How-To Guides about Android

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.

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...

Chrome didn't kill ad blocking. It killed one specific technical approach, and took a popular extension's full functionality down with it. If ads have started slipping through since your last Chrome update, or an old uBlock Origin install stopped filtering the way it used to, the good news is that ad blockers that still work in Chrome are easy to find, once you know which one actually matches your problem.

As of this week, a Samsung Messages alternative app called Messages by OzarksMade is undergoing closed testing through Google Play, with a public launch set for 14 days after its testing Google Group hits 12 members and a post-launch price of $0.99. Treat that as a snapshot, not a finished product. Betas shift, thresholds get hit or missed, and pricing plans change before launch.

The best time to charge a Samsung Galaxy Watch comes down to timing: pick whichever stretch of your day you can afford to lose tracking data, charge during that window, and make sure whatever charge you end up with covers your next sleep period or workout.

The Galaxy Z Flip 8's outer FlexWindow does more than preview a selfie. Turn on Mirror View and the cover screen becomes a mirror-like, real-time reflection that Samsung says can run at up to 120 fps, with zoom and edge lighting available for a closer look.

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 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.

Not every Galaxy Watch 9 health feature behaves the same way out of the box, which is exactly why deciding which Galaxy Watch 9 settings to enable on day one matters. Hard fall detection is a genuine toggle, and it ships off by default, doing nothing until someone switches it on (Samsung Support). Vitals and Sleep Coach aren't toggles in that sense. Vitals needs seven nights of overnight wear to build a baseline before it can flag anything unusual, and Sleep Coach needs at least seven days of...

Google has been replacing Google Assistant with Gemini in Android Auto, with the rollout expanding to 45 languages globally, per Google's announcement. If your phone already runs the Gemini app, you likely have access or will soon. The change matters more than a typical assistant update: Assistant frequently failed to register voice input at all, something a Tom's Guide tester called a near-daily occurrence. Gemini also removes the rigid syntax problem, so you can speak naturally and hold a...

The safest way to troubleshoot Gemini Error 1099 is to match the workaround to the specific way the error is appearing, because the same error code has appeared in at least three different patterns reported by users. Reports span multiple Reddit communities, affecting both free and paid users across Android, the web, iOS, macOS, and Chrome. The fix for a single stale conversation is not the same as the fix for an error that fires every time you press the Pixel side button, and neither applies...

Motorola Quick Launch lets you double-tap the back of your phone to trigger a custom action without touching the screen. According to AT&T's support page for the Razr+ 2025, when Quick Launch is enabled, you can double-tap the back to perform certain options like taking a screenshot or returning to the home screen. That phrasing matters: "certain options like" is not an exhaustive list, and this guide covers what AT&T explicitly documents.

The Google I/O 2026 keynote starts tomorrow, May 19, at 10:00 a.m. PT / 1:00 p.m. ET and streams free at io.google. No special software, no paid subscription. The developer keynote follows at 1:30 p.m. PT, and the full event runs through May 20 with on-demand content dropping May 21.

Google treats AI Overviews the same way it treats knowledge panels: as a core Search feature that cannot be turned off. That same support page acknowledges, without much ceremony, that "AI Overviews can and will make mistakes." So you're getting a feature you didn't ask for, and it isn't guaranteed to be accurate.

Here's what actually happens when you buy the wrong charger: the phone charges, nothing explodes, and you never realize you're getting half the speed you paid for. The number on the box looked right. The cable fit. The problem was invisible.

The Pixel phone in your pocket comes with a hidden privacy feature that most people never discover. Google includes a built-in VPN service on new Pixel devices, but many users aren't aware of it. This free security tool can protect your browsing on public Wi-Fi networks and add an extra layer of privacy to your mobile internet activity, yet many Pixel owners remain completely unaware of its existence.

When you've got Android Auto's display brightness randomly bouncing between day and night modes, it's like having a strobe light in your dashboard when all you want is a smooth, comfortable drive.