How-To Guides about Android

Google's new Search profile looks like the kind of feature every creator should rush to claim: a dedicated, shareable page that puts your work front and center inside Google Search itself. Before spending time hunting for one, it helps to understand Google Search profile eligibility rules, since they set a high follower bar and apply only in the United States for now. This guide walks through who qualifies, how to run a Google Search profile eligibility check on your own name, and what claiming...

If you own an older Pixel, you may have noticed something Pixel owners have not generally expected to see: a promotional notification sitting in the shade next to your texts and calendar reminders. After the Pixel 11 launch, Android Authority reported this week that many users, including one of its own writers, started receiving ads for the new phone on their older Pixel devices.

On one Android phone, apps, texts, call history, and settings combined added up to less than 132MB, while photos and videos on the same device totaled 76GB (Android Police, 15 months ago). That's a striking example, not a universal rule, but it points toward the real question behind how to reduce Android backup storage in Google Drive: check what's actually filling the account before touching a single setting.

Pixel Watch 4 owners who feel left out of the Pixel Watch 5 launch have a workaround. According to Android Authority, Reddit user m0rr0ng0 found that sideloading a newer build of the Pixel Watch Faces app unlocks five Pixel Watch 5 faces: Weave, Chronograph, a Steph Curry edition, Multicolor Reveal, and Multicolor Modular.

This guide walks you through preordering any of the three new Galaxy foldables in a way that minimizes total cost or preserves flexibility, depending on which matters more to you. By the end, you'll know which channel fits your situation, how to run a real cost comparison, and what to verify before submitting your order.

Google says its notification-abuse defenses cut Android notification volume by more than 7 billion messages a day in 2026, according to Google's security team. That number reframes what looks like a minor annoyance, a browser popup asking permission to send updates, into a large-scale security fight Chrome has been waging for years without much fanfare.

Google officially announced custom chat themes for Messages on August 27, closing out months of beta testing with a feature that lets you assign a distinct color palette and wallpaper to any individual conversation. If you've been wondering how to use chat themes in Google Messages since spotting the option on a friend's phone, the mechanics are simple. One detail about how the feature actually works, though, is worth understanding before you touch a single setting.

Most Galaxy tablet problems, freezing, laggy apps, a screen that stops responding, don't need a factory reset. A restart, either a normal one or a forced one depending on what the screen is doing, often clears temporary freezing or app stuttering without touching a single photo or file (Asurion). Learning how to reboot a Samsung Galaxy tablet the right way, and recognizing the smaller set of cases where a restart genuinely isn't enough, keeps you from wiping a tablet that didn't need it.

By the end of this guide, the regular Gmail Inbox does the sorting itself. Priority senders stay visible, receipts and newsletters get labeled and archived automatically, and subscriptions that just add clutter get canceled at the source. None of it runs through Gemini, Smart Reply, or Gmail's own tab classification, since this is a guide to Gmail inbox automation built entirely from rules typed in by hand.

Tom's Guide walked away unimpressed with the Pixel 11 overall, but the outlet singled out one feature it called "genuinely useful": Magic Capture, a camera mode that records a short clip and lets AI pick the best still photos so users stop guessing when to hit the shutter (Tom's Guide, two weeks ago). Anyone figuring out how to use Magic Capture on Pixel 11 will find the basic setup simple, but getting the most out of it means enabling one setting in advance and thinking about your connection...

Scrolling through your phone from the passenger seat can trigger motion sickness, and Google has quietly added a setting to Android 17 meant to ease that discomfort. Motion Assist overlays small dots around the edge of your screen that move according to your phone's gyroscope and accelerometer, tracking your vehicle's motion (Android Authority today; Google Android Blog earlier this month). This guide explains how to use Motion Assist on Pixel phones, including how to check whether Google has...

Google Photos still has a setting that restores date headers in the grid. On Android, the redesigned Photos view switched those headers off by default and replaced them with a floating date indicator that appears while scrolling.

A guide posted on XDA Forums last year describes a way to run Samsung DeX on a Galaxy Z Fold's internal screen, with no monitor, dock, or book cover attached.

10 Gboard Features That Make Android Typing Faster — and 5 Settings That Make It Less Nosy

This guide covers whether turning off Google Play Protect is the right call for your situation, how to do it if it is, and the specific steps to take immediately after. Skipping that last part is where most people get into trouble.

Samsung Messages shut down on July 6, 2026. If you're a US Galaxy user on Android 12 or newer, the app can no longer send or receive messages except to emergency numbers, per Samsung's discontinuation notice. The text field is greyed out, and that's a permanent state.

If Gemini has taken over your Google Home or Nest speakers and you want the old Google Assistant experience back, the answer is frustrating: there is no simple "remove Gemini" button for every setup.

Mina the Hollower has no official Android port, but you can run it locally on your phone through GameNative no streaming required. Whether it actually works comes down to one thing: your GPU.

If you're trying to figure out how to reset YouTube recommendations, here's the frustrating truth: there's no single button that fixes it. YouTube's feed pulls from several independent systems at once what it's designed to show you, what it infers from your viewing behavior, and the explicit feedback you've given it over the years. Clear your history, and the feed barely moves. That's because history and your "Not interested" signals are tracked as separate systems, and clearing one doesn't...

The Razr Fold has one clear hardware distinction over Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold7: active stylus support on both of its displays. The Moto Pen Ultra features on Razr Fold span handwritten notes and pressure-sensitive sketching to on-screen search and cross-device syncing. The Galaxy Z Fold7, at $1,999, offers none of it.

Before touching a single setting, open Settings > Battery > Battery usage and review the breakdown by both apps and system processes. A misbehaving app can consume more power than all the Google Pixel battery drain settings you're about to change, and no system tweak will fix that (Android Police reported this in early 2026). Check it after a full day of normal use, not right after charging.

ChatGPT screen sharing on Android may be getting a less clunky alternative, and the possible replacement is worth understanding before it arrives. Code discovered this week inside version 1.2026.118 of ChatGPT's Android app points to a different method: instead of capturing your screen as video, the app would read visible text and interface elements directly, using Android's Accessibility API and Android's Bubbles feature, according to Android Authority.

Google TV's home screen has a problem that Google shows no signs of fixing: it keeps getting more cluttered. Free channel promotions, recommendations from services you've never opened, a Shop tab, ads throughout, and now an AI-curated Shorts tab rolling out to some devices, per MakeUseOf this month. None of it is meaningfully removable through Google's own settings, according to Android Police.

How to Encrypt Files on Android: CryptoContainer Guide

There is no single switch. That's the honest starting point for anyone searching for how to disable Google AI on Android, and it's worth saying plainly before walking through 16 steps that actually work. CNET reported earlier this year that on Pixel phones especially, AI is embedded at the platform level. The realistic goal is reduction, not removal. What this guide delivers: Gemini features turned off in Gmail, Docs, Drive, and Photos; system-level AI services disabled on supported Pixel...

Android acting up? Your phone freezing, crashing, or running slower than usual? Before you panic or rush to the repair shop, there's a built-in diagnostic tool that might solve your problems: Safe Mode. This feature temporarily disables third-party apps, helping you identify whether a recently installed app is causing havoc with your device's performance.

Pixel Watch Double Counting Steps and Calories: What to Do

You know how smartphones constantly promise to make your life easier with their latest features? Most of the time, that's just marketing fluff designed to justify another upgrade cycle. But every now and then, a company actually delivers something genuinely useful that most people completely overlook. OnePlus AI Recorder is one of those hidden gems.

The Android desktop experience has been a long-awaited feature that many power users have been craving. After spending considerable time testing Pixel Desktop Mode across different setups and scenarios, I've discovered that while it's not quite ready to replace your laptop entirely, it offers surprising capabilities when configured properly. Through extensive hands-on testing, I've identified eight essential strategies that transform this experimental feature from a novelty into a genuinely...

The first thing to do with a new Galaxy phone isn't downloading apps or customizing the wallpaper. It's disabling Customization Service Samsung's built-in data-profiling tool that activates the moment a Samsung account is created, with no separate prompt. That's the highest-priority change on this list, and the one most likely to quietly revert after a system update.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra introduces one of the first hardware-integrated privacy displays in a smartphone, promising to eliminate shoulder surfing without the compromises of traditional screen protectors. But does this built-in solution actually outperform the aftermarket privacy films we've been relying on for years? We put both approaches through extensive real-world testing to find out which option truly delivers better privacy, usability, and overall value.

When Android introduced its latest security update, many power users found themselves staring at an unexpected roadblock: a 24-hour waiting period before installing apps from unknown sources. You might be thinking, "Really? A full day just to install an APK?" - and honestly, that frustration is completely understandable, especially when you're trying to quickly sideload a legitimate app for development work or testing purposes.

Samsung's latest flagship series packs a camera surprise that most users will never discover. The company has built an entirely new 24MP shooting mode into the Galaxy S26 lineup, but instead of making it readily available, Samsung has hidden this feature behind an additional download. This middle-ground resolution approach represents Samsung's attempt to balance image quality with practical everyday use, leveraging AI Fusion processing to extract details from higher-resolution sensor data. The...

Helping non-tech-savvy users navigate modern smartphones can feel like teaching someone to fly a spaceship when all they want to do is make a phone call. If you've ever watched a parent or grandparent squint at their Pixel phone, tapping icons with the precision of someone defusing a bomb, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The good news? Google built a feature specifically for this scenario, and it's hiding in plain sight within your Pixel's settings.

Your Google Pixel phone comes with powerful gesture controls that can transform how you navigate your device. Whether you're a long-time Android user or new to the Pixel ecosystem, understanding how to enable or disable these navigation gestures can significantly impact your daily phone experience. Google has made gesture navigation the default on most modern Android devices, according to Android Police, and this system has been available since Android 10's launch in 2019. However, many users...

Reviewed by: Y. Garcia