What’s new in Android’s July 2026 Google System Updates [U]

The monthly “Google System Release Notes” primarily detail what’s new in Play services, Play Store, and Play system update across Android phones/tablets, Wear OS, Google/Android TV, Auto, and PC. Some features apply to end users, while others are aimed at developers.

The following first-party apps comprise the “Google System”:

• Adaptive Connectivity Services: Search the “All apps” list in Settings and open App info for the version number
• Android System Intelligence: App info
• Android System Key Verifier: App info
• Android System SafetyCore: App info
• Android System WebView: App info
• Android TV Core Services
• Device Health Services: App info
• Google Partner Setup: App info
• Google Play Protect Service: App info
• Google Play services: App info
• Google Play Services for AR: App info
• Google Play Store: App info
• Google Play system update: Settings > About phone > Android version
• Private Compute Services: App info
• Quick Share Extension
• Settings Services: App info
• SIM Manager: App info
• System parental controls: App info

To update, open the Settings app > tap your name at the very top for “Google services” (on Pixel) > All services tab > Privacy & security > System services.

A feature appearing in the changelog does not mean it’s widely available. Some capabilities take months to fully launch.

Google Play services v26.28 (2026-07-20)

Account Management

• [Phone] This update adds support for audio permission in WebViews.
• [Phone] This update adds support for device manufacturers to launch storage management and subscription flows.

Developer Services

• [TV] Add TV support for the Android Credential Manager, making it easier to use saved passwords and passkeys, including the option to use your phone for passkey authentication.

Device Connectivity

• [Auto, Phone, TV] With this update, additional quality logging is now available.
• [Phone] Bug fixes for Device Connections related services.

Safety & Emergency

• [Phone] You can now find your device IMEI on the lock screen.

Wallet

• [Phone] You’ll return to your previous screen after you complete, cancel, or encounter an error in My Account instead of the Wallet home screen.

Google Play Store v52.4 (2026-07-20)

• [Phone] With this update, we show natural language queries.
• [Phone] This update expands search suggestions and the search input box to 2 lines.
• [Phone] Limited mobile data usage for restoring apps in India, Nigeria, and Indonesia.
• [Phone] You’ll now have the option to add an app’s widget to your home screen during app installation.

Android WebView v151 (2026-07-15)

• The HTTP Cache Quota API allows app developers to optimize and manually manage the WebView HTTP cache size.
• This is a migration that moves Android WebView visited links infrastructure over to partitioned-aware visited links infrastructure with no behavioral change.
• Improvements to security and privacy and updates for bug fixes.
• New developer features for Google & 3rd party app developers to support functionality related to displaying web content in their apps.

Important: Some features may be experimental and available to certain users.

Google Play Store v52.3 (2026-07-13)

• [Phone] You’ll now get an improved content layout and higher content density on large screens.
• [Phone] You can now identify AI-generated images in the EU by the AI label, though certain formats or older images may not support the tag yet.
• [Wear] With this update, the Wear details page now uses the Univision architecture instead of the legacy fragment architecture.

Android AICore

• [PC, Phone] Changes to safety filtering for features with streaming output, improvements to model download and model management, and additional diagnostics for multimodal inferencing and API latencies.

Android System Intelligence V.76 (2026-07-13)

• [Phone] Bug fixes and maintenance changes.

Private Compute Services B.27 / C.5 (2026-07-10)

• [Phone] Maintenance changes.

Google Play services v26.26 (2026-07-06)

Account Management

• [Phone] With this update, you’ll now get a faster, more seamless in-app purchase experience with the upgraded native storefront for Google One.
• [Phone] This update adds a new API to improve the reliability of work profile setup.

Developer Services

• [Phone] New developer features for Google and third party app developers to support Maps related processes in their apps.

Device Connectivity

• [Phone, Wear] You can now transfer your work profile account to your watch.

Location & Context

• [PC] You can now manage Google Location Sharing settings and compatibility for supported device types.

Utilities

• [Auto, PC, Phone, TV, Wear] New developer features for Google and third party app developers to support Utilities related processes in their apps.