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LinkedIn wants you to work hard, play harder with its upcoming games
Brace for fun puzzle games like Wordle
When we think of popular social apps which could pivot towards gaming, names like Discord and Telegram are among the first that come to mind. However, Netflix recently proved us wrong with Netflix Games spawning a sea of titles playable on TV and your mobile devices. Now, it appears Microsoft has the same idea, but it plans to pivot a seemingly unrelated platform in this direction — LinkedIn.
Samsung's Galaxy S25 could truly spell the end of small phones
The Korean giant’s next compact flagship might pack a bigger 6.36-inch screen
If you want a compact Android phone with flagship specs, you have limited options. Your best choice is the Samsung Galaxy S24, which packs almost the same internals as its Plus and Ultra sibling in a smaller form factor. However, if a new rumor proves true, Samsung's 2025 compact flagship might not be that compact.
Samsung’s Galaxy AI features are already powered by Google’s Gemini models, but Google may have an even bigger partner on board soon. Reports claim that Google and Apple are talking about a partnership with Gemini at its core which could power some Apple-branded features.
Samsung’s first cheap foldable may be even cheaper than we thought
Samsung’s cheaper Galaxy Z Fold 6 variant could cost $800
Samsung is supposedly gearing up to announce its 2024 foldable lineup, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Flip 6, in July this year. Leaked renders have already revealed the design changes Samsung's book-style foldable might get this year. The rumor mill has also popped up conflicting information about the Korean giant launching a cheaper variant of the Fold 6 in a bid to boost its foldable sales. A new report now sheds light on the possible price of Samsung's entry-level foldable phone.
YouTube Music will soon let you identify songs by humming
The YouTube app for Android has supported this feature since October
A YouTube experiment last August saw select users being able to identify a song by humming. The feature was widely rolled out to the YouTube app for Android phones in October, and it now looks like the YouTube Music app is also on the verge of getting this handy song identification feature.
WhatsApp is bringing back the long-lost swipeable navigation bar
Hopefully, it sticks around for longer this time
WhatsApp introduced a bottom navigation bar to its Android app roughly a year ago to align with the Material Design guidelines. However, this meant that the previous swipeable tabs experience had to go away, although WhatsApp appeared to have a change of heart in June, with swipeable tabs making an appearance in a beta. It didn't take long for the feature to disappear, however, only to make a comeback again in September. WhatsApp then removed support for swipe gestures in subsequent updates, but it looks like the Meta-owned chat app hasn't fully given up on it yet, with the latest beta version marking the reappearance of the swipeable navigation bar.
YouTube Music gains another vital feature ahead of Google Podcasts shutdown
The app is getting the trim silence functionality for podcasts
YouTube Music officially started supporting podcasts in its apps almost a year ago. Although Google said at the time that its standalone Podcasts app wasn't going anywhere, we now know that it didn't pan out. Ahead of the service's expected closure in April, the YouTube Music team is busy giving the final touches to the podcast experience in the app. With this in mind, developers are working on adding a feature that's pretty common among the best podcast apps, including the soon-to-be-dead Google Podcasts.
OneDrive could get some of that Google Photos magic
The app's beta points to an upcoming Magic Erase feature
Generative AI is no longer the buzzword it was in late 2022, as tech companies, both big and small, continue to build their products with some form of generative AI in mind. Unsurprisingly, giant corporations like Google and Microsoft also want to have a significant chunk of the AI pie and have already integrated the tech into their productivity suites — Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. We've known since last year that Microsoft is readying generative AI chops for OneDrive, but its wider implementation has now been pushed to April. In a sign of things to come, a recent beta of the OneDrive app for Android contains strings mentioning a Google Photos-esque "Magic Erase" feature.
Google Wallet will soon support passes from Apple devices
Sharing passes between iOS and Android devices could get simpler
Google Wallet has come a long way since its early days, including going through a couple of rebrands. The consolidated app for passes, tickets, credit/debit cards, boarding passes, etc., on your Android phone is routinely getting better with new features while also ensuring more countries and banks start supporting the app. However, Google's offering doesn't support the .pkpass file format, which is used by Apple for passes stored in its own Wallet app. That appears to be changing now, at least for a few people around the world, who are reporting the ability to import .pkpass files onto the Google Wallet app.
Chrome Canary 124 now supports live translated captions by default
Live Translate was first spotted in April last year
Google Chrome is one of our favorite web browsers, even though competitors like Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, etc., continue to get better with each iteration. Last year, Google was working on bundling the Pixel's Live Translate feature in Chrome, intended to work in tandem with Live Caption, added almost three years ago. However, this Live Translate functionality was not available by default, even in Canary, requiring a command line flag to activate. It now looks like we're getting closer to the feature's imminent arrival, with the latest Chrome Canary 124 release enabling Live Translate by default.
Google’s Pixel launcher will let you change the default search engine
You are no longer limited to using Google as the search provider in Google’s launcher, at least in the EU
In September 2023, the European Union passed the Digital Markets Act (DMA), giving "gatekeepers" like Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet six months to comply with regulations to maintain competition or pay hefty fines. A few months later, Google outlined how it would comply with the DMA when it goes into effect in March 2024. Now, as a part of the changes to comply with the DMA, Google is rolling out a new "search engine" settings option in Pixel Launcher.
Google Photos finally lets you override its document auto-categorization
New categorization options are rolling out now
Last month, Google services enthusiast AssembleDebug shared on X that Google Photos was working on a way to change how the app categorizes images of what it calls "Documents." The new setup would let users manually alter the way various images — screenshots, photos of receipts or event tickets, that sort of thing — are tagged, making it easier to organize that kind of info in Photos. We're seeing those new options on our own phones now: manual categorization is finally rolling out.
Privacy and security of user data are high on WhatsApp’s list of priorities, and that perhaps helps the app remain one among the best encrypted instant messaging apps out there. The company recently started testing a new label to emphasize chat encryption, and other recently-released utilities already help keep your chats secure from prying eyes.
How Android's app archiving will help save space without losing your app data
Coming soon to a phone near you
Last month, certified Android ace Mishaal Rahman shared evidence for an in-development app archival feature. Presumably headed for stable Android 15, app archival lets you save storage space by offloading the majority of an unused app while keeping your user data, making for a smooth transition should you choose to reinstall it. Today, again via Android Authority, Mishaal shared a closer look at how the process will work. It seems like you'll have options to archive apps on demand or to have your phone do it automatically, and the entire system relies on what Google calls archived APKs.
Google Drive is getting an ingenious new categorization system
The feature is similar to the labeling system available in Google Workspace
Depending on how many files you have stored in Google Drive, you may have trouble keeping everything organized. The search function can help you quickly pull up individual files by name, but it does little in terms of organization. Now, Google seems to be working on a feature that would allow users to categorize the files they store in Drive.
Whoever owns AI.com keeps trolling Big Tech
Visiting the URL is like playing Russian roulette with AI chatbots
Way back in 1993, some visionary had the forethought to register AI.com as a domain. While the concept of artificial intelligence dates back decades before that prescient move, the URL has become more topical than ever in the last year, as companies like Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI are locked in a race to get their AI chatbots to the forefront of the zeitgeist. As that's been happening, whoever's in charge of the domain now has been having a ball redirecting visitors to a different AI site every few months.
Our favorite open-source 2FA app finally got the Material You redesign we've been waiting for
Aegis hits all the right marks with its new design
There are tons of great 2FA apps to choose from, but if you like an option that is both secure and stylish, Aegis may be the one to consider. The open-source project has started testing a new build in beta that comes with optional Material You theming, making it look more at home on Android than Google’s own Authenticator app.
Google shuts down its latest attempt at a social media app
The Area 120 experiment called Keen is shutting down this month
Alongside its core apps such as Gmail, the Workspace suite, Maps, and apps exclusive to Pixel phones, Google also devotes considerable efforts and resources to experimenting with new ideas for services which could be spun into their own businesses, much like self-driving car company Waymo. However, 2023 was a rough year for Alphabet Inc., and we are still seeing a ripple effect with the latest shutdown of a Pinterest-style social media platform called Keen.
Google silently fixed your Pixel’s notification history
Tapping recently dismissed notifications finally opens them again with the March Feature Drop
Sometimes, you inadvertently swipe away notifications you may want to get back to later, or that you haven’t even properly processed just yet. That’s where Android’s opt-in notification history comes in, giving you an overview of everything your apps sent you the past few days. On Pixels running Android 14, notification history has been having issues reliably opening apps when tapping recent notifications in it. It looks like this is now fixed with the March Feature Drop, which Google started rolling out earlier this month.
Since jumping ship to Wear OS with the Galaxy Watch 4 in 2021, Samsung has launched its wearable in two flavors: a regular model and a Classic variant with a rotating bezel. In 2022, it added a Pro variant to the Watch 5 lineup instead of releasing a version with a physical rotating bezel. Last year, the company again brought back the Classic model and skipped launching a Pro version. With the Galaxy Watch 7 though, Samsung might expand its watch lineup to include three variants.