Android

The name Lepton appeared on Steam and SteamDB just a few weeks after Valve unveiled the Steam Frame headset, which will be able to run Android apps.

The feature was first piloted in the UK earlier this year, and works by automatically warning users when they launch eligible financial apps while screen sharing during calls with numbers that aren’t in the device’s contact list. The warning forces a 30-second pause period that aims to “break the spell of the scammers’ social engineering,” according to Google.

One of Google’s new Android updates is the beta for Call Reason, which allows callers to flag that it’s urgent. Sounds smart, but if you’re below the age of 40, “urgent” might be the only type of call you ever make.

For everything from the Pixel 6 on up, there are a lot of bug fixes and improvements on the list for this month’s update, as well as two “Critical” severity security bugs patched.

After being added to the desktop version of the browser almost a decade ago, the mobile version of Chrome will soon let you pin tabs as part of Android 16’s new updates. Pinned tabs will be easily accessible at the front of your browser so they’re easier to find and can’t be accidentally closed.

Android Police spotted that just opening the file send menu is enough to disconnect your phone from Wi-Fi following the new Quick Share update that lets Pixel 10 users send files to iPhones over AirDrop. Switching focus to another app is enough to reconnect though, so this bug feels harmless enough.

I admit, I have a British bias here, but like this commenter I was unreasonably pleased to see Google spell its upcoming Aluminium OS the right way.

The company shared new details about its Pocket Vert this week. Its minimal controls mimic the Game Boy with a D-pad and action buttons, but the Android-based handheld also features a hidden multipurpose touchpad beneath its front glass panel that can be used as a thumbstick for playing 3D games.

Normally, you’re kind of stuck with the button mapping video game developers choose, based on your controller of choice. But Android Authority has found evidence in the latest Android Canary release that Google is adding native remapping. That’s huge for improving accessibility and support for cloud gaming, where titles aren’t usually built with Android in mind.

Google is cracking down on apps that prevent a device from going to sleep for a long period of time by performing activities in the background. Starting March 1st, 2026, Google will begin hiding some of these battery-draining apps from recommendations and may even display a warning label on their Play Store listings.

Android Authority spotted a new home screen toggle in an Android Canary build. Google shrunk the mandatory widget a little earlier this year, but users want the option to remove it entirely. Then again, Google tested this toggle in 2023 too, and never gave it a release.

Judge Donato is now ordering an evidentiary hearing in Epic v. Google, Law360’s Bonnie Eslinger reports from the courtroom. She writes Donato is “not sure the proposed deal will correct Google’s illegal conduct,” and was skeptical that Epic and Google “are suddenly BFFs.”

Just as it did with its Weather app for wearables in September, Google has announced that new Wear OS devices from other manufacturers will have to rely on something else. If you have a non-Pixel watch with the Clock app already, it will keep working, but without new updates.

Google is launching a bunch of new tools for developers, including a way to automatically localize apps into select languages. There’s also a new Prompt API that will allow developers to build and integrate custom AI features powered by Google’s on-device model, Gemini Nano, into their apps.

Android Authority has done its usual digging around and discovered code for home screen widgets in Android Auto. They’re clearly still a work-in-progress, but should eventually let you run one widget at a time on the left third of the screen.

The issue is caused by a font in the latest update to the app (version 10.x) that’s only available through Google Play Services. As a result, it’s crashing or simply failing to launch on phones running GrapheneOS and other “de-Googled” versions of Android, reports Android Authority.

After a ten-month investigation, the Competition and Markets Authority has designated Apple and Google’s mobile platforms with “strategic market status,” describing them as having “substantial, entrenched market power.” The companies now face extra anti-competition regulations in the UK, following a similar ruling for Google Search.

Google appears to have pulled the latest Android 16 QPR2 beta release just hours after it went out, amidst reports of it causing crashes linked to Android’s desktop mode.