The Latest on Android: Page 15

Walmart today launched six new Onn tablets, all running Android 16 out of the box, priced from $97 to $288 and available in stores and online now, according to 9to5Google. Six models at once, spanning children's devices to a stylus-equipped 13-inch flagship, is a broader push than anything the Onn line has attempted before.

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.

Samsung has filed a patent for a laptop concept built around a touch-sensitive palmrest that could reduce reliance on modifier keys like Ctrl, Shift, and Alt. The Samsung laptop palmrest patent describes sensors embedded in the palmrest surface that detect whether the user's hand is resting there or lifted away, then route keypresses through a different function layer depending on that state. No product has been announced, and the concept may never reach hardware, as Digital Trends and Daily...

Samsung is offering a free Withings Body Smart scale with select full-price Galaxy Watch purchases in the U.S., but the fine print matters. The promotion applies to Galaxy Watch Ultra, Galaxy Watch8 Classic, Galaxy Watch8, and Galaxy Watch7 purchases made through Samsung.com or the Shop Samsung App from May 4 through July 19, 2026, while supplies last. Samsung lists the scale at $129.95 MSRP, but the offer excludes trade-ins and cannot be combined with other Samsung, carrier, retailer, coupon,...

If you're wondering whether the Motorola Razr is waterproof, the short answer is no. That applies to every model in the lineup. The more useful question is whether your specific Razr is meaningfully water-resistant, and that depends entirely on which generation you own.

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.

Google is rolling out a change to the search bar that anchors its mobile apps: the prompt that read "Search" now reads "Ask Google," the "G" logo has been replaced by a plus menu, and that menu opens into AI Mode, image search, and AI image generation, 9to5Google reported late last month. The Android Google search bar update covers the Pixel Launcher, both search bars inside the Google app, and the Google for iOS app. It is rolling out now, not complete.

Google last week unveiled Noto 3D at The Android Show: I/O Edition, a ground-up rebuild of its entire Noto Color Emoji set into what the company's emoji lead Jennifer Daniel described on Instagram as "hand-modeled 3D emoji" that are "actually true 3D objects," according to Emojipedia. All roughly 4,000 designs were rebuilt by hand. Pixel phones get them first, with a broader rollout across Google products planned for later in 2026, per Google's announcement.

Google confirmed in December 2025 that it is "enabling third-party speaker devices as well" as part of Gemini for Home, adding "Third-party speakers" to its official compatibility list alongside every Nest and Google Home product, 9to5Google reported. That same month, Walmart's Onn 4K Pro became one of the first non-Google devices to receive the Gemini upgrade, per Android Authority. Walmart has not officially announced a Gemini-powered smart speaker, but a Connectivity Standards Alliance...

Samsung is now shipping a Device Care feature that can automatically put apps sending frequent ad notifications into deep sleep once the setting is enabled. Called "Block apps with excessive ads," it appeared in Samsung's Device Care update, version 13.8.80.7, 9to5Google reported on May 11, 2026. Samsung has not published a full device-eligibility list, and current reporting says the feature appears limited to the Galaxy S26 series for now and may depend on One UI 8.5.

Your Nest speakers are on. Tidal can see them. YouTube Music can see them. Google Assistant can even start playing Spotify on them by voice. But open the Spotify Android app and tap the Connect menu, nothing appears. The Spotify Google Cast bug hitting Android users right now isn't a network problem or a hardware failure. The available evidence points to a Spotify-side regression, likely tied to a recent Android app update.

Android 17 Beta 3 introduced visible blur and frosted-glass effects in the widget picker and app launch transitions, while Android 17 Beta 4 has since arrived as Google's last scheduled beta. The broader direction became clearer in Android Canary 2605, which shows Google testing blur across more Pixel system UI surfaces, but the stable Android 17 scope is still not fully confirmed. What remains unclear is how much of the broader Canary blur treatment will reach the stable Android 17 release, a...

Google has rolled out a QR code-based transfer method for Quick Share that lets any Android phone send files to an iPhone without requiring the recipient to install anything. The Android device generates a Quick Share QR code, the iPhone user scans it with the default Camera app, and the file downloads via a cloud link, Digital Trends reported today. Full rollout across all Android devices is expected within roughly a month, per Digital Trends.

Google shut down the third-party forum that hosted its smart home support community this week and launched a replacement on its own support domain. The Google Home and Nest Community migration transferred no login credentials, no earned status, and no previously published content, according to Android Authority. Everything on the old platform gets permanently deleted on June 30, 2026.

At MWC 2026, Motorola told attendees that pairing the Razr Fold with smart glasses produces Motorola described as a "full laptop experience." Engadget covered the demo in early March, calling it a setup that "turns your Razr Fold into a full-fledged laptop" during Motorola's demo. The claim is plausible. Both halves of the equation exist as real, functional hardware. But the hands-on reports don't establish one critical detail, and that gap determines whether the Razr Fold smart glasses laptop...

Your Gmail inbox might already be broken. Not crashing, not showing errors. Just silently failing to receive mail while you go about your day, none the wiser.

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.

The debate over Galaxy S26 Ultra design identity is really a debate over what Samsung thinks the Ultra should be. A halo product for power users who want the most purposeful Android device on the market, or the premium size tier in a mainstream lineup? The commercial data and the enthusiast data currently give different answers, and both are worth taking seriously.

Google's late-April 2026 Google Home app update brings a modernized camera interface, consolidated notification controls, redesigned casting controls more broadly, and speed improvements to Gemini voice commands, 9to5Google reported. The changes are unglamorous but cumulative — another round of friction removal from a platform that has been getting meaningfully less annoying to use since October 2025.

Google has released Android Canary 2603, a public testing build that adds a blur filter to the app-launch transition, among a broader set of UI changes. Android Authority reported the blur addition about two months ago, noting that tapping an app from the home screen or app drawer now triggers a progressively intensifying blur layered over the existing pinch zoom animation. When you return to the home screen, the effect reverses, icons sharpening back into place. The whole sequence moves fast...

Government-brokered talks between Samsung Electronics and its largest union collapsed last week without agreement, leaving an 18-day strike scheduled for May 21 effectively on track, Seoul Economic Daily reported. The National Labor Relations Commission plans to issue a formal mediation proposal, but both sides must accept it for a settlement to take effect. With roughly one week until the deadline, the question for memory markets is not just whether a strike happens it's how much disruption is...

Exceeding the Google account 15GB storage limit locks your Gmail, freezes Drive uploads, and stops photo backups all at once. What it does not do, at least not right away, is delete anything. That distinction is worth understanding, because Google's own warning system tends to blur the two.

Android Authority's Stephen Schenck visited a Best Buy this week and found no OnePlus phones on display. A store associate confirmed the devices had recently been pulled from that floor space, Android Authority reported today. Multiple Reddit users reported the same pattern at their own locations, with Nothing phones appearing in the slots where OnePlus units used to sit.

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.

Google wants enterprise IT buyers to stop thinking of Chromebooks as school devices. The pitch behind Chromebook Plus enterprise adoption has become markedly more credible over the past eighteen months: ten years of automatic updates, zero reported ransomware incidents, hardware substantially better than legacy Chromebooks and positioned against Windows 11 AI PCs, and Gemini-related features increasingly tied into the platform. That is a substantive offer. It is also the front half of a...

Samsung is reportedly planning to unveil its first AI smart glasses at Galaxy Unpacked in London on July 22. The rumored Galaxy Glasses would run Android XR with Gemini as the built-in assistant, carry a 12MP camera, speakers, and microphones, and offload all processing to a paired phone — no display, no onboard compute.

Samsung Upgraded PDF Scanner Comes to Older Flagships With One UI 8.5

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Smaller Camera Cutout Leak: What the 2.5mm Punch Hole Means

Samsung Certified Re-Newed Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7 Cost More Than New Right Now

Gemini Workspace Upgrades: New Features, Access, and What's Unproven

Mystic Leaks has shared footage from an early Android build showing Google may be adding a full manual color picker to the Pixel's Wallpaper & style app, Android Authority and 9to5Google reported this week. The Pixel Material You color controls shown in the leak would let users choose any custom accent color directly, replacing a system that has generated palettes automatically from wallpaper since Android 12.

More than 15 years ago, Google introduced Chromebook, a laptop built for a cloud-first world that, as WIRED put it Tuesday, would come to dominate the US education market. Google is now making a structurally similar bet: that AI-native design and Android integration can define a new laptop category before Microsoft or Apple sets the terms.

New leak details suggest the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide will ship with just two rear cameras, skipping the telephoto lens that the standard Galaxy Z Fold 8 is reported to keep. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide camera specs, surfaced this week by SamMobile citing GalaxyClub, describe a primary wide and an ultrawide, both at 50MP. No telephoto. Both phones are rumored for a late July launch, per Android Authority two weeks ago. Samsung has not officially confirmed either model.

YouTube Ad Bug Resumes Video at Wrong Spot: Facts vs. Claims

Google is rolling out a redesigned Gemini overlay for Android, and 9to5Google reports it's showing up on stable Google app version 17.8. The update brings an expanded Tools menu directly into the floating UI, putting Deep Research, image and video generation, Canvas, and Guided Learning within reach without opening the Gemini app.

A Samsung camera team moderator has confirmed on the company's community forum that the One UI 8.5 stable rollout may be causing editing features to disappear from the Enhance-X app for some Galaxy users. A fix is in development, and Samsung plans to distribute it in phases a process the moderator said could take up to three days to complete once it begins, according to Android Authority.

Google Search was not down on May 5. What actually happened was narrower and stranger: a cryptographic error at Germany's domain registry made bahn.de, spiegel.de, and dozens of other .de websites unreachable for users on Google DNS, Cloudflare, and Quad9. The fault was at DENIC, the authority that manages the .de top-level domain. Google DNS users saw a "Google Search outage" because Google DNS was the service telling their browsers the site didn't exist but Google DNS was doing exactly what...

Ahead of Google's Android Show: I/O Edition event today, leaker Mystic Leaks published a 16-minute hands-on video of Aluminium OS on Telegram, one of the most detailed public looks yet at the Android-based platform Google intends as a long-term successor to ChromeOS. The Google Aluminium OS leak confirms the company has built a functional desktop shell. It also shows, in plain view, what's missing.

Galaxy S27 Ultra Battery Upgrade: Why a Dual-Cell Design Is Most Likely

Google's Pixel Screenshots app has a desktop build. Researchers activated a version through the Play Store today whose versioning explicitly marks it for desktop use, not a phone app stretched to fit a larger screen.