Mishaal's Android News Feed
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Google's Gemini app is getting a bunch of new features, including:

- New Spotify extension
- ‘Utilities’ & other extensions to make phone calls, send text messages, etc
- ‘Saved info’ for tailored responses
- New languages for Gemini Live

Details on these Gemini updates can be found in this article.
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Pixels aren’t the only Android phones getting new features today!

Other phones are getting:

- Expressive Captions
- Upgraded Image Q&A in Lookout
- QR codes in Quick Share
- Auto-enhancements in Google Drive
- New pizza emoji combos!

Details on these new features can be found in this article.
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Hands-on: Here's how Pixel's new Simple View feature makes your phone easier to use

The December Pixel Drop adds a new Simple View feature that makes content easier to read. This article shows you everything it does.
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Google officially confirms the Pixel 6 series, Pixel 7 series, and Pixel Fold will get an additional 2 years of OS updates!

The company has updated a support page to mention that these Pixel phones are guaranteed 5 years of updates - including 5 years of OS and security updates - starting from when they went on sale.

This means the Pixel 6 series will get updates to Android 16 and Android 17, while the Pixel 7 series and Pixel Fold will get updates to Android 17 and Android 18.

H/T @nailsad_eleos
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Some users are seeing a new UI for the Google Gemini overlay on Android.

This was first spotted in a teardown a few weeks ago by @AssembleDebug. I haven't gotten it yet, but tipster Mustachedminer has. Here's a comparison of the old UI vs. the new UI.

LMK if you see it!
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Google has published the Android Security Paper for 2024.

This document offers a comprehensive overview of every feature in
Android and the Google Play ecosystem that protects users, developers, and businesses from threats.

It's really long but covers a TON of interesting topics, like hardware-backed security measures, virtualization, sandboxing, permissions, app review policies, and more.

I've already skimmed over it and haven't found anything "new", ie. nothing that hasn't been previously reported, but it's worth a read if you're interested in this stuff!

2024 Android Security Paper (PDF warning)
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📱The new Pixel Drop also brings a platform update to Android 15 QPR1.

Android 15 QPR1 has some exciting new features, including:

- Desktop windowing
- 80% charging limit
- Status bar chips for screen recording

And much more that you can read about in this article.
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The Android 15 QPR1 source code is now available in AOSP!

Branch: android15-qpr1-release

Tags: android-15.0.0_r6 (Global Pixel 6 and later)
android-15.0.0_r7 (EMEA Pixel 6 series)
android-15.0.0_r8 (Telstra Pixel 7 and later)

If you find something interesting in the source code, let me know!
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Vanir is a new open-source tool by Google that helps Android platform developers "quickly and efficiently scan their custom platform code for missing security patches and identify applicable available patches."

The tool aims to significantly accelerate patch validation by automating it. By open sourcing the tool (licensed under BSD 3-Clause), Google hopes the broader security community can contribute to and benefit from it, as well as adapt it to other ecosystems.
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Beginning in Android 16, the default User-Agent string in Android WebView will be reduced to minimize passive fingerprinting.

This is already the case in Chrome on Desktop and Android since version 107.

The default, reduced WebView User-Agent string is as follows:

Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 10; K; wv) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Chrome/125.000 Mobile Safari/537.36

The wv token will remain in the UA string so developers can detect WebView sessions.
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📺 Google’s new community offers a sneak peek at upcoming Google TV features

Google is inviting a select few to join Google TV Advisors, an "exclusive online community where you can help improve the Google TV experience.”

More details can be found in this article on Android Authority.
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The Google Search app for Android is testing a "recently searched" chip at the bottom that shows your most recently searched query.

You can tap it to quickly relaunch your previous search.

@AssembleDebug spotted evidence for this feature during an APK teardown a few months ago, but I just noticed it had rolled out to me the other day.

Anyone else?
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🎧One UI 7 brings one of Z Fold 6's best audio features to more Samsung phones

Samsung's "loudness normalization" feature is now available for the Galaxy S24 series in the first One UI 7 beta.

Here's what it does.
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📱App archiving in One UI 7 helps you free up space on your Samsung phone

One UI 7 adds support for Android 15’s new app archiving feature, which definitely wasn't a given since some other Android 15-based OSes don't support it.

More details on this feature can be found in this article.
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📋One UI 7 enhances Routines so you can automate more things on your Samsung phone

32 new actions have been added in One UI 7, letting you create even more automations through "if, then" statements.

Here's all the new actions in Samsung Routines.
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The One UI 7 update brings a lot of new features ... but it's also taking one away: the lock screen widget carousel.

In previous versions of One UI, you were able to tap on the lock screen clock to show a carousel of full-size widgets.

Details can be found in this article.
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