Android

I miss small phones. I know I’m not alone; even though the latest and greatest handsets from the world’s top tech companies keep growing larger and larger, you don’t need to look far for people lamenting the disappearance of sub-6-inch handsets. So it’s confusing, therefore, to be thinking of this as I write about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8. It’s a foldable phone designed to expand on demand into a miniature tablet. Except when you look at it from the right angle, it’s a fully functioning small phone that happens to fold into a tablet-sized screen. Is the foldable functionality cool? Certainly. But if you ask me, the Z Fold 8 would be better off without it.

With the Pixel 11 series launching in just a few days, all the hype is currently centered on Google’s next traditional flagship lineup. It’s therefore pretty easy to forget that Google actually has a secondary flagship line, one that folds in on itself and costs so much more than the base Pixel products. I remember the hype surrounding the first Pixel Fold back in 2023. “Finally, a foldable phone from a big manufacturer to tackle Samsung’s stranglehold on the market!” many exclaimed. However, given the Pixel 11 Pro Fold rumors we’ve spotted thus far, it’s worrying that Google has seemingly stopped innovating and started settling.

Credit: Joe Maring / Android Authority Back in late June, T-Mobile announced plans to retire many of its oldest legacy plans. Customers on these older offerings would automatically be upgraded to a newer Experience plan, with the average price rising by about $4 per line. Unsurprisingly, this move has caused a lot of backlash, and many customers are now frustrated enough to consider leaving. I understand the temptation, and for many, it could absolutely be the right move. Still, before you jump ship, let’s look at just five things you should do before pulling the trigger.

Credit: Hadlee Simons / Android Authority TL;DR Samsung has announced that the Galaxy Z8 foldables have broken preorder records in Korea. Roughly 1.44 million units were preordered in Samsung’s home market, beating the record previously held by the Galaxy Note 10 range. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 accounted for roughly 70% of all preorders. Samsung launched the Galaxy Z Flip 8 and Z Fold 8 series last month, and they’ll be available for pre-order until August 7. Preorders in Korea close today, though, and it turns out that these foldables helped Samsung break a long-standing record in its home market. Samsung announced (h/t: Yonhap News) that 1.44 million Galaxy Z8 foldables were preordered in Korea. This sales performance broke Samsung’s all-time domestic preorder record of 1.38 million units, set by 2019’s Galaxy Note 10 series.

Credit: Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR Google Play Store is adding sports carousels, richer search results, and better tablet app discovery. Search history now records suggested queries and cleans up duplicate entries automatically. Google Wallet also gets a refreshed experience for passes through Play Services. Google is starting August with a fresh batch of Google Play system updates, and while backend patches often pass without much fanfare, this week’s drop packs a few new features you’ll actually notice. Rolling out as part of Google Play Store v52.6 and Google Play Services v26.30, the update turns the Play Store into a richer discovery hub for entertainment and sports, alongside a few subtle fixes for tablets and Google Wallet. The biggest addition is a new sports experience on the Play Store’s Apps Home. Google is introducing league-specific carousels for major sporting events, starting with tournaments such as the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. Instead of hunting around for where to watch a match, you’ll be able to browse upcoming fixtures and jump straight to supported streaming providers from within the Play Store.

There’s one tiny piece of tech that has rescued me from my own forgetfulness more times than I’d like to admit. It has stopped me from leaving important things behind and, dare I say it (please forgive me, Mom), helped me recover my car keys after I had completely lost track of them. That little lifesaver is an AirTag, and it might be the best $30 I’ve ever spent. Naturally, that means my AirTags have found their way onto almost everything I care about: my car keys, work bag, car, and even the folder containing my important documents. There’s just one frustrating catch. My primary phone is a Pixel 10 Pro, which means I need to carry an iPhone just to use my trusty AirTags.

Credit: Andy Walker / Android Authority TL;DR Several Spotify users are reporting severe loading delays, UI freezing, and stopped background playback on the Android app, while iOS and PC apps reportedly run smoothly. The performance issues seem to affect mid-range and flagship phones alike on Android. Reinstalling the app has provided relief to some users. A Spotify community moderator has acknowledged these user reports. Spotify continues to roll out frequent updates and expand its platform with features like new music video charts and a dedicated running mode. We’ve spotted the service working on a song-identification feature too, à la Shazam. However, a growing contingent of subscribers report that the app’s fundamental playback experience is breaking down, particularly on Android. Reddit user hypothethical notes that on their Galaxy S21 FE, the Spotify app has taken longer and longer to load over the past month. The user complains that the app lags when searching for and selecting playlists and artists, and has even stopped background playback at times. Other Redditors chimed in with similar experiences in the thread, most of which centered on poor experiences with the Android app, while the iOS and PC experiences were largely judged to be fine at the moment.

TL;DR Google Drive now lets you leave comments at exact moments in videos, making feedback much more precise. Timestamped comments work alongside regular comments, replies, @mentions, and other existing collaboration tools. The feature is enabled by default for Workspace and personal Google accounts, but timestamped comments can only be created on the web. Giving feedback on a video shouldn’t feel like solving a puzzle. Yet if you’ve ever reviewed a video stored in Google Drive, you’ve probably found yourself typing something like, “At 1:42, the text needs to be bigger,” or “Around 3:15, can you remove that transition?” It works, but it’s hardly the fastest or cleanest way to collaborate. Google is finally fixing that annoyance. The company is rolling out timestamped comments for videos in Google Drive on the web, making it much easier to leave feedback at the exact moment something happens in a video.

Credit: C. Scott Brown / Android Authority TL;DR We’ve just discovered a so-called Voicecast feature for Pixel phones in the second Android 17 QPR2 beta. The feature is enabled in developer options and lets Pixel users share their voice with others over Bluetooth. Google wouldn’t be the first Android manufacturer to offer this functionality, as Samsung also offers voice sharing via Auracast. Google just launched the second Android 17 QPR2 beta, giving us a taste of things to come later this year. The company didn’t reveal any specific changes or fixes, but we’ve just discovered that Pixels could get an audio-sharing feature currently seen on Samsung phones. 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: Joe Maring / Android Authority TL;DR TP-Link Tapo smart cameras are now showing live video feeds directly on camera tiles in the Google Home app. The update resolves a bug introduced during Google’s 2025 Public Preview rollout that broke in-app third-party live streams. User reports confirm feeds on the Tapo C210, C220, C500, TC82, and TD-25 Doorbell, though a few models remain pending. For years, Google Home has promised to become the center of your smart home, but the experience hasn’t always matched that vision. While Google continues expanding support for third-party devices, one frustrating gap has lingered: many Tapo cameras could be added to the Google Home app but wouldn’t actually display a live feed. That finally appears to be changing, with users now reporting that live streams are once again working for a growing list of Tapo cameras.

TL;DR Google is working on a new “Assign Task” option for Gemini. It will let users assign tasks to Gemini Spark without first selecting it from the sidebar. Users will not be able to access other Gemini tools in conversations with the “Assign Task” option selected. Google is making it easier to use Gemini Spark on mobile. The company was recently spotted working on introducing Gemini Spark Skill management to the mobile app, and now it seems it’s also trying to make it simpler for users to start assigning tasks to Gemini Spark. 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 Google is widely rolling out support for Live Updates in the Google Clock app. The app now shows a running timer/stopwatch as a Live Update in the status bar and lock screen. It’s a server-side update, so it could still take a while to reach everyone. The Google Clock app started getting support for Live Updates for stopwatches and timers last week. At that time, the server-side update hadn’t started rolling out widely, but that’s changing now as Google is flipping the switch for a wider rollout. With Google Clock v9.0, users will see Live Updates when a stopwatch or a timer is running. Previously, users would only see an icon in the status bar, a simple notification with controls for the stopwatch or timer, or the running timer/stopwatch in the At a Glance widget.

TL;DR A leaked roadmap suggests T-Mobile plans to make the T-Life app the primary way to manage customer accounts by the end of 2026. The transition is happening in stages, with upgrades moving first, followed by adding new lines, before new accounts become fully app-based. While the shift could make common tasks faster, customers who prefer in-store support may find the app-first approach frustrating. If you’ve visited a T-Mobile store recently, you’ve probably noticed the carrier nudging you toward its T-Life app. Whether it’s checking your account, managing your plan, or completing certain transactions, the app has steadily become harder to avoid. Now, it looks like that’s only the beginning. According to an image shared by a Reddit user, the carrier has mapped out the next phase of its app-first strategy. This clearly shows that the T-Life app is set to become the primary way customers manage nearly every aspect of their account by the end of 2026.

Credit: Google TL;DR Google Health 5.05 officially introduces Smart Health Links for sharing medical record summaries in the US. The update also brings two-way syncing from Google Health to Apple Health on iPhones. Google says it has also fixed issues affecting VO2 Max, exercise maps, and workout editing. Google has started rolling out Google Health version 5.05, bringing a convenient new way for users to share their medical record summaries with healthcare providers. The update also confirms the Apple Health integration we reported about earlier, along with several other fitness-related bug fixes.

Credit: Tushar Mehta / Android Authority TL;DR Apple is finally working on iPhone-to-Windows clipboard syncing after a Microsoft interoperability request in the EU. The feature will let users copy and paste between an iPhone and a Windows PC, similar to Apple’s Universal Clipboard. Android users have had this functionality for years through Microsoft’s Phone Link and SwiftKey. Apple is finally working on a feature that Android users have enjoyed for years.

Credit: Stephen Headrick / Android Authority TL;DR Telegram disappeared from Apple’s App Store in multiple countries on Monday for unknown reasons. The company says the app has been restored, but it still isn’t showing up on the App Store. Meanwhile, the messaging app remains available on the Google Play Store, so Android users are unaffected. Telegram disappeared from Apple’s App Store on Monday in what appears to have been a worldwide issue. While Telegram now says the app has been restored, its return doesn’t seem to be complete just yet.

TL;DR Google’s second preview release of Android 17’s Q4 feature drop is now available for testing. Like we saw with Beta 1, support for the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro has ended. Google doesn’t include any specific fixes in its release notes, but we’re checking to see what might be addressed. For Google’s most dedicated Android fans, is there anything better than bookending your weekend with a pair of new Android Beta releases? We wrapped up last week with Google dropping Android 17 QPR1 Beta 8, and now we’re hardly wasting any time at all in getting the new week started with the latest QPR2 build. It’s been two weeks since we got our first taste of Google’s upcoming Q4 Android release with Android 17 QPR2 Beta 1, and today Google shares that QPR2 Beta 2 is now available for testers.

TL;DR OnePlus has sold out of the OnePlus 15 and most of its remaining products on its US store. Amazon stock is also scarce, with only a couple of black configurations listed by a lightly reviewed third-party seller. OnePlus is ending new product launches in the US, and the upcoming OnePlus 16 will not be officially released stateside. News will have reached you by now that OnePlus announced it was pulling out of the US, but its phones didn’t vanish overnight. The remaining stock was still available while supplies lasted, and it now looks like that supply has almost run dry. As 9to5Google spotted, the OnePlus 15 has completely sold out on OnePlus.com in the US. Both storage options and both color variants are unavailable, while the OnePlus 15R, OnePlus Pad Go 2, OnePlus Watch 4, and most of the company’s other products have also disappeared from the store.

TL;DR Walmart’s Onn smart cameras advertise support for Google Home with Gemini built in. Users have discovered that Onn cameras aren’t working with Google Home Premium familiar face detection. Engineers have tracked down the cause of this unwanted behavior, and are working to deploy a fix. For shoppers looking to get the most out of their smart home dollar, Walmart’s Onn brand offers a nice amount to like. Besides just being available at much lower prices than Google’s own gear, it also enjoys solid compatibility with Google’s ecosystem. Last year, we got our first Onn cameras, and this summer the lineup just expanded with a couple new models — all advertising full support for Google Home with Gemini built in. But as it turns out, some of these cameras have not been playing nice with Gemini. Getting the most out of your smart cameras with Gemini and Google Home sadly requires an ongoing paid subscription. Google Home Premium offers two tiers at the moment: There’s Advanced for $20 a month with 24/7 video history and all the bells and whistles, as well as a $10 Standard plan. But even the Standard plan includes a few video perks, like support for familiar face detection, helping you spot people you know, and get warnings about those you don’t. Over on Reddit’s Google Home sub, though, one Onn camera owner points out that even with a Standard plan, familiar face detection isn’t working.

Credit: Google TL;DR Countdown clocks for Pixel 11 series pre-orders have popped up on Best Buy and the Google Store. The clocks indicate that you may be able to pre-order before the launch event. The countdown will end on August 12 at 10:00 AM ET, and the launch will happen on August 12 at 6:00 PM ET. We’re only a little over a week away from Google’s hardware showcase, where it will debut the Pixel 11 series. If you were planning on putting an order down for one of the new Pixel phones, you may be able to do it a little sooner than expected. Countdown clocks have appeared on both the Google Store and Best Buy. Unsurprisingly, these clocks are counting down to the time when you’ll be able to place pre-orders on the company’s new products. However, the time left on the clocks suggests something unexpected.

TL;DR T-Mobile has ended its 2G cellular operations. The carrier had already warned legacy users well in advance of today’s termination of service. T-Mobile ended 3G support years ago, but continued 2G for a handful of use cases. What was your first cell phone? Every generation’s going to have a different answer to that, but for a whole lot of us, it was a 2G phone. Rising to prominence in the 1990s, this was the moment when cell phones evolved from bulky, expensive, analog monstrosities to start offering modern digital convenience. While most of us moved on to 3G, 4G, and now 5G devices, some of that legacy 2G hardware was still hanging on at T-Mobile — but today that era finally ends. This hasn’t happened out of the blue — T-Mobile warned customers that it’s been planning to shut down 2G operations on August 3. And earlier today, the signal finally went dark.

Credit: Megan Ellis / Android Authority TL;DR Google is finally starting to roll out “Find in note” in the Keep app. The feature allows you to search for information within individual notes. The feature was spotted on app version 5.26.301.00.90. Finding specific information within the Google Keep app is getting a lot easier. Back in 2025, Google started working on a feature called “Find in note” before subsequently removing all traces of it in the app. However, the experience reemerged last month, and Android Authority was able to get the feature up and running in our APK teardown. Now it seems Google is finally ready to roll the tool out. As a brief refresher, Find in note is designed to help you search for information within individual notes. It can be accessed by opening the three-dot menu within a note. Once you bring it up, you can type your query into the search box and it will highlight all instances of your query within the page. This differs from Keep’s other search option, which surfaces all notes that contain the search term(s) you used.

Credit: Google TL;DR Google has released a new Pixel 11 series teaser. The teaser features the Pixel 11 Pro Fold. Google’s Pixel launch event is just around the corner at this point. Just like Samsung with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 series, Google is building anticipation for its hardware unveiling with teasers. It started by putting the Pixel 11 Pro’s Pixel Glow, or HiLight, front and center in a 30-second ad. The company is now back with a teaser for a different entry in the series. Over on its YouTube page, Mountain View-based firm published the following teaser for the Pixel 11 Pro Fold. Similar to the last teaser, we mostly get only the silhouette of the foldable. However, this video does deliver a quick peek at the internal display.

TL;DR Leaker Evan Blass has been giving us an early look at how Google plans to highlighting the Pixel 11 family with a series of imagery leaks. Following the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, Pixel 11, and Pixel 11 Pro, this afternoon he wraps the set up with the Pixel 11 Pro XL. While this latest gallery doesn’t detail any special Pro XL features, it does show additions like Pixel Glow / HiLight. With not even ten days to go until Google’s August 12 Pixel 11 launch event, there is not a whole lot of time left for all the leakers who have been hoarding pre-release info on Google’s newest smartphones to share their findings. Recently, renowned leaker Evan Blass has been dropping a few image galleries of leaked Pixel 11 pics that appear to come from Google itself, and today he completes the set with the Pixel 11 Pro XL. Blass got us started last week with the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, and quickly followed that up with the base model Pixel 11. Just a few hours earlier today those were joined by the Pixel 11 Pro, and now he’s rounding out the bunch with the publication of some Pixel 11 Pro XL imagery:

Credit: Tushar Mehta / Android Authority TL;DR Microsoft is testing a new Phone Link-related experience. Hovering over a recent message or notification now provides more information at a glance. This experience is gradually rolling out to Windows Insiders. Microsoft has some big plans to integrate Android phones more deeply into Windows 11. This not only includes a new standalone Messages app, but also extended experiences for Phone Link. While it’s said that Microsoft is only exploring and prototyping most of these features, one of the changes is now rolling out as a test for Windows Insiders. In the release notes for an experimental Windows 11 preview build (version 26300.9032), Microsoft announced a new phone companion experience. When you open Start, you’ll now be able to go over to the phone companion and hover your cursor over notifications and messages in the “Recent” section to get a preview. This preview is designed to provide more information at a glance, so you don’t feel the need to pick up your phone or open the item to see what’s new.