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Google Store kicked off its Pixel Certified Refurbished program in 2024, and it’s now expanding to Amazon Renewed.

Google’s Quick Share has been an important part of Android for a few years now, but it still has a few hidden tricks, including the ability to trigger sharing by simply tapping the phone you want to share to.

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.

After detailing the “advanced flow” for sideloading earlier this month, Google is opening the Android developer verification process to developers today.

Google finally announced its long-awaited “advanced flow” for enabling sideloading from unverified developers last week, set to roll out later this year to all Android phones. It addressed a lot of the concerns we had with the future of installing third-party APKs, but that’s not to say it delivered every answer under the sun. Thankfully, a new FAQ video is going a long way in filling in some of the gaps, including confirming you won’t need to repeat this process when you get a new phone.

Google shared today that Android and Chrome have set “new performance records” for mobile web browsing.

2026 and the ongoing RAM/storage crisis continues to put out a rough outlook for the year ahead, and Android brands are bearing the brunt of that with a new forecast revealing that Android shipments could drop as much as 15% this year to the iPhone’s 2%, but there is a bit of hope for Google Pixel.

Sideloading has been a key part of Android since the beginning, not only delivering a lot of flexibility to Android, but also a sense of openness and freedom. After Google announced it would make major changes to sideloading, the community (somewhat understandably) panicked, but as Google has now shown exactly how its new sideloading flow on Android will work, I’m not only happy to see that sideloading isn’t going away at all, but that Google’s compromise is as close to perfect as I think we can reasonably get.

Amazon is reportedly gearing up to give smartphones another shot, with an Alexa-focused phone in the works over a decade after the infamous Fire Phone failed.

Later this year, Google is introducing new Android developer verification. For power users, Android will offer an “advanced flow” to disable the verification requirement.

People appear to be holding on to their Android devices longer – even longer than iPhone users during a year where companies paid the most to customers trading used phones.

Following a near six-year hiatus, Fortnite for Android is officially returning to the Google Play Store later this week following the conclusion of the long-running Google vs Epic Games court case.

After being announced just a few weeks ago, the Android 16 for the Fairphone 6 is beginning to rollout globally.

Google has started rolling out Gemini screen automation on the Galaxy S26, and this capability has usage limits like other Gemini app features.

Android is in a strange place at the moment; it’s arguably stronger than ever, but feels further away from the platform that launched almost 20 years ago. What changed?

Gemini has a new trick up its sleeve with agentic task automation, with the AI able to use an app on your behalf to perform certain tasks, and it’s now live on the Galaxy S26 series.

Google is working on some behind-the-scenes changes that should make Android phones feel faster while also improving battery life.