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Over the past years, Samsung has become one of the best Android manufacturers when it comes to timely software updates. Only a few months after Android 13 launched in stable, the company’s latest flagships already received One UI 5, Samsung’s overarching software skin on top of the new Android version. And now, one of the most beloved Samsung phones of its time, the international Samsung Galaxy S20 FE, is in for the same treat.
Google Maps now shows you the fastest chargers for your EV
It’s also rolling out Live View in select places and wheelchair accessible filters around the world
Google Maps is an invaluable tool for getting around, whether you’re on foot, using public transit, or going by car. If you opt for the latter option, you’ll have to stop and refuel or recharge your vehicle every once in a while, though. While this isn’t a big deal for petrol-powered cars, EV charging still suffers from different speed options. To help cut short your charging stop, Google Maps now lets you quickly filter out slow chargers. Maps is also launching its new Search with Live View for pedestrians in limited places and expands its wheelchair accessible layer internationally.
YouTube for TV is about to get more annoying
The app has a new splash screen with sound and tests showing comments
YouTube is available on screens big and small, and its apps only recently received a significant facelift. YouTube for TVs isn't done with just that new look, though. The company turned the static splash screen into an animated one, complete with a new startup sound. While at it, YouTube is also experimenting with showing comments on the big screen.
Twitter seems on track to get end-to-end encrypted chats
Musk’s remaining Android developers seem to be working on the long-shelved feature
Twitter is in turmoil, with a big part of staff and contractors laid off following Elon Musk’s record purchase of the social network. It looks like the remaining team is tasked with shipping new features fast, as the latest Twitter for Android version offers a glimpse at some new features that are currently being prepared. Among them is continued work on end-to-end encrypted chats, which Twitter first started looking into in 2018.
Google expands its teacher-approved Play Store apps program
The company wants to make sure kids have a safe experience on Android
Google offers a competent set of parental controls on Android that keep getting better every passing day. But a safe operating system for kids is only part of the equation. Children also need a great selection of apps that are sure to not show them problematic content or ads. Google offers just that through its teacher-approved Kids section in the Play Store. To make it easier for developers to create towards this set of standards, Google is introducing new policies, expanding the program.
Crashing Android apps will now tell you to install an update to fix them
The Play Store will make sure you’re on the latest version when your app won’t work
Despite all the testing and prototyping Android developers do to make sure that their products run well on your favorite Android phone, apps can sometimes just break and won’t start at all anymore. While it’s a rare occurrence, it’s a hassle to troubleshoot and fix, especially if you're not well versed in tech. To combat this, Google is rolling out a prompt that will automatically ask you to install a Play Store update for a crashing app, if one is available.
Google’s third-party cookie killer is almost ready for beta testing on Android
Privacy Sandbox Beta is coming to developers and early testers
Google’s advertising business heavily relies on third-party cookies, and there are many problems coming with them. They’re invasive to your privacy and can track you around the web, knowing exactly which websites you’ve visited and what you’ve clicked on. Google wants to fix the situation with a more privacy-friendly approach, the so-called Privacy Sandbox. It’s supposed to replace third-party cookies on Google platforms altogether in 2024, but until then, a lot of testing needs to be done. And that’s just what Google will soon enable on Android. As Google has announced, developers can sign up for the Privacy Sandbox beta early next year.
Google to simplify location tracking controls following $400 million settlement
Location tracking will soon be even easier to manage on Google's services
Google is facing a lot of regulatory scrutiny in the EU, but other parts of the world are also slowly starting to investigate big tech companies more closely. The search business is feeling the pressure in the US, with a lawsuit built around user location tracking from 2018 leading to a $400 million settlement just this week.
You can now go 64-bit-only on your Google Pixel phone
Google has new 64-bit-only factory images for you to flash on your Pixel 4a or newer
The Google Pixel 7 Pro and its smaller sibling are the first Pixel phones to be released with 64-bit app support only. While this meant that some apps were no longer available on the new series, the move was mostly painless since almost all modern apps on the Play Store support 64-bit architectures these days. With this successful rollout behind it, Google now allows you to optionally flash a 64-bit beta build on all Pixel phones through the Pixel 4a through the Pixel 6 series.
About a month after the Google Pixel 7 Pro and its smaller sibling were released, one of our oldest favorite Android phones is celebrating its first double-digit anniversary. The Google Nexus 4 was released to the public 10 years ago, after its October 29 launch event was canceled due to Hurricane Sandy. While the Galaxy Nexus before it accompanied the big jump from Android 2 to Android 4, the Nexus 4 is the phone that proved that Android phones and software could be pretty, too.
Google’s Material You is spreading to Chrome for desktop
Chrome Canary now changes its theme based on your new tab page wallpaper
Material You is Google’s big new theming engine it launched last year alongside Android 12, and it has been spreading to many Android apps since. However, the dynamic interface theming option hasn’t spread beyond Google’s own platforms just yet, with it remaining locked to Android only. The latest Chrome Canary release, version 110, is changing that and brings Material You to Mac, Windows, ChromeOS, and Linux.
WhatsApp Beta users can now use the chat app on multiple phones at once
It might not take long until it rolls out in stable
WhatsApp is one of the best messaging apps out there, and although it has historically not played too well with multi-device lifestyles, that has been slowly changing. WhatsApp Web and other desktop versions have been available for years, allowing you to chat on your computer, independently from your phone. The app wants to take it a step further with companion mode, a new option that lets you use a secondary Android device for your WhatsApp instance. After weeks of beta testing this with Android tablets only, the latest WhatsApp beta now allows some to pair secondary phones, too.
You can soon send and save ChromeOS screen recordings as GIFs
Sometimes a GIF says more than a thousand MPEGs
Over the years, ChromeOS has become a viable alternative to established operating systems like Windows, macOS, and Linux. The young cloud-first OS has fewer legacy options to maintain than its competitors and can thus be much easier to use for many people. Case in point, screen recordings are trivially easy to create, and now, Google appears to be working on an option to make them easier to share, too. It might soon be possible to save screen recordings as GIFs.
Sign up for a chance to test Google Home’s new interface
It’s now possible to request an invite from Google
Google announced a long overdue full design overhaul for its Google Home app in October 2022. It comes with a Material You look, better controls for smart home appliances, and improved camera feed functionalities. The company promised to offer a preview program for this new Home release and gather early feedback from users to iron out any issues. This preview program is now finally live, and you can sign up for a chance to get in on it from your Google Home app’s settings.
Amazon Photos gets a big redesign on Android one year after iOS
As always, Apple gets the good stuff first
Amazon Photos might not be the company’s best known service, but it’s a worthy competitor to Google Photos. It offers a similar online backup solution for your images and videos. After a big redesign that hit Amazon Photos on iOS in November 2021, that same new look is now finally arriving on Android, too.
YouTube Shorts is now inescapable, coming to a TV near you
The company created a dedicated Shorts interface for TVs
With TikTok kicking off the short horizontal video trend, every other platform went out to get a piece of the pie. Instagram is pretty successful with Reels, and YouTube introduced its own Shorts format for up to 60-seconds long horizontal videos. So far, the Shorts experience has been strictly mobile-only on YouTube, but as the company announced today, this is now changing. Shorts are coming to YouTube for TVs, complete with a dedicated interface that makes the most out of the extra space left and right to the video.
Google's November Pixel update is live now, but you'll still need to wait for big new features
There's also no sign of a fix for the Pixel 7 Pro's scrolling bug
Google normally rolls out its monthly security updates to Pixel phones on the first Monday of the month. If you check your calendar, you’ll notice that today is indeed the first Monday of November 2022 — and as such, the company has just released its November security update, rolling out to all supported Pixel phones right now.
Google Messages experiments with redesigned photo picker
It’s not the new system media picker that rolled out with Android 13, though
Google Messages is currently Google’s flagship texting app, and it shows. The service is receiving a constant stream of updates. It only recently started experimenting with end-to-end encrypted group chats and Signal-style read receipts. The latest test in line is a redesigned photo picker that makes it much easier to access older pictures.
New smart home standard Matter was just made official with much fanfare in a dedicated launch event in Amsterdam. In the midst of all this celebration, one potential stumbling block became clear: if you want to use all your great smart home devices with multiple voice assistants (a new possibility enabled by Matter), be prepared to go through the whole setup processes for each of these ecosystems you want your devices to work with. Thankfully, Samsung, Google, and Amazon are working together on making that much easier.
Google’s new photo picker is now available on virtually all Android phones
The company is backporting support to Android 4.4 KitKat
Google introduced a new dedicated media picker with Android 13. Rather than give apps potential access to all your files via the familiar document picker, this new option offers both a more private and easier to use option for those occasions when you want to share images. Google managed to make this media picker a part of the Google Play Services, which means that you don’t actually need to have Android 13 on your phone to use it. And in fact, Google has just confirmed that it has now backported the feature all the way to Android 4.4 KitKat, first released in 2013.