Will Sattelberg

Welcome to episode 104 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, Abner, Damien, and Will hop over the walled garden to discuss Siri AI, changes to Liquid Glass and its ripple effects on Android, and plenty of other WWDC thoughts. Plus, Paris Hilton loves Android and Google releases a fourth QPR1 beta.

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Google’s Fitbit Air might be sweeping the fitness landscape right now — I, for one, think it’s an excellent tracker at its core — but for plenty of Android users, you just can’t swap sway from a real smartwatch. If you’ve been looking to refresh your existing Pixel Watch, you can pick up one of Google’s official bands for as low as $10 right now, and you won’t even have to give up your timepiece to do it.

MVNOs have been around for ages, offering traditional and prepaid cell plans typically at lower prices than national network operators like Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, but the last couple of years have seen an explosion in MVNO choices. Cash App is just the latest non-mobile network to throw its hat in the ring, and it’s all based around AT&T’s network.

Welcome to episode 36 of The Sideload, a 9to5Google podcast. This week, Will is joined by Android Authority‘s Joe Maring to discuss Health Coach, Google’s latest fitness-focused chatbot launched alongside the Fitbit Air.

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Welcome to episode 103 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, Abner, Damien, and Will make a mad dash through all the Google news coming out in a post-I/O world, including a new Android Drop, some new tools for avoiding deepfake phone call scams, the growing world of Fitbit Air accessories, and what just might be the silliest Pixel leak of all time.

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Nintendo Music might be the strangest music app on the Play Store from a well-known developer, but you can’t say the company hasn’t given it the support it deserves. The gaming giant’s music app is getting a big update, and it means you’ll be able to roleplay Mario Kart in real life — hopefully while still following the rules of the road.

Welcome to episode 35 of The Sideload, a 9to5Google podcast. This week, Will is joined by 9to5‘s Daniel Bader to discuss looking for positivity in gadgets, unplugging from the internet, the joys of Niagara Launcher, and much more.

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Welcome to episode 102 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, Abner, Damien, and Will catch up on some of their opinions and impressions surrounding Google I/O, before pivoting to discuss Will’s review of the Fitbit Air.

Sponsored by Proton Unlimited: Pixelated listeners can save 30% on an annual subscription to the company’s suite of privacy-friendly services by signing up using our link. Thanks to Proton Unlimited for sponsoring the podcast.

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Google’s reputation would have you thinking it’s incapable of launching a quality first-gen product, but the Fitbit Air proves otherwise. Effectively billed as a Whoop competitor for the masses, the Air is a display-less fitness band that is capable of providing you with baseline health data for just $100. If you’re one of the many, many people feeling overwhelmed by the amount of screens in your life, disconnecting with a band as simple as the Air might be just what the doctor ordered.

YouTube has gradually morphed into some kind of quasi-podcast player for millions of users, but traditional podcasts are still designed with audio-first listening in mind. To that end, YouTube is rolling out a handful of changes that promise to improve podcast playback, but they’re only coming to paying Premium subscribers.

Welcome to episode 101 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, Abner and Damien are joined by Seang Chau and Dieter Bohn of Google to discuss the biggest announcements of I/O 2026.

Sponsored by Proton Unlimited: Pixelated listeners can save 30% on an annual subscription to the company’s suite of privacy-friendly services by signing up using our link. Thanks to Proton Unlimited for sponsoring the podcast.

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There are few elements more essential within Android than the humble media player, and every few years, Google sees it fit to deliver a new coat of paint. This year, Android 17 QPR1’s media controls aren’t getting an all-new coat of paint, but the ability to switch between multiple media apps has been completely reworked — for better or for worse.

Google is no stranger to bundling services together to deliver a more attractive package, especially in its Gemini era. Today, the company is building YouTube Premium into more of its various paid AI plans, meaning most subscribers will get a much better video streaming experience at no additional cost.

Google’s entire ethos is built around Gemini these days, and now, that experience is coming to how you search, discover, and use apps on the Play Store.

Thanks in part to tools like Nano Banana, AI-generated content is more unavoidable than ever. As announced at I/O, Google is doing its part to help curtail the situation it’s played a part in, building on top of SynthID with some new AI verification checks.

YouTube is no stranger to redesigns, but the next one could throw your muscle memory for a loop. The mobile app might be getting an all-new layout that removes the Subscriptions tab from the navigation bar, and I can’t say I’m a fan.

Welcome to episode 34 of The Sideload, a 9to5Google podcast. This week, Will is joined by 9to5‘s own Ben Schoon as he breaking his usual release schedule to bring you a guide on what to expect next week at Google I/O 2026.

Sponsored by NordVPN: Listeners to The Sideload can save up to 76% on a two-year subscription alongside four extra months for absolutely free by signing up for NordVPN using this link. Thanks to NordVPN for sponsoring this week’s episode.

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Welcome to episode 100 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, Abner, Damien, and Will celebrate the milestone by diving into Google’s latest Android Show announcements, including Android Intelligence, user-generated widgets, and, of course, Googlebook.

Sponsored by Proton Unlimited: Pixelated listeners can save 30% on an annual subscription to the company’s suite of privacy-friendly services by signing up using our link. Thanks to Proton Unlimited for sponsoring the podcast.

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What should a modern fitness tracker be in 2026? With smartwatches readily available — and for not much more than your run-of-the-mill Fitbit — it’s a tricky proposition, especially for brands like Google that live in both spaces. The Fitbit Air feels like an admission from Google that Whoop, the obvious competitor for something like this, is on the right path, offering a minimalist band that exists to gather data, not to serve as a miniature wrist-based computer. So far, I’m liking what I’m seeing from my time with the device, but not without some unsurprising concerns surrounding its AI coach.

Google might have its own Pixel ecosystem to continue building out, but it’s also working on knocking down barriers between platforms. Building on top of a relatively-successful push to establish RCS as an accepted messaging standard, the company has slowly been adding AirDrop support to Quick Share, beginning with its own devices and recent releases from Samsung. Today, we’re learning that’s just the start of Google’s plans.

It’s been nearly a decade since Google launched its suite of Digital Wellbeing tools on Android, but despite the occasional upgrade, I’m not sure how much its app timers and dashboard displays ever caught on with the general public. This year, Google is giving Digital Wellbeing a much-needed boost with Pause Point, which goes well beyond an app timer to deliver an experience that feels much more in line with modern times.