Mishaal's Android News Feed
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Android news from an Android nerd
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๐Ÿ“ฑPixel 9 finally gets adaptive refresh rate support in Android 15 QPR1

Adaptive refresh rate support was quietly added in Android 15. Here's why it matters.
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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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๐Ÿ“ฑThe 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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๐Ÿ“บ Googleโ€™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.โ€

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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๐ŸŽงOne 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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๐Ÿ“ฑApp archiving in One UI 7 helps you free up space on your Samsung phone

One UI 7 adds support for Android 15โ€™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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๐Ÿ“‹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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โŒThe 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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Google is rolling out the Identity Check feature it announced last week.

When Identity Check is enabled, biometric authentication will be required for sensitive actions like:

- Accessing saved passkeys and app passwords
- Changing the PIN, pattern, or password, and turning off Find My Device

...whenever your phone is in an untrusted location. This makes it harder for someone to compromise your Google Account. Turning off the feature requires either your biometrics or your Google Account and can only be done when your phone has Internet access.

Identity Check works on Android 15 and later and is available through a beta version of Google Play Services.

Thanks to Matthew Rawling on my Telegram group for the screenshots!
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Mishaal's Android News Feed
Android 16 DP1: Android's privacy dashboard now lets you see the past 7 days worth of permissions access data, as opposed to the current default 24 hours. Fun fact: this was originally supposed to land in Android 13. Google even announced this at I/O 2022โ€ฆ
The November 2024 Google Play System Update adds support for letting you see the past 7-days worth of permission access data through Android's Privacy Dashboard, as reported by 9to5Google.

This is already enabled in Android 16 DP1, but as I mentioned before, Google originally planned for this feature to roll out in Android 13.
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Google is rolling out the Quick Share QR code feature it announced last week!

This feature lets you show a QR code on your device that others can scan to immediately connect and receive your file(s).

This is helpful for when you're having issues connecting normally via Quick Share or when you don't want to change your visibility settings.
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