Android

Credit: Zac Kew-Denniss / Android Authority TL;DR Samsung is reportedly developing another affordable wearable alongside the rumored Galaxy Fit 4. The device, codenamed Galaxy Aero, appears to run RTOS instead of Wear OS. It could slot between the Galaxy Fit 4 and Galaxy Watch FE if it launches. While recent chatter suggests a Galaxy Fit 4 is already in development, Samsung might have another trick up its sleeve. A new leak hints at a second affordable Galaxy wearable on the horizon, and it could bridge the gap between basic fitness bands and full-blown smartwatches. According to SamMobile, references hidden inside Samsung’s Galaxy Wearable app point to an unreleased device codenamed “Galaxy Aero.” The codebase tags the device as “galaxy_rtos_watch.” This means that instead of Google’s power-hungry Wear OS found on the Galaxy Watch series, the Aero looks set to run the same lightweight Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) powering the Galaxy Fit lineup.

Credit: Hadlee Simons / Android Authority TL;DR The team behind Sunbird has relaunched the messaging app. The app was originally launched in 2022 and allowed Android owners to use iMessage, but was subsequently pulled due to security issues. Sunbird for Android has a two-week free trial and is otherwise available for $2.99 a month or $24.99 a year. The Sunbird app was launched in 2022 and allowed Android users to chat via iMessage with iPhone owners. Unfortunately, it shut down a year later and was pulled from the Google Play Store due to security concerns. Now, the team has announced that Sunbird is back. The Sunbird team announced the app’s relaunch in an emailed press release, noting that it’s available to everyone via the Google Play Store. Messages sent by Sunbird users will indeed show up as blue bubbles on iPhones rather than the green bubbles associated with Android and other non-Apple platforms.

Credit: Joe Maring / Android Authority TL;DR The next T-Mobile Tuesdays giveaway is a free pair of stainless steel grilling tongs. Leaked images show the tongs feature wooden-handle accents, a locking mechanism, long handles, and a scalloped gripping head with a subtle T-Mobile logo. Eligible T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile customers can claim the offer in the T-Life app starting Tuesday, August 11, and redeem it in stores while supplies last. Between making changes to legacy plans, introducing new student-focused options, and rolling out its Experience 2.0 plans, T-Mobile has given customers plenty to talk about recently. And now, the carrier is returning to one of its more familiar traditions: handing out freebies. According to The Mobile Report, the next T-Mobile Tuesdays giveaway is a sturdy pair of stainless steel grilling tongs, arriving just in time for late-summer barbecues.

TL;DR Google is working on a new feature to let users customize the order of items in the Collections tab. It’s also making some UI changes to the Create tab. There’s also a new promotional banner for the Rakshabandhan festival in India. Google Photos seems to be constantly changing, and Google is almost always working on multiple new features or UI tweaks. We recently reported that the app could soon make it easier to export still frames from videos and even add new “Memories games.” Now, it seems Google has set its sights on a couple of UI changes. 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.

Credit: 9to5Google TL;DR A new leak suggests the Pixel Tag will launch in Europe for €34.90, positioning it directly against the €35 Apple AirTag. The Pixel Tag is also said to launch on August 12, 2026, which is when Google will host its Made By Google event to unveil the Pixel 11 and Pixel Watch 5. If Google continues to maintain competitive pricing against the Apple AirTag, the Pixel Tag could end up costing $29 in the US. Google’s long-rumored entry into the Bluetooth tracker market is finally coming into focus with the newly rumored Pixel Tag, its first official tracker designed specifically for Android’s Find My Device network. Leaked renders reveal a compact puck-style design featuring a bottom grille for a built-in loudspeaker. If you’re wondering how much the Pixel Tag would cost and when you could buy it, a new leak is now sharing these crucial details ahead of the official Made By Google product launch event. A new report by Dealabs suggests the Pixel Tag will land in Europe for just €34.90. For reference, the Apple AirTag sells for €35 in Europe, so Google is likely pitching the Pixel Tag as a direct competitor. If we are allowed to extrapolate, Google could maintain competitive pricing with the Apple AirTag in the US as well, which would bring the Pixel Tag’s US price to $29.

Credit: Rita El Khoury / Android Authority I really want a NAS. The idea of buying a new piece of tech I can set up and play with gets me uber excited. But it’s not just about novelty. A NAS would get me off those subscription plans for cloud storage where I’m basically just renting digital real estate and where — depending on the provider — privacy is questionable to say the least. A NAS makes sense in many ways, but there are also several reasons why it doesn’t. Those reasons outweigh all the positives I’ve mentioned, meaning that a NAS is out of the question for me — at least for now. Here’s why.

I love games, whether they’re on mobile or PC. Android games in particular keep me busy during flights or while standing in long queues. As a result, I’ve amassed a collection of favorites over the years that I always install on every new phone I get There are premium games that deserve your money, but when you have a limited budget, free games come in handy to pass the time. I always make sure to keep these gems in my arsenal so that I have an alternative to doomscrolling social media.

Credit: Nick Fernandez / Android Authority TL;DR A trusted leaker reports that the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and Gen 6 Pro will have a GPU with six slices. Qualcomm’s previous Elite chips have GPUs with three slices, while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 GPU has just two slices. This leak therefore suggests that the new chips could bring major graphical gains. Qualcomm will hold its annual Snapdragon Summit next month, and it’s expected to unveil the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro. The Pro chip in particular is rumored to be very expensive, but a new leak suggests we could be in for a major gaming upgrade. Leaker Digital Chat Station has claimed on Weibo that the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 series GPUs have six slices. This suggests a massive GPU upgrade for next-generation Snapdragon chips. Check out the machine-translated screenshot below.

Google Messages has come a long way in the past couple of years. RCS is finally the default messaging protocol on most Android flagships, and small quality-of-life features like read receipts and typing indicators behave the way you’d expect. The app finally feels like a worthy rival to iMessage, and texting between Android and iPhone no longer feels like the downgrade it once did. Samsung, in fact, believes Google Messages has gotten so good that it has even stopped preloading its own Messages app on Galaxy devices in favor of Google’s.

I’ve been using Pixels for as long as I can remember, which is why admitting this feels a little strange: I don’t fully trust Pixels in 2026. That isn’t because Google makes bad phones. In many ways, the Pixel experience has never been better. The software is polished, Gemini takes the hassle out of everyday tasks, and features like Magic Eraser, Best Take, and Call Notes have become so ingrained in my routine that I instantly miss them whenever I pick up another phone. However, Pixels also leave a few crucial boxes unchecked. Every time I consider making a Pixel my only phone, something holds me back. It has little to do with Google’s AI ambitions or its clean take on Android. The problem is far more basic than that. In 2026, I need my primary smartphone to be dependable in a few areas I cannot compromise on, and despite all the progress Google has made, Pixels still have not earned that level of trust from me.

Credit: Tushar Mehta / Android Authority TL;DR SpaceX confirmed it will build a terrestrial mobile network alongside Starlink satellites. The company says Starlink Mobile will launch by the end of next year with next-gen satellites. SpaceX believes its hybrid network can outperform traditional carriers by eliminating dead zones. When reports emerged that SpaceX was exploring a Starlink-branded mobile carrier, it sounded like an ambitious long-term goal. At the time, the company had reportedly been pitching investors on a consumer wireless service, backed by its $17 billion acquisition of EchoStar’s 65MHz of spectrum and a possible terrestrial network to complement Starlink’s satellites. Just weeks later, SpaceX has gone from hinting at those plans to openly confirming them.

Credit: Stephen Headrick / Android Authority TL;DR Starting January 2027, Gmail will no longer support sending emails from third-party addresses (such as Yahoo, Outlook, or custom personal domains) via web or mobile apps. The change also eliminates Gmailify and web-based POP mail fetching. However, native Gmail mobile app multi-account support, Gmail-to-Gmail aliases, and Google Workspace “Send as” options will remain unaffected. Affected users must transition to desktop clients (e.g., Thunderbird, Outlook), dedicated email providers, or paid Workspace plans before 2027. As Google continues refining its web client with features like BCC recipient warnings and custom ‘Help me write’ AI edits, it is also trimming down legacy capabilities. Starting in January 2027, Gmail will officially discontinue support for the “Send as” feature for third-party email addresses, meaning you will no longer be able to send emails from external services like Yahoo, Outlook, or custom domains through your primary Gmail web interface. Google has updated its official Gmail Help documentation to outline the timeline:

Credit: Karandeep Singh / Android Authority TL;DR Wispr Flow has launched a new AI-powered Notetaker that automatically records, transcribes, and summarizes meetings. The tool can identify speakers by name, search across meetings and messages, and let you ask questions about missed conversations. It also integrates with AI assistants like ChatGPT and Claude and supports one-click imports from Granola. Wispr Flow, the AI-powered dictation app that has become popular for turning speech into text across apps, is expanding beyond writing.

TL;DR Boats from the Crest and Balise brands will now come with Android Auto built in. The brands have also partnered with the Savvy Navvy app for navigation on lakes, inland waters, and oceans. Customers who purchase a 2027 Crest or Balise boat will also get access to Savvy Navvy premium for free. Android Auto can be extremely helpful while driving, and you can tweak some settings to make things even better. However, it has so far been limited to road vehicles. That’s changing now, as MasterCraft Boat Holdings has announced it’s bringing Android Auto support to its upcoming Crest and Balise pontoon boats. The company has partnered with Savvy Navvy, a navigation app built for boaters that offers features such as charts, smart routing, nearby boat traffic, and navigation (via MacRumors). The app will display real-time navigation to boaters much like regular maps do on Android Auto, complete with ETA, speed, remaining distance, etc.

The Pixel 11 series is due this month, and with the Pixel 11 Pro, we’ll be introduced to a new, mysterious round LED light panel at the rear that swirls and swirls and swirls. Currently referred to as Pixel Glow, it’s unclear exactly what Google has in mind for this feature, but early suggestions point to a notification alert. Nifty.

Credit: ANBERNIC TL;DR ANBERNIC’s latest Game Boy Advance SP clone is available for preorder today. The ANBERNIC RG SP has a recommended price of $64.99 and a promo price of $57.99. The new handheld has almost identical specs to the firm’s previous GBA SP copycats. ANBERNIC previously copied the Game Boy Advance SP design with handhelds like the RG34XXSP and RG35XXSP. Now, the company is returning to the well once again with a new device, which goes on preorder today. The ANBERNIC RG SP is another unabashed Game Boy Advance SP clone, featuring a familiar clamshell design, a near-identical face button layout, and the same 3:2 screen aspect ratio.

TL;DR Netflix now appears to support 4K streaming in Google Chrome on Windows, eliminating the need to switch to Microsoft Edge for Ultra HD playback. You’ll still need compatible hardware, including Windows 11, a Netflix Premium plan, a supported GPU or processor, and a 4K HDCP 2.2-compatible display. The upgrade doesn’t extend to macOS, where Chrome remains limited to 1080p and Safari is still required for 4K Netflix streaming. If you’re paying extra for Netflix‘s Premium plan, you’d probably expect to get the best picture quality no matter which browser you use. But for Chrome users, that hasn’t really been the case. Watching Netflix in 4K has traditionally meant opening Microsoft Edge on Windows or Safari on a Mac, while Chrome users were left with lower-resolution streams despite having capable hardware. That restriction now appears to be disappearing. According to an X post shared by Saurax (via The Mac Observer), Netflix now supports 4K playback in Google Chrome on Windows, provided you’re running Chrome version 117. The post also includes a screenshot showing 4K playback working in Chrome, something that previously wasn’t possible for most users.

TL;DR Chrome for Android tablets could soon get a fix for an annoying bug with picture-in-picture (PiP) mode. The bug causes audio to continue playing even after the user closes the PiP window. Google developers have already created a fix for the bug, and it’s currently being tested in Chrome Canary. If you use Google Chrome on your Android tablet, you might have encountered an annoying bug with picture-in-picture mode where audio continues playing even after the PiP window is closed. Fortunately, that behavior could change soon. A new commit has been made to the Chromium Gerrit, aimed specifically at fixing this bug (via PiunikaWeb). According to the commit notes, audio playback should not continue in the background since closing a PiP window signals an “explicit user intent to stop playback.”

TL;DR WhatsApp is making group chats smarter with poll deadlines, anonymous voting, and the ability to edit poll questions for 15 minutes @all mentions now reach everyone, including members who’ve muted the chat, though users can disable these notifications in Settings. Creating spin-off group chats is now easier, letting you start a new group from an existing one with a single tap. If you’ve ever tried organizing something in a busy WhatsApp group, you’ll probably recognize the chaos. Someone votes after the deadline, another person changes the topic halfway through, and before you know it, you’re scrolling through dozens of messages just to figure out what everyone agreed on. Thankfully, Meta is now rolling out a handful of updates that aim to make group chats feel a lot less messy. One of the biggest improvements is for polls. You’ll now be able to set a closing time, so voting automatically ends when the deadline arrives. That’s especially useful if you’re deciding where to eat, picking a movie for movie night, or collecting responses before booking tickets. Once the poll closes, late votes won’t keep changing the outcome.

Credit: Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR Google has apparently started emailing users to announce that Google Assistant will begin disappearing from Android phones on September 4. As per the email, the process will take place over several weeks, after which users won’t be able to switch back to Google Assistant. The emails follow Google’s previous confirmation that Assistant will be replaced by Gemini over the course of this year. It looks like Google has started notifying Android users that the long-awaited retirement of Google Assistant on mobile is finally about to begin. In emails sent to users, the company says it will start removing access to Google Assistant on September 4, replacing it with Gemini on eligible Android devices.

Credit: Stephen Radochia / Android Authority TL;DR Motorola has opened Android 17 beta testing to more Razr, Edge, and Moto G phones. Earlier Motorola beta builds suggest UI changes, including new controls, lock screen clocks, and Live Updates. Enrollment is limited and requires joining the Motorola Feedback Network through its community forums. Android 17 has already been available on Pixel phones for several weeks, but owners of other Android devices are still waiting for their manufacturers to catch up. Motorola is making progress on that front, opening its Android 17 beta to a much wider selection of Razr, Edge, and Moto G phones. Nokiamob spotted the new testing opportunities on Motorola’s community forums. The eligible phones include the Razr 70 Plus, Razr Plus 2026, the Edge 70 series, Moto G Power 2025 and 2026, Moto G 2025 and 2026, and Moto G Play 2026. Availability to sign up varies by device and region.

Credit: Spider-Man: Brand New Day Official Trailer TL;DR In the movie Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the characters ditch their Sony phones for Samsung Galaxy devices. Xperia fans aren’t thrilled about the change, going as far as to call the film “one big Samsung ad.” It’s only been days since its release, but Spider-Man: Brand New Day has been a roaring success at the box office. Sony’s and Marvel Studios’ new film has been breaking records left and right, setting the bar very high for the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday. Despite the success, the webcrawler’s latest flick is getting a lot of criticism, and Samsung’s partnership with the movie is partly to blame. For those worried about movie spoilers, don’t worry, I have yet to see the film myself.

TL;DR Leaked images reveal the ASUS Googlebook CX9406, another laptop built to run Google’s Android-based Aluminium OS. The ASUS model follows recent Lenovo Googlebook leaks and includes the same distinctive Glowbar and Google-specific keyboard controls. ASUS is one of five confirmed launch partners, with the first Googlebooks expected to arrive this fall. Googlebooks are still a little way off from their expected fall debut, but the hardware is becoming less mysterious by the week. Shortly after Lenovo’s upcoming models appeared in leaked renders, we now have our first look at the ASUS Googlebook CX9406. 9to5Google obtained images of the laptop from an iF Design listing that has since been removed. The page confusingly described the CX9406 as a Chromebook, but it also identified Google’s Android-based Aluminium OS as the operating system. That’s a big hint that this is something quite different, and it’s not the only clue.

Credit: Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority TL;DR T-Mobile is launching revamped versions of its flagship plans on August 6. The new plans include Essentials 2.0, Experience More 2.0, and Experience Beyond 2.0. The carrier is also introducing new 36-month financing options and student perks. T-Mobile has been pushing loyal customers away by killing off many of its legacy plans. At the same time, the carrier is attempting to attract new members. Its latest attempt aims to take the pain out of switching to a new wireless provider. T-Mobile has announced a new initiative called the “Nothing” plan. According to the press release, the aim is to tackle the barriers that prevent people from wanting to switch, namely the financial barrier. This will see the rollout of revamped versions of its existing Essentials, Experience More, and Experience Beyond plans.

TL;DR Google’s August update for Pixel phones is available now. The update includes bug fixes and a security patch. Pixel 8 phones and newer are eligible. Pixel 6 and 7 phones aren’t listed as eligible for the update. Pixel 8 phones sold by Rogers in Canada may also be excluded. The August software update for Pixel phones has started making its way to users. This month’s update includes a handful of relatively low-key bugfixes on Pixel 10, and also patches a security vulnerability Google categorized as high-severity. Google announced the update in a post on the Google Pixel community forum. The biggest change is that, on Pixel 10-series phones, a few bugs have been fixed: certain game-related crashes should be fixed, as well as GPU and touchscreen issues.