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Google released a new Android 16 beta earlier this week and, hiding beneath the scenes, there are more new features and changes in the works including custom icon shapes for the app launcher, a revamped notification panel, and more.

We got our first look at the Pixel 10 series this week and it looks rather familiar, but Google is apparently planning to add a third camera to the base model, and that raises a lot of questions.

The US Google Store is once again discounting the Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel Watch 3, Pixel Buds Pro 2, and Pixel Tablet.

Following the Thursday announcement, Google is widely rolling out the latest Gemini models, including 2.0 Flash Thinking (experimental), to the web, Android, and iOS apps.

Welcome to episode 45 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, we talk about the Chromecast bug, Google Play Games on PC, and the latest Gemini models.

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With Android 16 Beta 3, Google is now more specific about how “Limit to 80%” will fully charge your Pixel to “every one to two weeks.”

Just over a year after its launch and various feature parity updates, Gemini is set to replace Google Assistant on Android phones later in 2025. This follows yesterday’s model updates and bringing Deep Research to all users.

If you’re content with what Google offers in Gemini, you might leave the AI assistant as your default option when it comes to long-pressing the power button. However, the digital assistant that you conjure with a button press or swipe up from the corner can be changed, and a new update to the ChatGPT beta means it’s now a default option.

On Windows and MacOS, Google Chrome’s bread and butter is extensions. They round out the user experience, and each user finds a different arsenal of add-ons useful. That feature never made it to Android, but it looks like Microsoft Edge has added extensions in its latest mobile build.

One of the downsides of RCS messaging for a while was a lack of support for end-to-end encryption but, now, the GSMA has announced that the latest update to RCS will add the long-awaited security layer, and both Google and Apple will support it.

Following the announcement at the start of this month, Google today has more widely rolled out the big Find My Device update that adds location sharing with “People.”

Google is preparing support for “summarized” notifications in Android 16, as revealed by code in the third beta update.

Android 16 is recycling the same Easter egg from Android 15, which is also the same one from Android 14. But with its latest release, Google has added a new “autopilot” mode to the space-themed Easter egg which integrates with Android 16’s Live Update feature.

Android 16 Beta 3 has officially launched, and the new OS brings a couple of small changes that might normally go unnoticed. One minor but apparently important change is a new “close” app option that appears when the app icon in Android 16’s recent menu is tapped.

With work dating back to October 2022, Google Pixel devices now have a “Battery health” stats page with Android 16 Beta 3.

Beta 3 of Android 16 is now available as Google’s next major OS update proceeds through the development process.

Android 16 Beta 3 is rolling out to Pixel devices today with the Platform Stability milestone that finalizes app-facing behaviors and internal/external APIs to let developers update their applications.

Google is now rolling out a fix to the Chromecast (2nd gen) and Chromecast Audio that resolves the “Untrusted” Casting outage/issue.

From just beyond its deathbed, the Chromecast with Google TV finally picked up its promised Android 14 update this week, and it seems that there are a handful of issues for those still using the streaming dongle.