News and Updates about Android

Anyone who has moved a spreadsheet from Microsoft Excel into Google Sheets and watched a 3D bar chart silently collapse into a generic 2D version knows exactly what this fix addresses. Google updated Sheets this week to preserve 3D formatting when importing 3D bar charts from external applications, with Excel cited as the primary example, per the Google Workspace Updates blog. The update applies automatically to every account. No admin configuration, no feature flag, nothing to enable.

Google has removed 18 AI Chrome extensions tied to chatbot-jailbreak and overbroad-permission risks after Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 reported them to the company. The removals, which happened with no coordinated public announcement, are one part of a two-part story. The other part is a separate vulnerability, CVE-2026-0628, disclosed by Unit 42 around the same period, showing that Chrome's extension permission framework has a structural gap the company hasn't fully resolved. These are related...

Retailer pricing for Samsung's upcoming foldable lineup surfaced today, and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 price leak tells a more interesting story than a routine increase. The base Galaxy Z Fold 8 is reportedly priced at €1,999 for 256GB, a new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra sits at €2,199, and the Galaxy Z Flip 8 starts at €1,299, according to Android Authority and SamMobile, both citing a WinFuture report drawn from retailer sources. All three models are up roughly €100 from their predecessors at base....

Android users who enabled the "Start Android Auto while locked" toggle and watched it silently fail finally have an answer. Code spotted today inside Android Auto v17.2.662614 confirms that Advanced Protection Mode has been blocking the USB data handshake Android Auto needs to initialize on a locked device, with no warning that anything was wrong. The Android Auto Advanced Protection Mode conflict, it turns out, isn't a bug Google missed. The teardown suggests this behavior is intentional,...

A Samsung Galaxy Glasses leak this week surfaced what appears to be a 27-second promotional video showing the device from multiple angles, and the footage tells only part of the story. The more revealing details come from a companion manager app and embedded code strings analyzed by SammyGuru, reported this week by Android Authority and Beebom: Samsung appears to be building a dedicated controller app for Galaxy Watches, while code strings in a Ring gesture plug-in reference starting and...

Android 17 QPR1 Beta 6 adds three features to the built-in Linux Terminal: custom font imports, multi-window support, and per-shortcut keyboard remapping. Two of them, custom fonts and separate windows, were reported this week by Android Authority; the shortcut controls came from a separate Android Authority report published the same day. The additions continue a customization push that started with Alacritty theme imports in Beta 1 earlier this year.

Samsung's cardiovascular health story for Galaxy Watch has quietly changed direction. A June 4 announcement previewing a June 8 app update positioned Galaxy Watch blood pressure trends as the forward-looking health feature for the next generation, while Vascular Load prominently introduced in 2025 as one of four marquee One UI 8 Watch features was referenced only in passing as something from "last year" (Samsung Global Newsroom). Whether Vascular Load is being removed from existing devices is...

The YouTube Music Library tab has disappeared for some Android Auto users, replaced by a blank screen showing a "No Items" message where saved playlists, albums, and liked songs should be. If you're seeing that message where your YouTube Music Library used to be on Android Auto, you're not alone. Both Android Authority and 9to5Google reported the YouTube Music Android Auto bug earlier today, and a thread in r/AndroidAuto has drawn enough matching complaints to suggest this is wider than...

Android 17 lets the OS automatically steer WhatsApp, Zoom, and other over-the-top calling apps onto a dedicated premium 5G network slice during active calls, without requiring changes to an app's networking stack. The routing kicks in only when a carrier has provisioned a compatible slice, a user's plan includes access to it, and the calling app uses the Telecom Jetpack API. None of those supporting conditions are publicly documented yet, Android Authority reported this week.

Google's official Nest Community account reportedly confirmed it identified the root cause of a YouTube Music playback failure on Nest Hub smart displays and pushed a fix. At least one affected user confirmed playback resumed immediately afterward. If YouTube Music not working on Nest Hub has been your reality for the past few weeks, the short answer is: try it again now.

Android 17 QPR1 Beta 5 dropped last week as a bug-fix release, but the features that make it worth running on a Pixel arrived two months earlier. Earlier QPR1 reporting pointed to three Terminal interface upgrades: a display resolution control, a full-screen mode, and a theme system with Alacritty import support. Beta 5 stabilizes the cycle and brings Pixel 6 and 6 Pro back into the beta program after they were skipped in Beta 4. The Terminal features themselves haven't changed; they've just...

Google confirmed today that a Pixel 4a boot loop fix is arriving in the July Google Play system update. For owners whose phones still function, the fix should land automatically this month. For devices already locked in a loop and unable to complete startup, whether the update can reach them at all remains publicly unanswered.

Samsung's upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 8 may ship with a crease-less inner display and a fundamentally wider screen ratio, according to leak reporting from the past two months. If both changes land as rumored, they would address the two most persistent complaints about foldable inner screens: the ridge that runs down the center, and proportions too tall and narrow to feel like a real tablet. Samsung is expected to announce the lineup at Galaxy Unpacked on July 22.

Some Pixel owners are missing calls that never ring and never show up as missed. The phone sits there looking normal while the caller hits voicemail. Complaints have accumulated on Reddit and Google's Issue Tracker across multiple Pixel models, with no confirmed cause and no fix, according to Android Police this week.

Google pushed the Pixel Camera 10.4 update to the Play Store this week with no new features, no interface changes, and three bug fixes. One of those fixes addresses a camera service crash that affects overall system stability across every supported Pixel from the Pixel 6 through the Pixel 10a. Another can bring down the phone itself, not just the app. For a maintenance release, this one carries some weight.

Google is rolling out Android per-app backup controls to Pixel devices, letting users see exactly which apps are storing data to their Google Account and disable individual ones. 9to5Google spotted the feature two days ago; BGR confirmed it today. The rollout covers Pixel hardware running stable Android 16 and 17 with Google Play services version 26.24. Samsung devices checked at the same time did not show the feature, 9to5Google reported. Google has not published an announcement or confirmed...

Samsung has published teaser imagery showing a book-style foldable device with a visibly wider unfolded profile than its current Fold lineup. No display dimensions, pricing, product name, or launch date have been confirmed. What the imagery establishes is a visual direction. What remains unconfirmed is everything else.

Android 17 dropped on Pixel devices two weeks ago, and the reaction was mostly a shrug. If you think Android 17 updates have lost their magic, you're half right but you're looking at the wrong problem. The visible additions are real and useful. What's actually broken is what happens after Google ships the update: the long, uneven, often indefinite journey it takes to reach the 3 billion Android devices it's supposed to protect.

Samsung may have accidentally surfaced the date for its next Galaxy Unpacked event. The Samsung Members app in Malaysia served up vouchers this week tied to unannounced foldables and wearables, both redeemable starting July 22 a date that an independent report had already named as the probable Unpacked window nearly two months earlier. No official invitation has been issued, but the convergence of a Samsung-operated promotional system and a prior independent report on the same specific date...

Google confirmed in January 2026 that the Pixel Take a Message bug had caused ambient audio from owners' surroundings to be transmitted to incoming callers on some Pixel 4 and 5 devices, with no dedicated Take a Message alert beyond the system microphone indicator. The company responded by remotely disabling Take a Message and next-generation Call Screen on those devices. Based on available reporting reviewed here, that appears to be the only Pixel call failure Google has publicly confirmed.

Some Google Home and Google Nest speakers are refusing to respond or taking unusually long to do so, with multiple users reporting the same failure pattern, and the symptom profile points more toward a possible backend service disruption than widespread broken hardware, Android Police reports. The scope remains unclear, but the reports are specific enough to be diagnostically useful.

Leaked screenshots of a Samsung Galaxy Glasses companion app show a settings interface organized around notifications, lens configuration, and customizable gesture controls, including wink detection. No specs, pricing, or launch date were included. What the leak does offer is a look at how Samsung appears to be framing the product's purpose, and that framing is worth examining closely.

Google has shut down the Tenor API today, and platforms including X, Discord, WhatsApp, and Bluesky that built GIF search into their products using it are now scrambling for replacements. The Google Tenor API shutdown doesn't touch Tenor's website or its integrations inside Google's own apps. What ends today is third-party access, full stop.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra still is not official, but the evidence is getting harder to dismiss. FCC filings, WPC case certifications, and leaked case images all point to a two-model Fold 8 lineup in which Samsung's premium "Ultra" label may land on the more familiar, narrow book-style design.

Google's Gemini note-taker in Meet is now available to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers, the company announced today, extending a feature that had previously been limited to eligible Workspace business customers. The Google Meet Gemini note-taker goes live immediately on web and mobile, in select languages, for meetings the subscriber hosts.

A Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 specs leak published today by Ice Universe claims the watch will carry an 800mAh battery and an AMOLED display rated at 5,000 nits peak brightness upgrades that, if accurate, would address the two most practical limitations of the original model. The timing gives the claims added credibility: model SM-L715, believed to be the cellular Ultra 2, has already cleared FCC certification, and Samsung's Unpacked event in London is expected July 22, less than four weeks...

Last Wednesday, two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela in quick succession a 7.2 followed seconds later by a 7.5 and many Venezuelans say their Android phones buzzed with warnings before the ground moved. That claim is the center of this article. Not because it proves lives were saved, but because it raises a pointed question: did a consumer smartphone feature just serve as de facto early-warning infrastructure in a country that has none of the conventional kind?

YouTube rolled out four changes to the Shorts player this week, and the most consequential has nothing to do with playback speed. The YouTube Shorts 2x playback update is the feature getting attention, but the structural change sits elsewhere: the dislike button is gone from Shorts, replaced by explicit recommendation controls that route negative feedback directly to YouTube's algorithm rather than surfacing it to creators, per the YouTube Blog announcement.

Searches for a "Google Signature app for Android" surface a real, documented product just not a standalone app. Google's documented signing workflow lives inside Google Docs and Drive, restricted to Workspace subscribers, handling the full signature request lifecycle without leaving the document environment. The other Android "signature" system is a developer security mechanism for app distribution, unrelated to contracts or PDFs.

Code buried in a beta release of Google Play Services suggests Android users may soon have more granular Android backup controls than the platform has ever offered, with the ability to choose which categories of data get sent to the cloud and delete categories already sitting on Google's servers. Until now, Android's documented backup system has put those decisions in developers' hands, with users getting little direct say.

After months of Pixel bootloop complaints tied to Google's March, April, and May 2026 software updates, Google has not issued a universal over-the-air fix for affected phones.

Samsung's Galaxy A27 goes on sale July 14 at $349.99, a $50 jump over the Galaxy A26 it replaces. Android Police attributes the Samsung Galaxy A27 price increase largely to a RAM shortage, not to meaningful spec improvements. The timing makes the story stranger: when Samsung's Czech Republic website accidentally published the A27's product page two weeks before that report, it listed Samsung DeX as a supported feature. The page came down. DeX has not appeared in any confirmed launch materials...

A reviewed OnePlus Nord 6 package included an 80W SuperVOOC charger, a red charging cable, and a color-matched silicone case, according to GSMArena's early review unit writeup. That accessory set stands out because the Nord 6 uses OnePlus' proprietary fast-charging system, so the included adapter is the box item most likely to affect day-one performance.

Google Photos Wardrobe Feature: What It Does and What's Still Unknown

Google Photos is adding a top-level toggle to disable Ask Photos directly from the Search tab, Ars Technica reported earlier this year. The change follows user complaints about the Gemini-powered search experience, and Google Photos head Shimrit Ben-Yair went on record about it, saying the company "has heard the complaints." Until the toggle ships, turning off Ask Photos still requires navigating three levels into the app's settings.

Samsung's February 2026 Unpacked event in San Francisco wasn't primarily a phone launch. It was the clearest statement yet of what Samsung wants Galaxy events to be: a platform announcement built around agentic AI, backed by visible privacy architecture, and extended across devices, software partnerships, and corporate messaging. That template, not any single product, is what the next Samsung Galaxy Unpacked will almost certainly follow.