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Where to find downloads on your Samsung Galaxy phone or tablet
Finding downloaded files on your Samsung Galaxy phone is easier than you think
Samsung has always made it easy to download and store files on its smartphones. The increase in storage in the top Samsung phones allows you to hold even more pictures and videos. Finding those downloaded files is another matter. With many of us keeping tons of data on our devices, finding a picture of your niece or your favorite cat video can be a chore.
What's new in Chrome 95, coming to Android 12 in a new Material You look (APK Download)
Secure Payment Confirmation, Eyedropper support, web app improvements, and more
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The Pixel Fall Launch event and the Pixel 6 may have overshadowed anything else going on in the Google cosmos, but the company also launched Chrome 95 to the stable channel on the same date. If that seems fast to you, it's because Google has accelerated its releases from a six-week cycle to a four-week schedule. And as such, there are fewer new features to be seen this time around. Let's dive into what's up.
Firefox 93 for Android wants to become your new password manager (APK Download)
The latest browser version can act as an autofill service across all of Android
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The last few Firefox releases haven't exactly been exciting on Android, but that's changing with version 93 — if you use Firefox as your password manager, that is. The new release can serve as your password autofill service across all of your apps on Android, much like Mozilla's own Lockwise app (or any other competing password manager, for that matter).
Google Duo is the latest app to get a fresh Material You look (APK Download)
The update is now rolling out on the Play Store
Android 12 is around the corner and Google is rushing to update all of its apps with the new Material You guidelines. In recent days, we got a taste of it in Calendar, Keep, and Drive. Now, Google Duo has also found its calling.
Apps from Amazon and WhatsApp hit 500 million installs on the Play Store
Amazon Shopping and WhatsApp business are the latest to hit the milestone
Amazon is kind of a big deal: while building a gigantic retail sales empire, it managed to compete with Google on multiple fronts (Android devices, cloud services, online advertising). But that retail empire thing is still the company's bread and butter, which is why the official Amazon shopping app is its first to pass 500 million downloads on the Play Store.
Chrome is getting a fresh Material makeover for its system pages
Settings, bookmarks, history, extensions, and downloads ditch the blue for an all-white aesthetic
It's been a few years now since Google gave Chrome one of its biggest makeovers to date — a perfect treat (for most) to celebrate the browser's first decade. Its Material makeover ditched the trapezoidal shapes and drab gray for a modern, rounded look that's more in line with Google's updated design system. However, the lack of theming in Chrome's system pages (settings and bookmarks, for example) is a testament to the absence of consistency in Google's implementation of Material Design. But with an upcoming change, it seems like the company finally wants to apply its attractive design language to Chrome in a consistent manner.
This Google Discover hack has us yearning for the Google Now of old
Remember when the feed was actually useful?
Once upon a time, the screen to the left of the homescreen on Google's Nexus phones and tablets was called Google Now, and it was a genuinely useful feed full of contextual information about things like your commute, upcoming calendar appointments, package deliveries, and so on. This eventually went away as the screen, now Google Discover, was turned into a news feed. There's now a way to get it back, but it's unfortunately limited to those using Xposed on a rooted device.
The smaller, lighter Gmail Go hits a big milestone
500 million downloads is pretty impressive, without general availability
Google's "Go" app variants are a certified hit, even if a large portion of Android users can't actually use them. Gmail Go, the lighter and less resource-intensive version of Gmail designed for handsets running Android Go, has now secured at least half a billion downloads in the Play Store.
Managing downloads in Chrome OS is about to get much easier
Our favorite Chrome OS feature is getting even better
There's no question that Chrome OS does (mostly) everything these days, from productivity to entertainment. One of several aspects we've grown to love is its focus on usability, and we think Tote (formally Holding Space) is a brilliant feature that can take your productivity to the next level. Google is planning on supercharging Tote even further with a fresh update we're sure most would find handy.
YouTube for Android is getting better link sharing
Link to specific points in a video, so long as it has timestamped chapters
It hasn't been possible to easily share timestamped video links from the YouTube Android app, which is a bit of a pain if you're used to doing so from the desktop site. This is now something you can do, although there are some significant caveats — the video must include chapters, and you can only share timestamps corresponding to the start of each chapter, for now.
Chrome's taking these new steps to help keep you safe online
The browser is getting better at recognizing dangerous files you download and keeping you safer from rogue extensions
Browser extensions are a double-edged sword. They can greatly enhance your browsing sessions with grammar checks, price comparisons, memory optimizations, or by blocking unwanted content and annoyances. But often enough, extensions turn out to be security risks, with a recent example being The Great Suspender, a RAM-saving extension that fell from grace after its original developer sold it.
Gallery Go has been experiencing a recent surge in popularity
Installations doubled from 50 to 100 million in under five months
Google Photos is one of the most popular gallery apps on Android. However, it's a relatively heavy one that sometimes requires a high amount of resources to run efficiently. To solve this issue, Google introduced Gallery Go for less powerful Android devices. The app is becoming increasingly popular, as it just passed 100 million installs on the Play Store, less than five months after reaching 50 million downloads.
Gboard is bringing screenshots to the clipboard for easier sharing
Google's on-screen keyboard goes from strength to strength
Gboard is probably one of Google's best Android apps — it's constantly evolving and gaining useful new features. Last year, its clipboard was expanded to allow for easier copying and pasting of images, and now screenshots are being added into the mix for your convenience.
Samsung Reminder gets a UI refresh with better sorting options
Organizing your tasks has never been easier
Samsung Reminder is one of the best pre-installed apps that comes with One UI. It looks good, has plenty of options for organizing your tasks, and even syncs with Microsoft To Do. The app is picking up a design refresh today that makes it easier to sort through different types of reminders and see where they come from.
Disney+ passes 100 million installs on the Play Store after just 16 months
There's no stopping the house of mouse
Disney+ launched in mid-November 2019 to throngs of eager fans — shortly before getting crushed under the weight of so many people trying to stream the first two episodes of The Mandalorian all at once. Despite the usual array of growing pains, Disney has developed a wildly successful streaming service with an incredible catalog of movies and series. It's so popular that the Disney+ app has now crossed 100 million downloads on the Play Store, only 16 months after it launched.
Netflix introduced its Smart Downloads feature three years ago, which automatically downloads the next episodes of a show you're watching while on Wi-Fi, for easier viewing away from reliable internet connections (or on capped mobile data plans). Now the company is expanding the feature to automatically download anything Netflix thinks you might want to watch.
Google Lens has been around for a little over three years now, though it only became a standalone app in mid-2018. In that 2.5-year time span, the app has managed to hit 500 million downloads off the Play Store. That's not bad for a niche app that doesn't come pre-installed on anything.
Google's lightweight Gallery Go hits 50 million Play Store installs
A great alternative to the bloated Photos app
With Google Photos getting as feature-laden as it is, it only makes sense that people would turn to a less storage-intensive alternative. Google introduced Gallery Go for its less powerful Android Go phones about a year and a half ago, and it's already reached 50 million Play Store installations in that time.
YouTube briefly tested cross-device downloads
The UI is live, but the feature doesn't seem to be functional yet
It looks like YouTube wants to make video downloads easier to manage for Premium users. A cross device offline settings entry has popped up and subsequently disappeared in the most recent Android app versions for some. While the feature apparently wasn't fully functional yet, it looks like it might allow you to download videos on your phone and make them automatically appear on other devices someday.
Google Home introduces game-changing media controls and reinstates Routine triggering (APK Download)
Great when you want to cast to multiple speakers at once without setting up a group
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Last November, the Google Home app received a colorful card-based media control interface, which was quite an improvement over the previous one. But multi-room or multi-speaker playback is rather tricky to set up through this card-based interface, and Google seems to think the same. The company has introduced a much more intuitive UI for media controls in version 2.31 of the Home app that lets you cast to individual or multiple speakers and displays on the fly. And Assistant Routines can finally be triggered through the app again following the update.