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Over the last few weeks of staggered rollouts, some users have gained access to Gemini for Home, which adds Google’s AI assistant to existing Nest devices. The upgrade seems to be breaking some automations, though.

According to a new report, the smartphone market as a whole is expected to shrink in 2026 due to the rising costs of components.

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.

One of the lesser-known features that Google offers is a “Dark Web Report” monitoring tool, but it’s about to shut down in early 2026.

Disney announced a billion dollar agreement with OpenAI this morning over use of its characters, and Google’s going to have to pray it doesn’t alter the deal any further.

After launching the “Remix” tool in August in a server-side update, Google Photos is bringing the image-to-cartoon feature to more users in a much wider rollout.

After a multi-year hiatus, popular battle royale Fortnite is now officially back on the Google Play Store.

Ayaneo is no stranger to Android handhelds, but now it’s turning attention towards an arguably less competitive landscape: smartphones.

Google is introducing Android Emergency Live Video today to let users in three countries share their camera feeds with dispatchers.

Google’s various AI tools have been proving their worth as of late, but a common criticism is how Google has built these tools by scraping the work of publishers and creators across the web without explicit permission or compensation, and now the EU is launching an investigation into the matter.

The latest Android Canary build is available today and it features work by Apple and Google to make switching between Android and iPhone devices easier.

As we approach the end of 2025, we’re getting some data on what smartphones customers across the globe purchased throughout the past few months. To no one’s surprise, it’s Samsung and Apple that are dominating sales.

Android is testing new scam protections in the US to combat sophisticated social engineering tactics that “trick users into sharing their phone screen” and bank apps.

Circle to Search is getting a new trick that detects suspicious messages or web content, letting users know why it could be part of a scam.

Google Chrome for Android is gaining support for pinned tabs, a handy feature from the desktop browser, which makes it easier to keep important pages up.

Android 16 QPR2 is here today, but Google’s not solely focusing on new features and changes. Alongside those announcements, the company is also bringing a whole host of improvements and changes to accessibility on Android. In addition to some helpful changes to hearing aids, captions, and more, Google is also building Gemini models into Smart Dictation and Guided Frame on Pixel devices for improved responses.

In September, Google started testing a new document scanner on Android, and this Material 3 Expressive redesign is now seeing wider beta availability.

Last December, Android XR was officially announced. Google is now following that up with a “future of Android XR” livestream on December 8.

Back in July, Google widely introduced a redesign of the Android QR code scanner, but then rolled it back. The updated interface is now starting to reappear.

I think Android laptops are happening in part because Google does not see a future where Chromebooks rival Mac and Windows for market share. All the success Google has in various consumer form factors comes down to Android. To that end, one of my biggest questions about this reboot of Google’s desktop strategy is how much will Android laptops try to copy the success of smartphones.

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 latest version of Google Play services (25.46) is rolling out today, and the release notes preview new media and Find Hub features. As always, it takes some time for listed features to actually make their way to users.

As Google prepares to introduce its new Android experience for PCs next year, a new job listing is revealing some details around Google’s efforts and how that ties back to ChromeOS.