News and Updates about Android

A leaked One UI 9.5 system-app archive lists Samsung's LockStar module at version 9.5.00.0, with a single line of description: "Redesigned lock screen UI & widget layout system." That's the entirety of the Samsung LockStar update leak, reported by NPowerUser two days ago, and it stands out as the most prominent user-facing visual update among a larger batch of leaked Galaxy system apps.

You spend time getting your Galaxy lock screen just right, adjusting the clock to complement your wallpaper and arranging everything exactly where you want it. Then you lock your phone, wake the screen, and discover the clock has moved somewhere else.

If your Android Wi-Fi keeps turning back on after you've switched it off, the symptom can reflect one of three different states: the radio actually reactivated, the phone reconnected to a network it already knows, or background scanning kept running while the radio stayed off the whole time. Each one has a different fix, and figuring out which applies matters more than reaching for a factory reset (Sekin; How-To Geek).

Samsung's Galaxy A15 5G is getting Android 17 in the US, but the One UI 9 update isn't available to every model at once. The rollout began with carrier-locked devices, and even owners of those models may have to wait for their network to release the software.

Google is testing a Google Gemini sidebar redesign inside the Android Google app, and the clearest evidence of it currently lives in unreleased code rather than a public update. A teardown published today found Google app version 17.73.15 running a rearranged sidebar, with the New chat button relocated to the bottom right and the account switcher removed from view entirely, according to Android Authority. The same build also carries a reworked animation for the Gemini overlay, the panel used to...

If your edited Google Photos pictures stopped showing up in WhatsApp's attachment picker, Google has an actual fix. The bug sent edited images into hiding across WhatsApp, Telegram, and a handful of other Android apps, even though the photos never left Google Photos itself. APKMirror founder Artem Russakovskii identified version 7.97 as the fix, while 9to5Google independently confirmed the problem no longer occurs in version 7.98.

Samsung News is shutting down worldwide on December 21, 2026, bringing an end to the built-in news service that many Galaxy owners use for headlines, sports scores, stock updates, and personalized recommendations. Samsung News will stop providing content through its app, home-screen feed, and widget, leaving regular users with a deadline to preserve their preferences.

Search "Google Messages Gemini AI feature poll" and most results point to one specific survey ranking Gemini's reach into Messages as readers' least-favorite feature. The original source behind that specific poll is no longer reachable, so this piece won't repeat a vote count, a named "winner," or any figure that can't currently be verified. What's confirmed through other reporting is the feature that kind of poll is trying to capture: Google's decision to let Gemini tap into Phone, Messages,...

OnePlus has squeezed a 9,000mAh battery, a built-in cooling fan, and high-refresh-rate gaming hardware into its latest Chinese smartphones. The Ace 7 and Ace 7 Pro offer an enticing glimpse of what could arrive in the next OnePlus R-series phone, although the unannounced OnePlus 16R may not inherit everything.

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...

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.

Google revised its privacy policy on Oct. 16 to say that data shared between Gmail, Google Photos, or Drive and certain other Google services may now be used to personalize content, including ads. The update adds an exception to language that previously ruled out using content from those apps for ad personalization, according to The Verge and Ars Technica.

Samsung has begun releasing a second October 2026 update for the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold 8, and Galaxy Z Flip 8, following the earlier security patch that expanded from South Korea to Europe and India.

Samsung's next budget fitness tracker is coming into focus, and anyone expecting a dramatic redesign may be disappointed. Newly uncovered Galaxy Fit 4 renders show a device that looks remarkably similar to the Galaxy Fit 3, with Bluetooth 5.4 emerging as the clearest documented upgrade.

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.

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.

Google's program is scheduled to become available on December 1, 2026, on devices running Android 17 QPR2 or later in the countries listed in Google's official eligibility FAQ, provided a third-party store has completed registration and received approval.