The Latest on Android: Page 4

Samsung's One UI 8.5 has a dark mode problem: the deep AMOLED blacks that Galaxy users expect have been replaced by washed-out grey across the system UI, phone dialer, and Google apps. A workaround exists, Samsung support has confirmed it helps, and a support representative suggested a future update may provide an official fix, though that is not a confirmed roadmap commitment.

Galaxy phone owners using wireless controllers in DeX Mode have dealt with a frustrating input failure since last fall: the moment the phone screen timed out, analog sticks and D-pad inputs went dead. Face buttons kept working. Movement didn't.

Some Fitbit Air pre-orders began arriving recently, a full day ahead of the official May 26 launch. For iPhone owners, that was a welcome surprise. For Android buyers, it meant unpacking a $99.99 tracker they couldn't use.

Android 17 QPR1 beta 3 contains a setting that would let users hide Gboard's globe icon, the keyboard switch key that sits in the bottom-right corner. The toggle removes the globe key entirely, even when multiple languages or other keyboard apps are active. That appeals to users who want a cleaner layout, but the same report found a meaningful catch: switching back from at least one third-party keyboard becomes significantly harder once the globe key is gone.

Samsung's Bespoke AI WindFree Premium Pro air conditioner includes a mode that detects when you fall asleep and shifts its cooling profile in real time. The feature is called Wearable Good Sleep, and it requires a compatible Samsung wearable on your wrist or finger. Without one, the AC operates like any other air conditioner. That hardware dependency determines everything about how the feature works.

Oppo just launched the Reno 16 series alongside its "Bubble," a touch-capable magnetic rear screen phone accessory that snaps to the back of a compatible phone and delivers something close to the secondary display Xiaomi built directly into the 17 Pro.

Samsung Gallery will stop syncing directly with OneDrive on September 30, 2026. Microsoft's support page, updated earlier this month, sets that as the official cutoff, and Galaxy owners who currently rely on the integration need to update their camera roll settings before that date, not just to keep backing up new photos, but also to keep accessing previously backed-up photos through the OneDrive app.

Reviewed by Julianne Ngirngir

Pixel Watch Fall Detection and Google Account Sign-In Requirements Explained

Samsung Galaxy Glasses Launch: Battery Cert Points to 2026 Release

The Trump administration has directed agency chief information officers across the executive branch to install its official app on all government-furnished mobile phones, with the FAA already notifying employees that the installation will happen automatically on all FAA-issued iPhones and iPads, according to internal communications obtained by Government Executive earlier this month. Current and former federal officials called the move highly unusual. Sonny Hashmi, a former senior government IT...

In March 2025, second-generation Chromecast and Chromecast Audio units stopped working. Owners woke up to an "Untrusted Device" error and a reasonable assumption: Google had simply let discontinued hardware die. Within a week, Google deployed a Chromecast fix, emailed affected users directly, and brought decade-old hardware back online. This week, Google clarified what that intervention actually was.

Samsung's One UI 8.5 quietly dropped a camera feature that users have had for years: native video filters in the stock camera app are gone from Video mode. The update, which brings Samsung's latest Galaxy AI and creative tools to more Galaxy devices, carried no public explanation for the removal, and no changelog entry mentions it. Samsung began the official One UI 8.5 rollout on May 6, 2026, starting in Korea, with additional regions and models following afterward.

Google briefly appeared to mark several older Chromecast models as no longer receiving critical security updates, but the company now says that was a mistake. Google told 9to5Google that the page had incorrectly indicated legacy Chromecast devices were being deprecated, and Google's current Nest security page again lists those models as still receiving critical security updates.

Google announced this week that Gemini is now broadly available in Android Auto, covering more than 250 million compatible vehicles already on the road. That number is the headline. The more important detail is what it obscures: the version most drivers will get is meaningfully different from the one that enables genuinely new capabilities.

The European Commission is moving to compel Google to hand over the ranking signals, query logs, and click data powering its search results, making that information available to rival platforms and, according to proposed measures summarized by ITIF, potentially to AI chatbot services as well. The proceeding opened in January and has since grown into a dispute about whether the data regulators want to open up still describes the thing worth competing for.

Reports of first-gen Chromecast devices disappearing as a cast target in major apps have accelerated this week, and the pattern is unusual enough that observers are calling it something more than normal hardware aging. The first-gen Chromecast not working reports have clustered in a Reddit thread where multiple owners described the same breakage occurring at roughly the same time. Google has not publicly commented. According to 9to5Google, any response from the company would likely point back...

Samsung has begun pushing the stable One UI 8.5 update to its flagship tablets, starting in South Korea. The Galaxy Tab S11 and Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra are the first Samsung tablets to receive a confirmed stable build in this One UI 8.5 tablet rollout, according to SamMobile. Firmware X736NKOU5BZE3 is now live for the base Tab S11; the Ultra is getting X936NKOU5BZE3. Both builds close out the month-old beta program, per SamMobile.

Google is sending enforcement emails to holders of G Suite legacy free edition accounts, telling them their accounts have been flagged for commercial use and that Gmail, Drive, Calendar, and Meet will be suspended within 45 days unless they upgrade to a paid Workspace plan or win an appeal. Users claim personal family domains are being swept up alongside actual commercial accounts, according to The Register, which broke the story this week. Google says it does not use private customer data to...

Google announced at Google I/O yesterday that Wear OS 7 will bring Live Updates to smartwatches, letting status information like package deliveries, navigation, and sports scores surface on your wrist automatically. The update also introduces Wear Widgets, Android 17 design carryover, Gemini developer APIs, and a claimed 10 percent battery life improvement, according to The Verge and Engadget, both reporting yesterday.

Samsung launched what it says is the industry's first 6K gaming monitor today, and the Samsung Odyssey G8 G80HS is built around a single architectural bet: that the most useful gaming display is one that can change what it is. Flip Dual Mode and the monitor drops to 3K resolution and pushes its refresh rate to 330Hz, putting it in the same performance tier as dedicated esports panels. That switch is what separates the G80HS from a resolution showcase with no practical application.

Talks between Samsung Electronics management and its largest union collapsed Wednesday after marathon negotiations that drew South Korea's labor minister into the room for the first time. With no deal reached, an 18-day Samsung Electronics strike is now underway, the second in the company's history. Union chair Choi Seung-ho confirmed the walkout as he left the mediation session at the National Labor Relations Commission office in Sejong: "The union will proceed as planned and lawfully launch a...

If you've opened your Android storage settings and found AICore consuming more space than expected, the explanation is straightforward: your phone is deliberately holding two copies of its AI model at the same time. This is intentional, temporary, and usually requires no action on your part. 9to5Google surfaced a Google support explanation on May 2, 2026, confirming that when a Gemini Nano update arrives, AICore keeps both the old and new versions on-device for up to three days while stability...

Pixel owners are missing incoming calls without realizing it. Phones set to vibrate are staying completely silent, and most users only discover the problem after the fact, when a missed-call notification shows silent mode was active despite vibration being switched on and no automation rules running. If your Pixel isn't vibrating for calls, there are two settings worth checking before you contact support, and one of them takes about 30 seconds.

Samsung has published its One UI 9 Good Lock compatibility list, and the 16-to-8 split in favor of working modules obscures what actually matters. The eight modules confirmed incompatible with the One UI 9 beta govern the home screen, lock screen, navigation bar, quick settings, and notifications, surfaces that Good Lock users are most likely to have customized.

Google announced Wear OS 7 today. The headliners are familiar: better battery life, a redesigned interface, and AI assistance that can reach into third-party apps. None of that is surprising. What matters for anyone wearing a Wear OS watch right now is whether any of it arrives on their device, and when, and on those questions, the announcement is thin.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide vs Motorola Razr Fold comparison is genuinely asymmetric, and that asymmetry is the story. One device has a complete, confirmed spec sheet. The other has confirmed proportions and almost nothing else. Running this comparison honestly means being precise about which claims belong to which category.

A phone can receive every Android update Google promised and still lose the features that made it worth buying. That's not a hypothetical. The Google Pixel 7-year update promise covers OS versions and security patches. It has never covered AI feature parity. As Gemini Intelligence becomes the defining value of the Pixel experience, those two things are no longer close to the same.

Google I/O 2026 kicks off this morning at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET, streaming free at io.google and on YouTube with no registration required. A pre-show starts an hour earlier at 9 a.m. PT, with reporters on the ground in Mountain View, per PCMag. Sessions are uploaded afterward to the Google for Developers YouTube channel, with registered attendees getting first access, according to PCMag. The physical event at Shoreline Amphitheatre runs through tomorrow.

Google Keep's lock screen note-taking shortcut was nearly functional in early 2024, showed an in-app "coming soon" message, and resurfaced in hidden settings in May 2026 without a public rollout. More than two years after the first public evidence appeared in late 2023, Google has not announced a public rollout or timeline, and the feature remains inaccessible to ordinary users without Developer Options. For tablet and stylus owners who were waiting, the gap is harder to explain given...

Google has begun rolling out its Google Workspace app icon redesign on the web, with updated icons now appearing in the app launcher and Chrome's New Tab page. The changes cover Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Calendar, Chat, Meet, Keep, Vids, Forms, Voice, and Tasks, 9to5Google reported this week. Android and iOS apps remain on the old design, with no timeline announced for mobile.

Samsung has relisted the Galaxy Z Flip7 FE on its US storefront, with the 128GB model available again for $899.99 and the 256GB model listed at $999.99. SamMobile reported the restock in early May 2026, , after previously noting that the phone had largely vanished from Samsung's US store for months without any clear indication of whether it would come back. Samsung has not issued a public announcement about the return, and the current product page carries the same standing trade-in offer and...

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.