Whether you want to install a custom ROM, activate some hidden Android features, or take screenshots in apps that forbid you from doing so, you'll need the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) and fastboot. They're part of Google's SDK platform tools and give you some lower-level access to your phone. You have to prepare a few things before you can start, so here's the comprehensive guide showing you how to get the platform tools up and running on any platform.
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ADB shell commands are insanely useful for numerous reasons, whether you want to make your Amazon Fire tablet feel more like stock Android, granularly change your phone's animation speed, or bring back the 2-button navigation to the OnePlus 7. To run these commands, you have to set up the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) on your computer and connect your phone via USB or Wi-Fi, which is far from comfortable. That's where a new app comes in: LADB lets you run shell commands right on your phone via Android's wireless ADB protocol. But there are some big caveats for people with older phones that haven't been updated to Android 11 yet.
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This story was originally published and last updated .
Google Photos storage will soon count against your quota, which might be a reason why Google is trying to make its camera more economical. Following a big update to Google Camera version 8, the developers introduced a new storage saver option, but that's not all they changed. Instead of saving two versions of a portrait photo, one with the signature artificially blurred background and another one without it, the camera now only saves the bokeh variant. But you can still get the photo with the original background if you really need it — here's how.
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This story was originally published and last updated .
Android and macOS have never been the biggest friends. While Android app development is an easy feat for Apple's desktop OS, the situation is much different for simple file transfers. There is Google's Android File Transfer application, but the program is hopelessly outdated, finicky, and prone to crashes when you transfer a lot of data at a time. You don't have to rely on Google's tool for transfers, though — there are a ton of third-party apps that solve moving files between Android and macOS much better.
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Some Google apps are failing to install on Android 11 when you try to sideload the latest versions from a trustworthy source like our own sister site APK Mirror. Ever since Google released the new Android OS, "The new package couldn't be installed because the verification did not succeed" (INSTALL_FAILED_VERIFICATION_FAILURE) error keeps popping up for some people who want to install the most recent version of the Google Camera or the Google Recorder, for example.
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Twitter recently jumped on the Instagram Stories bandwagon with its own Fleets, fleeting tweets that sit in a horizontal-scrolling section at the top of your feed. Not everyone is all that enamored with the social media app's latest feature, but there is a way to get rid of Fleets if you're willing to put the work in.
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For most of the service's first year, Stadia players were frustrated by their inability to share games with family members. If you and your kids or spouse (or roommates, or whoever) wanted to play the same game with more than one save file, you had to buy multiple copies. But no more! Earlier this month, Google finally relented and enabled family sharing on Stadia. Here's how to set it up.
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Anyone using a non-Pixel device like a OnePlus phone and Google Photos in conjunction probably knows that this can lead to some annoying issues. When you delete a photo in the camera right after taking it, it's possible that Google still uploads it, making you repeat the deletion process in Photos. The solution is simple on recent OnePlus phones: Just disable the pre-installed Gallery. The camera will then preview your shots right in Google Photos, and the app will respect deleted images right away.
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This story was originally published and last updated .
If you're itching to try out Android's new Nearby Share feature, you're in luck. Google started rolling out the feature more widely just last week. Before you can get to sharing files and other content between devices, there are a few things you'll need to do.
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This story was originally published and last updated .
If you have a dual SIM phone, you already know the tremendous convenience the experience can provide. But for all the benefits, there are still apps out there that don't really recognize the dual SIM use case, like WhatsApp. Traditionally, using two WhatsApp accounts on a single smartphone wasn't really possible, but many phones now include built-in features like app cloning or work profiles that allow you to keep two instances of a single app on your device. Even if your phone doesn't have such an option, we've got other ways to work around this annoying limitation in our guide. Read on for more.
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