Android

Credit: Google TL;DR Strings within Google Health v5.04.1 reveal that Google is working on an experimental feature called “Medical Record Infographic.” The feature appears to be designed to transform complex medical lab reports into downloadable visual summaries, potentially using AI. Users will be able to scan physical documents with their phone camera or upload JPG, JPEG, PNG, or PDF files up to 10MB. However, the tool will process only one report at a time and overwrite previous uploads. Medical lab reports are notoriously hard to read for the average person, filled with obscure acronyms and complex reference ranges. Google appears to be working on a solution to bridge that gap. Within Google Health v5.04.1, we spotted strings revealing an upcoming experimental feature called “Medical Record Infographic.” This feature appears to be part of a user experience research study at Google Health Labs, and it seemingly aims to turn dense lab documents into clear, easy-to-understand visual summaries. 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.

Every sci-fi movie I’ve ever seen has pointed at an agentic future. Instead of single-purpose bots, a singular voice assistant that can handle everything you throw at it is the future we’ve been shown. And now, it’s coming. More importantly, it’s coming to the smartphone in your pocket. The future shown let’s me imagine a scenario where, instead of pulling deadlines or data for a slide deck, I can just ask an agent to do that. But not just that — I can ask it to pull that data, compile an email, and send it on my behalf. This is the promise of Google’s newly unveiled Gemini Spark and Android Halo initiatives, announced at Google I/O 2026. For the last few years, mobile AI has felt like a glorified search engine that we have to constantly babysit. Now, Google wants to transition us into an era of proactive and productive agentic AI that completes tasks on our behalf, in the background, without user interaction. All of that sounds great and the enthusiast in me is incredibly excited about not just the sheer productivity leap this represents, but also the fact that I’m seeing science fiction come to reality in my own lifetime. But the journalist in me cannot shake a growing sense of unease about what this means for our privacy and the control we have over our devices.

Credit: Joe Maring / Android Authority Google Maps is a great app overall, but since I’m trying to de-Google my life this year, it’s time to say goodbye to it. Well, at least for the most part. After partly moving away from Gmail, Drive, and Photos and switching to Proton’s suite of apps earlier this year for privacy reasons, I’ve been on the search for the best Google Maps alternative out there. It’s not an easy task since Google Maps gets a lot of things right, but I eventually landed on HERE WeGo, which I’ve been using for the last few weeks.

Credit: Hadlee Simons / Android Authority TL;DR We’ve spotted key details about the upcoming Galaxy S26 FE, with the internal codename “r14.” The Galaxy S26 FE will likely use the same 50MP Samsung ISOCELL S5KGN3 main sensor and 8MP OmniVision OV08A1 telephoto sensor as the Galaxy S25 FE. It will also include a 12MP GC12A2 and a 12MP Sony IMX825 sensor, though it remains unconfirmed which will handle ultrawide versus selfie duties. The Galaxy S26 FE is expected to be one of Samsung’s last major releases for 2026. The company has confirmed that it’s coming sooner rather than later, and leaks so far have suggested a redesigned camera bump, 45W charging, and an Exynos SoC. We’ve now uncovered more details about the upcoming Galaxy S26 FE through our own sleuthing. Based on evidence we’ve reviewed from a trusted source, the Galaxy S26 FE is internally known by the codename “r14.” This is a logical continuation from the Galaxy S25 FE (r13) and Galaxy S24 FE (r12).

Credit: Paul Jones / Android Authority TL;DR Samsung has revealed more details about its upcoming Android XR glasses. The company highlighted how it would thwart creeps who use smart glasses to record people without consent. Samsung also explained how the glasses will integration with your Galaxy phone’s Now Bar. Samsung gave us another look at its upcoming Android XR glasses last week, while also disclosing a few more details. Now, the company has revealed even more information about its smart glasses. Samsung XR executive James Choi told Samsung Newsroom that its upcoming Android XR glasses would include a few measures to combat creeps who use smart glasses to record people without their consent.

Samsung took a bold step with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 series this year, splitting its book-style foldables into two very different devices. There’s the all-new Galaxy Z Fold 8 with its wider, passport-style design, and then the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which succeeds last year’s Galaxy Z Fold 7 with the taller form factor we’ve become familiar with over the years. That strategy, however, also pushed Samsung’s top foldable into a new price bracket. At $2,100 in the U.S., the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is one of the most expensive foldables you can buy today, making alternatives like the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold look much more appealing.

A little over a week ago, Google announced that order tracking had fully rolled out to Google Wallet for everyone in the US. First announced in June, the idea behind order tracking is simple: let you see and track all your online orders — not just those made through Google Pay — in the Wallet app. Google didn’t make much fanfare about Wallet’s order tracking, and when I first heard about it, I didn’t think much of it either. However, after having the feature on my Wallet app for the last few days, I’m completely sold.

Credit: Joe Maring / Android Authority TL;DR GSMA has published specifications for RCS Universal Profile 4.1, shifting focus toward backend reliability, E2EE interoperability, and platform stability over user-facing gimmicks. Users gain native profile-sharing controls to explicitly choose who can view their name and profile picture in individual or group chats. The switch to an optimized gRPC connectionless transport protocol delivers faster message delivery, less battery drain, and enhanced connection stability. Following on the heels of RCS Universal Profile 4.0, which brought flashy additions like native video calls and rich text formatting, GSMA is turning its attention to the underlying plumbing of modern texting. The organization has officially published specifications for RCS Universal Profile 4.1, shifting its focus to building a stronger, more reliable, and more securely interoperable foundation across devices, networks, and messaging platforms. According to the official announcement from the GSMA, Universal Profile 4.1 aims to make cross-platform RCS messaging far less prone to backend glitches, with a heavy focus on refined End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) interoperability. While much of the update focuses on background operations, consumers stand to benefit from two key practical improvements:

TL;DR TECNO has created a concept phone with a truly bezel-less display. The company used advanced internal stacking, structural engineering, and a new screen packaging technique to achieve the 0mm bezel. It will showcase the concept phone at IFA 2026 ShowStoppers in September. Smartphone displays have undergone multiple improvements over the past few years, going from bulky bezels and huge chins to slim bezels that have shrunk year after year. However, if those last few millimeters of black border around the display irk you more than you would like, TECNO might have finally figured out a fix. In a new video, TECNO is showing off its latest concept phone — one that doesn’t just shrink bezels further, but actually eliminates them entirely. The device features what the company calls a true 0mm border around the display. This makes the display extend right to the edges of the phone’s chassis and offers users a “cleaner, completely uninterrupted view.”

Credit: Tushar Mehta / Android Authority TL;DR OnePlus has officially confirmed that the OnePlus 16 is in the works. The company says you should expect a 165Hz screen and a few other gaming-focused technologies. OnePlus says the OnePlus 16 will launch later this year, with a previous leak pointing to October. OnePlus recently announced that it was pulling out of North America and Europe, but that hasn’t stopped the brand from readying its first post-exit flagship phone. We’ve already seen plenty of OnePlus 16 leaks, but the firm has now formally acknowledged the phone’s existence, while revealing a few details. OnePlus executive Liu Baoyou attended the Snapdragon Gaming Technology Awards in China (h/t: OnePlus Weibo) and used the occasion to confirm that the OnePlus 16 was indeed coming. An accompanying slide also revealed that the phone will have a 165Hz screen. Check out the machine-translated slide below.

TL;DR Gemini Spark now works with Chrome, letting it use your signed-in accounts and saved credentials to automate web tasks (with your permission). Sensitive actions still require your approval, and Spark includes protections against prompt injection attacks to reduce the risk of malicious manipulation. Web automation is rolling out in the US, while Spark is expanding to Google AI Pro users in 160+ additional countries. We’ve all had those days where a quick online task somehow eats up half an hour. You open five tabs in Chrome to compare flights, jump between apartment listings, fill out the same contact form three times, and before you know it, you’ve forgotten what you were originally doing. That’s exactly the kind of digital busywork Google wants Gemini Spark to take over. Through its new Chrome integration, Spark can tap into the browser you’re already using and, with your permission, use your logged-in accounts and saved credentials to handle repetitive tasks across the web. That could mean reaching out to landlords about apartments you’ve bookmarked, narrowing down flight options for your next vacation, or getting everything ready for a booking before handing things back to you for the final confirmation.

Credit: Joe Maring / Android Authority TL;DR T-Mobile has launched discounted versions of three unlimited plans for students. The cheapest option cuts one Essentials Saver line from $50 to $30 per month. The T-Mobile student plans are limited to two lines and may come with less generous device offers. T-Mobile has made headlines about plans for the wrong reasons lately, retiring some older plans and moving affected customers to newer, potentially more expensive options. But the carrier now has better news for students, with new discounted plans that bring its cheapest single Essentials line down to $30 per month. As spotted by The Mobile Report, the new Student Perks Savings options cover Experience Beyond, Experience More, and Essentials Saver. A single line costs $80, $65, or $30 per month, respectively, while two lines cost $130, $110, or $60 per month.

TL;DR Earlier today, a major leak showed off the Pixel Watch 5 in Dark Anthracite and Pyrite. Now a pair of new sources attempt to complete the set with Silver and Gold. While Silver is available in both 41mm and 45mm sizes, the Gold only shows up as a 41mm option. Follow tech leaks for long enough, and you’ll likely start spotting a pattern. Early finds tend to trickle out slowly, one by one. But then one day, as we start closing in on the upcoming launch event, the dam just breaks. First there’s one big leak containing some of the best assets we’ve seen to date, and then it’s almost immediately followed by everyone else publishing everything they’d been holding back, almost in one fell swoop. That pattern got started earlier today with some new Pixel Watch 5 imagery, and now the rest of it has just landed. Noted leaker Evan Blass got this party started with some pics comparing the Pixel Watch 5’s 41mm and 45mm options in their Dark Anthracite and Pyrite colorways. And now, the confusingly unrelated EvLeaks X account is adding to that by sharing pics of the smartwatch in Silver (or maybe Natural Silver) and a golden hue that earlier leaks had mentioned could arrive as either Gold or Warm Gold.

Credit: Adamya Sharma / Android Authority TL;DR Google is preparing to let you add website links as sources to notebooks inside the Gemini app. A new Students section could also bring study-notebook creation to Gemini on mobile. We activated both features during our APK teardown of the app, but they’re still in development and may change before release. Google has been steadily closing the gap between the Gemini app and Gemini Notebook, the standalone app previously known as NotebookLM. We’ve now spotted more work-in-progress changes under the hood of the app that should make notebooks in Gemini more useful, especially for research and study. 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: C. Scott Brown / Android Authority TL;DR Galaxy S25 Ultra and Galaxy S24 Ultra owners have been reporting battery drain and overheating issues after installing the July security patch. Users are noticing that the problem appears to be connected to WhatsApp. It’s reported that a bug in the update prevents WhatsApp from completing the backup process, causing it to run continuously in the background. Security patches are meant to fix bugs, not introduce them. However, the latest security update from Samsung may be causing trouble on some Galaxy S25 Ultra and S24 Ultra devices. The affected owners now appear to have found the root cause of the problem. Samsung released this month’s security patch on July 7. After installing the update, an influx of Galaxy S25 Ultra and S24 Ultra users have been reporting (1, 2, 3) trouble with battery life and overheating. Initially, it was unclear what the problem was, but users have narrowed it down to WhatsApp.

TL;DR Leaker Evan Blass has published dozens of images of the upcoming Pixel 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro XL. The images highlight the various finishes the new phones will be available in. Google is set to officially unveil its new phones on August 12. Google’s next slate of hardware announcements is coming up very soon, and leaker Evan Blass has been having a field day trying to beat the company to the punch. The serial leaker’s published images of the Pixel 11 Pro Fold and the Pixel Watch 5 today, and now, we’re taking a look at some images he’s shared of Google’s upcoming non-foldable flagships. Blass published the images in a series of posts on X today. There’s a single post for each, showing the Pixel 11, the Pixel 11 Pro, and the Pixel 11 Pro XL in four colorways each. The images appear to be official marketing renders from Google, and the leak is extensive, comprising dozens of images that show each of the phones from multiple angles.

TL;DR Google’s launching the Pixel Watch 5 next month, on August 12. We’re anticipating the smartwatch to once again arrive in two size options, 41mm and 45mm. A new leak now shows off both sizes of this upcoming model, side by side. August is just a couple days away, and that means that Google’s big summer launch event is nearly upon us. On August 12, we look forward to officially meeting not just the Pixel 11 series, but also Google’s latest Pixel Watch. Ahead of the wearable getting here, though, we’re checking out the latest leak to give us an early look at the hardware, this time in both size options. Leaker Evan Blass is on bit of a roll today, sharing multiple galleries of leaked Google hardware pics. And in addition to all those fresh Pixel 11 renders, he offers one of our best looks to date at the Pixel Watch 5 over on X.

Credit: Paul Jones / Android Authority TL;DR Fairphone is reportedly preparing to launch a mid-gen refresh of the Gen 6. The Fairphone Gen 6 Plus is said to come with more RAM, going up from 8GB to 12GB. The report also says the phone will be available in a new color — Cobalt Blue. Unlike most smartphone manufacturers, Fairphone doesn’t release a new generation handset every year. As such, don’t expect the company to launch a Fairphone Gen 7 this year. However, the brand has previously done a mid-gen refresh. According to a new report, we could be in store for a mid-gen update to the Fairphone Gen 6 in the near future. Sources that accurately tipped off the existence of the Fairphone Gen 6 have informed NieuweMobiel.NL about a mid-gen refresh called the Fairphone Gen 6 Plus. As it’s just an update, don’t expect a radically different device. However, there are two notable differences between the Gen 6 and Gen 6 Plus.

TL;DR Newly leaked images of the Pixel 11 Pro Fold show the phone’s Pixel Glow light active. The leak also includes images of the Pixel Watch 5 and the Pixel Buds Pro 2 in an unannounced colorway. Google’s next hardware event is scheduled to take place on August 12. We’ll have all the official details on the Pixel 11 series soon, with the next Google hardware event just a couple of weeks away. In the meantime, though, early info about Google’s next phones keeps making its way out. Today, we’ve seen newly leaked images of the Pixel 11 Pro Fold that give us our first look at Pixel Glow running on the upcoming foldable. The images were published today in Evan Blass’s Leakmail newsletter. They certainly look like official Google marketing materials, showing off the new Fold in the same Pine colorway we saw earlier this month. The new detail that jumps out here is the Pixel Glow lights you can see in the 11 Pro Fold’s camera array.

TL;DR Snap will hold another launch event for its $2,195 Specs AR glasses on September 16. The event promises the first in-depth demonstrations of their AI, work, entertainment, and shared AR features. Specs are already available for preorder and are expected to ship in the fall. Snap first announced its consumer AR glasses last year, unveiled the finished product in June, and already lets you preorder a pair. Just in case that wasn’t enough launching for one wearable, the company has now scheduled a Specs launch event for September 16. Snap’s newsroom announcement says the event will take place in Los Angeles, with co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel providing the “first in-depth look” at the glasses. The presentation will demonstrate how Specs handle AI assistance, work tools, entertainment, and shared experiences, while attendees will also get to try them hands-on. You can register to watch the livestream, which starts at 4 PM PT.

Credit: Yahoo TL;DR Yahoo has revamped its Weather app. The app has been improved with smarter forecasts, faster and more responsive weather tracking, and deeper insights. Yahoo has also partnered with Kyle Cooke for a comedic in-app experience. If you want to know what the weather is going to be like for the next several days, there are countless weather apps available on the Google Play Store. While most of these apps tend to focus on features and accuracy to set themselves apart, Yahoo’s refreshed app is taking a different approach to capture your attention. Yahoo has announced the launch of a new app experience on Yahoo Weather. The revamped app includes redesigned forecasts that feature a new daily narrative. According to the company, the daily narrative is meant to provide context around changing conditions, minute-by-minute precipitation forecasts, and personalized notifications.

TL;DR Samsung’s new foldables are supposed to have some of the lineups most minimal creases ever. After a week of usage, though, users are sharing photos that appear to show a crease becoming more visible. While we can confirm seeing the same, this is largely a visual effect, and the crease still feels incredibly flat. Samsung’s latest foldables, headlined by the extra-wide Galaxy Z Fold 8, are looking pretty hot right now. Beyond the slick new shape, fans have been impressed by the new “creaseless” display construction, made possible by Samsung’s Flex Titanium system. Recently, though, reports have started suggesting that the smooth, creaseless appearance won’t last, and that the phones eventually start looking and feeling like past generations. Over on X, a user named nieantyfan shares images of what are reportedly two different Z Fold 8 handsets, one brand new, and one after a few days of use:

Credit: Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR Google is leveraging Gemini-powered AI models to overhaul Chrome’s security, discovering and fixing 1,072 vulnerabilities across the last two milestones, more than the previous 23 milestones combined. To handle the massive increase in bug reports, Google has implemented multi-agent workflows in which AI agents automatically triage issues, draft candidate code fixes, serve as critics, and write cross-platform tests. To prevent attackers from exploiting known vulnerabilities before users update, Google is piloting two security releases a week and pioneering “dynamic patching” to apply critical background updates on the fly without requiring a full browser restart. Google is fundamentally overhauling how it secures Chrome, leveraging AI to discover, triage, and patch vulnerabilities at a speed traditional security workflows simply can’t match. As the browser picks up user-facing tweaks like an Appearance menu and under-the-hood scroll performance upgrades, Google’s underlying defense mechanism is undergoing its biggest structural shift in years. According to a deep dive published on the Chromium Blog, the Chrome Security team is now deploying custom Gemini-powered agent harnesses alongside specialized AI tools from Google DeepMind and Project Zero. The push is yielding immediate results: across the Chrome 149 and 150 release milestones, Google squashed 1,072 security bugs, which is more than the combined total of the previous 23 milestones. The automated pipeline even flagged a high-severity sandbox escape bug that had quietly survived in Chrome’s codebase for over 13 years.

TL;DR Recent YouTube and YouTube TV updates on LG webOS appear to trigger the TV’s screensaver during active playback. The bug mainly affects non-16:9 YouTube videos and YouTube TV multiview, with audio continuing in the background. LG support has reportedly shared a power-drain workaround, although users report mixed results. Watching YouTube is frustrating enough when you’re constantly reaching for the remote to skip ads. Now, some LG TV owners are finding themselves reaching for it every couple of minutes for a completely different reason. Recent updates to the YouTube and YouTube TV apps appear to be triggering the webOS screensaver during active playback on some LG TVs, interrupting videos even though they never actually stop playing.

TL;DR Spotify introduced two new features today: Running Mode and User Notes. Running Mode generates custom playlists for runs, while User Notes lets listeners add comments to tracks on their personal playlists. Running Mode is currently exclusive to iOS. Spotify introduced a couple of new features today, but the more interesting of the two isn’t available on Android yet. Starting today, users on Android and elsewhere can add public-facing text notes to songs on their playlists. Spotify’s getting a bigger update on iOS, introducing a new Running Mode that generates playlists made to match your specific workout. Spotify detailed the new Running Mode in a blog post this morning. The iOS-exclusive option lets you customize a playlist starting from a base of one of 25 presets. Users have options to dial in the type of music they want to hear, how long they want the playlist to be, and the tempo of the tracks included.