Android News & Analysis

The mobile controller company Backbone unveiled its Backbone Pro controller this week, which brings iOS and Android gaming experiences to the next level. A successor to the Backbone One controller, the Pro features full-size joysticks, re-mappable butt…

Google I/O, Google’s biggest developer conference of the year, is nearly upon us. Scheduled for May 20 to 21 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, I/O will showcase product announcements from across Google’s portfolio. Expect…

Google announced on Thursday that it’s rolling out new AI-powered defenses to help combat scams on Chrome. The tech giant will begin using Gemini Nano, its on-device large language model (LLM), on desktop to protect users against online scams. It…

Google will unveil a new version of its Android design language at its upcoming Google I/O developer conference, according to an event schedule posted to its website as well as an accidentally published Google blog post. The I/O session title hints at …

Google’s NotebookLM Android and iOS apps are expected to launch on May 20, according to app store listings. The apps are currently available for preorder. Since its launch in 2023, the AI-based note-taking and research assistant has only been acc…

Google Play’s app marketplace is losing apps. From the start of 2024 to present, the Android app marketplace went from hosting about 3.4 million apps worldwide to just around 1.8 million, according to a new analysis by app intelligence provider A…

News about Android is being relegated to a side show at Google’s annual developer conference, Google I/O, next month. On Monday, the company announced it would share information about the latest updates coming to the Android ecosystem at an upcom…

Spotify announced on Thursday that it expanded the availability of its AI Playlist feature to more than 40 additional markets, including countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean. The AI-powered tool, currently in beta on Android and iOS de…

Meta announced on Tuesday that it’s officially launching Edits, its CapCut-like video creation app. Releasing globally, Edits will allow creators to do things like keep track of video ideas, get inspiration for new content, and create videos with…

What is Crocodilus malware? Crocodilus is the latest in a string of Android crypto malware built to steal your cryptoassets.Crocodilus is a sophisticated piece of malwa…

The DOJ wants to break up Google, but Perplexity’s CEO says that’s not the right fix for its search monopoly — it’s more user choice on Android.

About 4 in 10 smartphones in the U.S. are Android-powered, and a new, tiny tweak to their security settings may help your company’s data security.

Norway-based browser company Opera said today that it is making its AI assistant Aria available to Opera Mini users on Android. This move will help users with low-end devices and data constraints access better AI features. Aria AI can help users get th…

The update comes months after Apple pushed its own “inactivity reboot” feature.

YouTube is looking into potentially offering a feature that would allow users to set a daily timer to limit how long they spend on Shorts. Recent findings from the beta version of the YouTube app, first reported by Android Authority, suggest that the p…

Alphabet’s Google laid off hundreds of employees in its platforms and devices unit, The Information reported on Friday, citing a person with direct knowledge of the situation.

The cuts in the division, which houses the Android platform, Pixel…

Even Google’s own Gemini model performed worse on Android than iOS, according to a new study.

Though Apple remains the dominant smartphone maker in the U.S., Google’s Android mobile operating system is a hit with enterprises and businesses thanks to its flexibility and lower price point — with one recent survey by strategic advisory Stratix finding 60 percent of corporate-owned devices running the tech. Now, Google wants to use its Gemini […]

The advisories say the spyware apps are used to target members of civil society who may oppose China’s state interests.

The most severe security bug can be exploited without user interaction, per Google.

A simple trick can remove malicious Android spyware apps that require a password to uninstall.

Despite Google’s intentions for its default image viewing and editing app for Android, the Photos app has, over the years, become one of the most popular photo backup services around. In fact, it was one of the most attractive offerings for years…

Cybersecurity firm Threat Fabric says it has found a new family of mobile-device malware that can launch a fake overlay for certain apps to trick Android users into providing their crypto seed phrases as it takes over the device. Threa…

Have you ever wanted to sign up for an online service but you didn’t want to provide your real email address as part of the process?

There’s a good chance your email address has your actual name in it. Or perhaps you want to avoid the risk of getti…

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/world/canada/canada-eu-military-industry-trump.html?smid=nytcore-android-share Canada is in advanced talks with the European Union to join the bloc’s new project to expand its military industry, a move that would all…

Google announced on Wednesday that kids with Android phones can now tap to pay at stores using Google Wallet in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Spain, and Poland. Parents and guardians in these countries can now allow their children to ac…

Google on Tuesday announced new products and features aimed at healthcare use cases, including improved overviews in Google Search for health queries, medical records APIs, and new health-focused “open” AI models. In Search, Google says it&…

Google will replace Google Assistant on Android phones with Gemini later this year, the company announced on Friday. Google said in a blog post that it’ll upgrade more users from Google Assistant to Gemini “over the coming months.” La…

Text messages sent between iPhones and Android devices will soon benefit from end-to-end encryption (E2EE), after the GSM Association (GSMA) yesterday published new specifications for the Rich Communication Services (RCS) protocol that include support …

Google announced on Thursday that Android phones will soon support Auracast, a new Bluetooth technology that uses a phone to enable a direct connection from hearing aids to audio broadcasts in noisy environments. With Auracast, compatible hearing aids …

Hackers are finding ways to get around safety measures.

Google announced it is leveling up its multiplatform game offering in time for GDC with graphics improvements leading the way.

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi said on Thursday that its Android smartphones sold in India will come preinstalled with Indian fintech company PhonePe’s app store. Xiaomi’s Android smartphones usually come preinstalled with Google’s P…

Renewed calls for Google to sell Chrome have reignited demands for the company to also divest Android. An executive at Murena, a French smartphone startup, said today that breaking up the businesses is the only way to end Google’s “cycle of domination”…

Cybersecurity firm Lookout found several samples of a North Korean spyware it calls KoSpy.
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Google on Tuesday announced new software updates for the Pixel phones as part of its “Pixel Drop” program for March. Pixel Watches and all Android devices are also receiving some new features with this release. The most notable parts of the…

Google announced Monday a series of changes to its widgets system on Android that will make it easier for app developers to reach their users. Widgets, which offer at-a-glance views of an app’s most important information — like the day&#821…

Privacy-focused messaging app Signal has been flying high in the Dutch app stores this past month, sitting many days as the most downloaded free app on iOS and Android for all categories, per data from multiple app-tracking platforms such as Sensor Tow…

Amnesty International said that Google fixed previously unknown flaws in Android that allowed authorities to unlock phones using forensic tools. On Friday, Amnesty International published a report detailing a chain of three zero-day vulnerabilities dev…

Another little-known phone monitoring outfit has quietly amassed half a million customers, whose email addresses are now in Have I Been Pwned.
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WeWard, an app that offers real-world rewards for walking, announced Wednesday it’s signed tennis champ Venus Williams as an investor and ambassador for the app.

The app, which offers users points called Wards for steps taken, lets users trac…

Clicks is bringing its BlackBerry-style physical keyboard case to Android. The company on Tuesday announced the launch of three new products aimed at Android users, including Clicks keyboards for the Google Pixel, Motorola Razr+, and Samsung Galaxy. Th…

Adobe announced on Tuesday it’s bringing its popular design and editing software Photoshop to mobile, starting with iOS. The company plans to launch a Photoshop for Android app later this year. With the new Photoshop for iPhone app, users can acc…

When Apple first introduced MagSafe for the iPhone in 2020, I did not fully appreciate it.

iPhones had supported wireless charging for a few years at that point—and Android phones started doing so in 2012—and while MagSafe offered faster and less f…