Android

The Dangbei MP1 MAX is a 4K smart home projector built for big-screen movie nights, sports, and streaming, and there’s a solid deal on it at Amazon right now. Dangbei gives it a hybrid Triple Laser + LED light engine instead of a standard lamp, which helps it stand out in a crowded projector market. See the deal at Amazon

TL;DR Google Wallet is testing a new vertically stacked layout that makes it easier to browse and select from multiple saved payment cards. The expanded card view appears to open separately from the main Wallet homepage, helping keep transit cards, passes, and loyalty cards easily accessible. The redesign is only showing up for a limited number of users so far, suggesting Google is either testing it or rolling it out gradually. Soon after rolling out support for adding physical transit cards and balances to Google Wallet, Google is refreshing the app in one of the most important areas. The tech giant seems to be experimenting with how Google Wallet displays saved payment cards, and we’re all for it. Google Wallet’s card list could soon display all your debit and credit cards in a vertical layout, similar to Apple’s implementation. The development was first highlighted on X, with the redesign rolling out in phases (via 9to5Google).

TL;DR Gemini Live can hear its own voice on some Google Home devices, causing it to interrupt itself and get stuck in a loop. Users have reported crashes, repeated responses, and Gemini creating duplicate timers after hearing its own confirmation. Google has acknowledged the bug and is rolling out improvements, although it hasn’t provided a completion timeline. Earlier this year, some Android Auto users watched Gemini Live hear its own voice and spiral into a conversation with itself. In-car audio setups emerged as a possible culprit, but similar behavior is now surfacing on some Google Home devices. The good news? Google has now acknowledged the bug and says improvements are rolling out. The issue surfaced on Reddit after a Google Home user said Gemini Live had become unusable. Responding last Friday, the official Google Nest Community account confirmed that Live Mode was interrupting itself on some devices and said improvements were rolling out.

TL;DR A standalone Google app could be in the works for Mac desktops. Android Authority has found a direct reference to a macOS app within the latest Google Play Services update. This comes months after Google rolled out the app for Windows computers, along with a Gemini app for Macs. A large chunk of Google’s consumer apps, including Photos, Drive, Gemini, Sheets, and Docs, are already available for Apple’s iOS and iPadOS platforms. However, the list is smaller for macOS. The arrival of a standalone Gemini app has changed that to some extent, and we’re now seeing early evidence that the Google app may be next on that list. You’re reading an Authority Insights story. Authority Insights brings you all the latest exclusive reports, app teardowns, leaks, and in-depth tech coverage from the Android Authority team that you won’t find anywhere else.

TL;DR Samsung could reportedly raise prices for every Galaxy S26 model in South Korea by 149,600 won (about $110) on October 1. The unusual increase would arrive nearly seven months after the phones launched, amid soaring RAM and component costs. Samsung says it is reviewing its pricing but has made no final decision, with no indication of a US increase. When Apple announced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, higher prices than last year’s models felt inevitable. But few expected Apple to use the launch to raise prices on its older iPhones. Now, Android’s biggest name may be reading from the same playbook, as a Korean outlet claims Samsung is considering an unusual post-launch price hike for the Galaxy S26 series. According to Hans Economy, a South Korean carrier has informed retailers that wholesale prices for every Galaxy S26 model will rise by 149,600 won (about $110) on October 1. That would be unusual because Samsung launched the phones in March, putting the alleged price hike nearly seven months into their life cycle.

When Google extended its OS update support to seven years with the Pixel 8, there was a collective cheer from the Android gallery. It was a hugely popular decision that other brands have since implemented across their device ranges. But after pushing this watermark a little higher, Google has turned its focus towards another software-related punt: AI. Unlike older Pixels that still benefit from their extended software support windows, Google is not doling out its latest AI features to just any old Pixel. Instead, these novel smarts are limited to new devices with newer, more capable hardware.

TL;DR Apple’s new Handoff feature, which lets you use the same number on two iPhones, won’t be free. T-Mobile, the only carrier to support Handoff at launch, will cost an extra $5 per month. T-Mobile says both phones should be able to use crucial features like calling, SMS, data, and even T-Satellite. The iPhone 18 Pro, which Apple announced last week, lacks any significant upgrade other than its new chip. Even the new camera Apple touted adds a feature Android brands have had for years. Irrespective of that, something that makes the iPhone 18 Pro truly compelling is the ability to use another iPhone with the same phone number, much like you would with an Apple Watch. This feature is called “Handoff,” and it currently requires carrier support. That means only a handful of carriers will initially support it and may charge you more for the service, especially as they’re giving you the opportunity to sell you another line. At launch, T-Mobile is the only carrier in the US to support Handoff, while Verizon is likely to add support in the coming months.

Credit: Stephen Radochia / Android Authority TL;DR A veteran leaker has dismissed claims that the Galaxy S27 Ultra could get a 4x camera in lieu of the existing 50MP 5x shooter. The source says Samsung will continue to use a 50MP 5x camera, as seen on the S24 Ultra, S25 Ultra, and S26 Ultra. This might be the only telephoto camera on the S27 Ultra, as Samsung was previously tipped to ditch the 3x camera. Two sources recently suggested that Samsung could bring a major change to the Galaxy S27 Ultra zoom cameras. However, a trusted leaker has now poured cold water on these claims. Tipster phonefuturist claimed late last month that Samsung was testing a 50MP 4x sensor (1/1.9-inch) on the Galaxy S27 Ultra. This was echoed by fellow user GalaxyFlash2025, who claimed early this month that the S27 Ultra would ditch the 3x and 5x cameras in favor of a 4x 1/1.9-inch sensor. This 4x sensor would be larger than the S26 Ultra‘s 3x and 5x cameras.

TL;DR Google has opened up a beta program for the Google Drive app on Android. It could give users early access to unreleased features. You can join the beta program from the Google Drive Play Store listing. If you enjoy getting early access to new features in your favorite Google apps, you’ve probably signed up as a beta tester for several of them already. Well, you can join another one now: Google Drive. Google already has beta programs for several of its apps, letting users access pre-release versions with new features under development. However, the company hasn’t offered a public beta program for the Google Drive app — until now.

Credit: Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority TL;DR GrapheneOS has officially merged “Secure Paste,” a new feature designed to stop apps from reading clipboard data copied from other apps. Users will still be able to paste normally, but apps won’t get the same broad access to sensitive clipboard content. After announcing the feature earlier this month, GrapheneOS has now merged “Secure Paste.” The privacy feature is designed to stop apps from reading clipboard contents copied from other apps.

Credit: Android Headlines TL;DR Samsung’s M16 OLED panel is reportedly coming to the Galaxy S27 Pro and Ultra. The iQOO 16 is set to be the first Android phone with an M16 display. That means the Pixel 11 apparently missed out on Samsung’s latest OLED material. Samsung is expected to bring a significant display upgrade to its next flagship phones, and it could give the Galaxy S27 Pro and S27 Ultra something that the Pixel 11 series apparently doesn’t have.

Credit: Rita El Khoury / Android Authority The cheap projector market really took off a few years ago, and the market was suddenly flooded with units ranging from $50 to well over $500. During that time, I invested in a cheap but decent little unit for around $100 that had HDMI support and came with a Roku in the box. While certainly not capable of replacing a TV at this level, it was a great way to watch movies outdoors and gave me a taste of what projector life might be. I reasoned that if these cheap units were this capable, then a real higher-priced projector could likely take me much further. Recently, our living room TV has started showing signs that its days are numbered, and I’ve once again started researching the best projectors. I have to admit I strongly considered a Google TV projector, as many recent models have received praise from critics and users alike. Not to mention, these units have Google TV baked in, so there’s less setup and no extra equipment needed. The more I looked into it, though, the more convinced I became that I might be better off spending the same $500-$1000 on a “dumb” projector.

Credit: Pankil Shah / Android Authority For years, the best Android launcher wasn’t much of a debate — Nova Launcher had it locked down. But ever since its acquisition, that’s changed, and a lot of us have been left launcher-hopping. I’d been in that same boat, and while Niagara and Lawnchair both came close, neither one made me want to stop looking. And the reason it took me this long to find the perfect launcher is that I kept looking in the one place the answer wasn’t — the Play Store. Kvaesitso is a free, open-source launcher that skips Google’s app store entirely, and it’s unlike anything you’ve probably tried before.

The Google Pixel 11 may not look dramatically different from the past couple of generations, but there are some meaningful upgrades across the board. As always, the company has made improvements to the camera hardware. The base Pixel 11 gets an upgraded main camera sensor that captures 56% more light, while the Pro models feature a new 48MP telephoto camera that lets in 30% more light. Of course, those aren’t the only camera upgrades this year. Google has added plenty of new software features as well, including my new favorite, Magic Capture, alongside an iPhone Photographic Styles-like feature called Camera Looks.

When I see my colleagues writing about Android Auto, I get a sense of FOMO because my car simply doesn’t support it. In fact, I’ve never used it — I’ve only experienced it as a passenger in cars with more advanced capabilities than my own. This has left my smartphone as the only display I can use in my own car, which comes with its inconveniences. But adding a $20 gadget to my setup significantly improved this situation and made me feel like I was missing out on far less.

Google Messages is the default messaging app on Android phones, and it only keeps getting better with time. It’s also the default app for all your One Time Passwords or OTPs for sign-in codes or parcel delivery codes, and these messages can quickly make the app feel cluttered. Other than tapping the “Mark as read” button in the notification pop-up or simply ignoring the OTP message since I’ve already read it on my smartwatch, I don’t think I’ve ever manually deleted a single OTP myself, ever! Google noticed this problem and introduced a solution in 2021 to automatically remove OTPs after 24 hours. The Messages app should have given you a pop-up alert within the app to enable it, but there’s a chance you might not have noticed this. If your Google Messages app is looking like an OTP wasteland, here’s how you can quickly check if this feature is enabled or not.

Ever since it was renamed from Bard (I won’t hold it against you if you forgot), Gemini has gone from an intelligent chatbot to a command center that powers every AI feature on your Android phone. Its immensely expanded scope means you can find it answering questions everywhere from YouTube and Maps to enterprise Workspace apps. You will find at least one Gemini-powered feature inside every single app that Google makes, across mobile and desktop. And for some reason, Google is taking a page out of Apple’s book and naming every single one of its gazillion AI features it keeps dropping every couple of weeks. They were still easy to track when there were just a handful of them, but it’s now getting so out of hand that I feel like that meme of a lady with a bunch of incomprehensible math equations floating around.

The Pixel 11 Pro is a premium-priced device, coming in at a starting price of $1,100 for the base, non-XL model. But Google’s offering a freebie with its 11 Pro phones that can help take some of the sting out of that sticker price: six free months of Google AI Pro, a bonus that’d cost you almost $120 if you were to pay for it out of pocket. It’s not obvious how to get it, though. Here’s what Google AI Pro gets you, and how to claim your free six months on your Pixel 11 Pro. What is Google AI Pro?

Quick Settings may have become one of those forgotten good old Android features, but over the past couple of updates, especially Android 16 and Android 17, the panel has sort of had a resurgence. Android 16 introduced resizable tiles, while Android 17 added things like separate Wi-Fi and mobile data controls, alongside a more customizable layout. And with Quick Settings becoming more customizable than ever, I’ve recently started setting up my Android phones in a way that lets me access more features directly from the panel, as I find the default selection of Quick Settings tiles on both Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones still pretty bare-bones.

Tucked inside the new iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max is Apple’s latest flagship processor — the A20 Pro. Like most recent silicon announcements, Apple had quite a lot to say about the new chip’s AI number-crunching capabilities, but the processor also quietly boasts significant improvements for everyday workloads. Apple even claims it “sets a new bar for mobile computing.” The question on the lips of every Android performance enthusiast, then, is whether the A20 Pro will see Apple reclaim the crown as the fastest smartphone. And if it does, can it sustain the lead once next-gen processors from MediaTek and Qualcomm land before the year is out?

Before I get accused of Google-bashing, let me make one thing clear: Google makes some of Android’s best apps. Google Keep? Maps? The Play Store!? I’d find it difficult to ax all of these from my life in one fell swoop. This quality assortment should be expected of the platform’s custodian; however, these apps have one problem: if you’re trying to break free from Google’s binds, using its suite of apps is certainly the worst way to go about it. Thankfully, there is a plethora of open-source Google app alternatives ready and waiting for you. I’ve been on a lifelong mission to install as many open-source apps on my Android phones. Supporting smaller developers is only one part of my motivation; the open-source model favors those who prefer to understand exactly where and how their data is used, how the app is built, and the actual human beings behind it. In some cases, the alternative app may even offer additional functionality beyond what Google provides.

Credit: Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority As much as I love my Pixel 10, it has some glaring issues. The big one is overheating, and frankly, that applies to all Pixel phones in general. Sure, every phone runs warm occasionally, but Pixels seem to be more prone to it than most. I’ve had mine overheat at times even when I wasn’t gaming, using the camera, or plugged into Android Auto. Also, overheating isn’t something you can just ignore. It affects how the phone feels in your hand, how it performs, and even how fast it charges. So instead of waiting for some magic update from Google or upgrading to a new phone, I decided to actually do something about it. It took some effort, but my Pixel no longer runs as hot as it used to.

TL;DR Leaked images show the Fairbuds 2 adopting a stem-style design and a taller charging case. Fairphone says the earbuds will remain modular, but it hasn’t specified which parts will be replaceable. Pricing and full specs are still unknown, with the Fairbuds 2 set to launch in Q4 2026. Wireless earbuds aren’t exactly famous for being repair-friendly, which is why Fairphone’s first Fairbuds were such an oddity. You could replace parts instead of binning the whole thing when something wore out. Now the Fairbuds 2 have leaked, and their new design has raised the question of whether that repairability has survived. Dutch outlet NieuweMobiel has obtained images of the upcoming Fairbuds 2, which Fairphone has already confirmed will launch in Q4 2026. The new buds ditch the rounded shape of the originals for a stem-style design, while the charging case is taller. The images show green and black versions, which mirror the Forest Green and Horizon Black colorways of the new Fairphone Gen 6 Plus.

TL;DR ChatGPT Sites’ new Build Together feature lets multiple people edit, save, and publish the same Site. Sites can now stay private and be shared with specific people, and deployment is roughly twice as fast. ChatGPT can now inspect a Site’s database, and Sites also support custom domains. ChatGPT seems to get a new feature every other day. This time, OpenAI is turning its attention to ChatGPT Sites, which launched about three months ago and lets you create, host, and share websites and lightweight web apps just by describing what you want. Until now, though, building one was mostly a solo affair. That’s changing with a new feature called Build Together, which lets you invite other people to work on the same Site. They can edit, save, and publish changes themselves, which should make the whole process much easier for teams. Say you’re putting together a website for a small event or building a quick tool for work. Instead of one person making every change while everyone else sends suggestions back and forth, everyone can jump in and work on it directly.

TL;DR Google started bringing a live speedometer to Maps in Android Auto earlier this year. Earlier this week, some users reported no longer seeing the speedometer, as well as other map details. Google now explains that some users need to set a destination before the speedometer will appear. It’s a little shocking that it took until this summer for Google to start bringing a real-time speedometer to Maps on Android Auto, but better late than never! Combined with speed limit info in the app, that put some very useful information on Android Auto screens. And largely because we were so happy to see it finally arrive, we were particularly concerned earlier this week when we starting finding reports from users saying that it had suddenly vanished on them. It’s taken a few days now for the rest of the story to come together, but we may now finally know what’s going on here. Android Authority alum and present-day Googler Mishaal Rahman has been following up with users in the Reddit thread where we first saw this issue reported. Yesterday he was able to confirm that according to the Android Auto team, Google’s rollout of the speedometer feature was proceeding as normal. Clearly, though, something was still off — and it took until today for the full picture to come into focus.