number through Android Auto has always meant one extra step: picking home, work, or mobile before the call actually connects. A teardown of a daily Android Auto build suggests that step might finally disappear, surfacing what's being described as an Android Auto preferred phone number feature buried in a set of unfinished code strings (Android Police, yesterday).

A Samsung Galaxy phone can meet every obvious requirement, Bluetooth enabled, signed into the same Google Account, and fully updated, and still refuse to show up as an option under ChromeOS's Connected devices setup.

A new leak claims the Samsung Galaxy A58's rear camera setup will carry the same megapixel counts as the Galaxy A57: a 50MP main camera, 12MP ultrawide, 5MP macro, plus a 12MP front camera. The claim comes from Dutch outlet GalaxyClub and has since been relayed by outlets including GSMArena and Tech Advisor.

Googlebook OS may soon stop making owners rebuild their workspace from scratch every time the laptop restarts. Code strings discovered by Android Authority in Android 17 QPR3 Beta 2 point to an unreleased "App restore on reboot" setting for Googlebook OS.

Samsung's latest Galaxy Watch 7 update isn't packed with new features, but it targets parts of the smartwatch experience that owners use throughout the day. Watch faces, the always-on display, and Quick Settings are among the areas receiving attention in the fifth One UI 9 Watch beta.

Score a last-second win in a mobile game with no recorder running, and a Google headline from 2024 suggests the moment might not be lost. The Google sources reviewed here do not establish whether a 30-second retroactive recording feature is currently available on Android.

Samsung's unreleased Exynos 2700 reportedly scored around 13,000 in a Geekbench 6.5 multi-core benchmark test against roughly 11,000 for Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, a lead of nearly 20%, according to industry sources cited by The Korea Herald on Oct. 25.

A developer named Ismail Shah announced on LinkedIn three weeks ago that he built the Knit Easy Android app to fix a problem he says plagues knitters and crocheters working from printed or PDF patterns: losing track of the row mid-stitch. The post describes a row highlighter, linked counters, and fully offline operation, and includes a Google Play link. However, the app's current listing details, including its price, permissions, and user ratings, have not been independently verified.

Creating a password-protected ZIP on Android starts with choosing a file manager that supports encrypted archives. Files by Google can create ordinary ZIP files, but its documented compression workflow doesn't include a password option. That's a limitation of Files by Google, not Android as a whole.

A Galaxy tablet owner asked Samsung Community how to reorder "the first 6 buttons" on their Quick Panel, and the reply pointed to a setting called Edit top quick settings. Samsung now documents that option in its official support materials for newer Galaxy devices, although the exact menu layout can vary by software version and model. For One UI 7 users, the key distinction is between editing the full Quick Panel and customizing the shortcuts shown in the combined notifications view.

Passports, birth certificates, and Social Security cards don't fit inside a Bluetooth tracker, but Google's Find Hub now gives them a place anyway. Its new Remembered tab lets you tell Gemini where you stored a document, then ask for that location later, whether you're digging through a closet or preparing for a trip.

Samsung has started rolling out the Galaxy M54 One UI 9.0 update, based on Android 17, according to SamMobile and Zoomit, which reported the release on Oct. 27. Zoomit cites SamMobile for the global rollout, rather than independently confirming a separate release. Samsung's model-specific update documentation has not yet established which Galaxy AI features are included.

A working fork of the open-source Aves gallery app, posted to GitHub about a month ago, demonstrates something readers trying to search Android photos without cloud upload have been asking for: typed description search and visual similarity matching that run entirely on the phone, with photo indexing and search described by the developer as running locally, without uploading photos, videos, or search queries.

Google Meet's real-time voice translation jumped from six languages to 63 this week, powered by a new Gemini 3.5 Live Translate model that automatically detects which language someone is speaking instead of locking a call into one fixed pair. This expansion brings Google's Gemini 3.5 Live Translate model to Meet's web and mobile apps, and it removes the old meeting-wide language-pair limit so each participant can pick their own translation language. Most people will still need an eligible paid...

Samsung has started pushing a second Galaxy S26 October 2026 update, and so far only phones in South Korea have been reported receiving it, according to Android Headlines and SamMobile. The update covers the Galaxy S26, S26+, and S26 Ultra, weighs about 580.37MB, and arrives without a public changelog explaining what it does.

Samsung has started rolling out One UI 9.0 based on Android 17 to the Galaxy A16 5G on Verizon.

The Samsung Galaxy A37 has worn three different price tags in about six months, and that's the central question of this Galaxy A37 review. The hardware hasn't changed.

A blue indicator has started showing up in the status bar on Samsung Galaxy phones running One UI 9, and it has one job: flagging when an app is actively accessing your location.

OnePlus has already started rolling out Android 17-based ColorOS 17 ahead of its original Oct. 29, 2026, schedule.

Google quietly confirmed that receipt scanning is coming to Google Wallet in the changelog for Google Play Services v26.40, dated Oct. 12, 2026. The entry says users can now scan to add receipts, a change that could make it easier to save purchase records without entering their details manually.

There's still no confirmed Samsung Galaxy T1 earbuds release date, price, or official product name. But the unannounced SM-R545 has now cleared wireless certification in two countries within about a month, evidence that the product is moving through Samsung's regulatory pipeline rather than sitting idle, according to SammyGuru.

Google confirms that blood-pressure and insulin-resistance trend tracking are included free with Pixel Watch 3, 4, and 5, while the same two tools require a Google Health Premium subscription on Fitbit Air and the newly released Fitbit Edge.

Full Android Auto work profile support doesn't exist yet, and this new discovery doesn't change that. It does suggest Google is quietly building toward it.

Samsung has started rolling out the stable, Android 17-based One UI 9 update to the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5. The rollout began in South Korea and has since expanded to parts of Europe, although availability still varies by country, carrier, and device variant.

Samsung's internal testing reportedly found the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 overheating and throttling in Galaxy S27 Ultra prototypes, fueling talk of a switch to Samsung's Exynos 2700 chip.

Google started rolling out the Pixel VIPs widget redesign last month, and if you already use the Contacts app widget daily, it's worth checking for the update now.

Google's 120x Pro Res Zoom on the Pixel 11 Pro sounds like a spec-sheet gimmick, and at its most extreme setting, much of what you see can come from generative AI reconstruction rather than detail resolved by the lens.

Moto Tag 2 is available to buy from Motorola's US store now, while Google says its own tracker won't go on sale until Nov. 11, 2026. That's the should-you-wait-for-Pixel-Tag question at the center of this comparison: buy the Moto Tag 2 now, or hold out a few weeks for Google's hardware.

Google Maps on Apple CarPlay can now surface Gemini mid-drive, letting U.S. users ask multi-step questions and chain follow-up commands without leaving the map screen. It's the first time Google Maps has put a conversational voice assistant inside CarPlay itself, rather than confining that experience to the iPhone's own display, according to 9to5Google.

Google has confirmed that it encrypts and stores a user's enrolled selfie video on its own servers, rather than only on the device used to record it. That server-side storage is intentional. Google says the purpose of selfie video sign-in is to help people recover accounts after losing access to a device that holds their passkeys, so the reference video needs to work across devices.

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 prevent new ads from loading inside certain offline-capable apps.

Reports that Samsung is exiting the Exynos Auto chip business have surfaced in Korean industry media, and they're detailed enough to take seriously even though Samsung itself hasn't confirmed them.

Samsung has started pushing the Galaxy S26 October 2026 security update to the Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+, and Galaxy S26 Ultra, marking one of the first maintenance updates 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.

Google Wallet is rolling out a vertically stacked card redesign on Android, and it has created a usability problem: a layout that makes similar cards difficult 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 has hidden identifying details that helped users distinguish cards at a glance, Samsung Magazine reported on October 8.

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.

Google has confirmed that Android Auto's squiggly media progress bar is sticking around, closing out months of uncertainty after the design repeatedly appeared and disappeared for some drivers.

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.

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.

Google is testing a new Google Nest speaker firmware update, version 3.79.550760, but for now the rollout is limited to people enrolled in Google's speaker Preview Program. The build currently covers four older speakers, the original Google Home, Home Mini, Nest Mini, and Nest Audio, according to 9to5Google. The supplied reporting does not include a Google announcement describing the update.

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.