Android is Google’s open-source mobile operating system; think of it like a public park compared to Apple’s walled garden. It dates back to 2007, and though its dessert-inspired version names were retired in 2019 for a straightforward numbering system, there will always be a special place in our hearts for an OS called “Oreo” and “Ice Cream Sandwich.
Google has been testing Live Updates for its Android mapping app for a while now, but some beta users are seeing a new look. Android Authority reports sightings of a new persistent notification that shows journey progress, ETA, the next turn, and flags any spots of traffic ahead.
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Verge Score
Thin is in, but the big battery is the V5’s real magic trick.
Magic Cue mostly lives up to its name.
Google is announcing the change so that developers can get their apps ready for “upcoming 64-bit Google TV and Android TV devices.” There are no changes to 32-bit support.
[Android Developers Blog]
Android Authority reports that’s Google’s internal codename for Android 17, continuing its sweet treat theme. And if you’re confused why we’re back at “c” after all the alphabetical releases, the site explains that too.
[Android Authority]
If you also use 1Password and have an Android device, you may have also been dealing with autofill problems lately. However, updating to version 8.11.4 or higher and following the instructions to make sure Chrome is set to use third-party autofill seems to have worked on my phone to make the app more reliable again.
According to 1Password, the need to update its app and an uneven update rollout from Google caused a gap as Chrome switched from the old compatibility mode approach to the new native autofill experience.
[1password.community]
Android Earthquake Alerts uses the network of smartphones to detect tremors, sending alerts to other phones in the affected area. But in a paper published in Science, the company admitted it had found “several limitations” in the algorithm’s performance during two 2023 quakes that killed over 55,000 people.
It underestimated the 7.8 and 7.7 magnitude quakes, and instead of sending 10 million “TakeAction” alerts, which override Do Not Disturb, it sent just 469.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has proposed giving them “strategic market status” for iOS and Android, since over 90 percent of UK mobile devices run either OS.
It took the CMA since January to figure out what the EU did two years ago, and somehow it’s not done yet — it’ll take until October to confirm the proposal, around the same time it will “begin consulting” on its roadmaps to rein the two in.
If you missed anything from Samsung’s big event earlier this week, we’ve got the highlights for you to watch right here, along with our first impressions of the new Fold / Flip and Galaxy Watch 8 series.
Victoria Song and Allison Johnson also joined Jake on this week’s episode of The Vergecast to give more of their opinions on everything we saw this week, plus some other tech news.
Google first announced an overhauled Spotify app for Android Auto back at I/O 2025, and 9to5Google reports that it’s now arrived. Spotify Premium users can start Jam sessions in their cars, allowing even free users to join in and add songs to a shared queue.
The app’s had a wider redesign too, with a more prominent section for downloaded tracks and proper support for Spotify’s search functionality.
Backyard Baseball 2001 is getting remastered for Steam, iOS, and Android as Backyard Baseball ‘01, releasing July 8th.
The quarter-century-old sports game was the first of the series to include real MLB players, and 28 of the original 31 pros return in the remaster: including Mike Piazza, Carlos Beltran, Derek Jeter, Mark McGwire, and Jose Canseco. So you can reunite the The Bash Brothers to take on some kids.
In an update on Monday, Google says Chrome 138 is the last version of the browser that will support Android 8 and Android 9, both of which were released over five years ago. The browser will continue to work on these versions, but it won’t receive additional updates.
Chrome 139 and up will require at least Android 10 when it launches in August.
The hit roguelike Enter the Gungeon is coming to iOS and Android “soon,” Devolver Digital announced today. Exit the Gungeon, which was delisted from Apple Arcade last year, will also be back on iOS and is coming to Google Play. Playing the games on mobile will be a good warmup to next year’s Enter the Gungeon 2.
Unlike other EV-only automakers, Lucid seems to have come around on phone mirroring. It added Apple CarPlay support in 2023, and then last year, the luxury EV company said it would roll out support for Android Auto in the fall of 2024.
That’s been delayed until today, when Lucid announced that Android Auto is now available in all Lucid Air vehicles via an over-the-air update (Lucid OS 2.7.0). Access for Lucid Gravity owners is “coming soon.”
