Messaging apps that are locked to specific devices are cringe. Mr. Cook, tear down this wall!

In all seriousness, it's interesting to see solutions like Nothing Chat gain more traction, because I wonder just how Apple will respond. Before, it was just a couple of independent software startups (Sunbird, Beeper) doing this but now an actual hardware maker is stepping in (Nothing) with a first-party iMessage-on-Android solution available for its own devices (I realize the irony in my first sentence).

Nothing Chat uses Sunbird's architecture, of course, so you have to trust them with access to your iCloud account. (IIRC, they basically just relay iMessage from a Mac mini farm somewhere, which is why it needs your iCloud account.)

I've never bothered setting up Sunbird or Beeper (just haven't had the time), but I might give Nothing Chat a shot once it's out. Nothing says it'll be available for Phone (2) users in North America, the EU, and other European countries starting Friday, November 17.

Google Messages is starting to roll out "Profile Discovery" to some users.

"Keep profile discovery on to show a name and picture to people who find you by email or phone number(s) in Google products and services"

Image credits: Matthew Garbett on Twitter

The new Niagara Launcher beta adds a beautiful set of icon packs called the Anycon Family, but what's REALLY interesting is how the team is trying to solve a problem that other icon packs have: it's impossible to make a custom icon for every single app out there!

Those of you who have used an icon pack or Android's Themed Icons feature before are aware that there are always some (or many) apps that don't have a custom icon. This leads to home screens/app folders/app drawers looking like a hodgepodge of mismatched icons.

The only thing you could do was switch to another icon pack and hope it themed the icons you were missing (and even that icon pack likely misses a few), ask the developer of your icon pack to theme more icons, or ask the developer of the app to theme their icon (if you're using Android's Themed Icons feature).

Niagara Launcher's new Anycons feature solves this problem in a unique way: It automatically assigns apps a relevant (but not fully custom) icon based on categorization. I asked the developers how this works, and they told me that it uses a custom, server-side machine learning algorithm that categorizes apps trained on information it finds on the web as well as on icon replacement data from users who opted into the Icon Assistant feature.

So, say an icon pack doesn't have a custom icon for ProtonMail but does for Gmail. One user might apply Gmail's icon for ProtonMail because the two are similar apps. The algorithm then considers the two apps to be similar, and since it knows that Gmail is an email app, then it'll consider ProtonMail to be an email app too.

When I tried the update, Niagara Launcher indeed was able to change the icon for every single app I use. You'll notice where the app applies a generic rather than custom icon, eg. for many restaurant apps it uses a generic fork & knife icon, but it's better than showing the unthemed icon in my opinion.

The Anycons feature is available in the latest Niagara Launcher beta version as part of Niagara Pro.

Here are two new features coming to Google Photos:

1) Photo Stacks: Google Photos will now automatically identify and group similar photos that were taken close together into a Photo Stack and select the top pick that best captures that moment. You'll have the option to select your own top pick, modify stacks, or turn off Photo Stacks entirely.

2) Better screenshot and document organization: Google Photos will now better identify and automatically categorize screenshots and documents into more helpful albums like IDs, receipts, and event information. Also, Photos will automatically identify things like dates in screenshots so you can quickly add a reminder in your calendar.

Google has published a Play Store listing for the Pixel's new system "AICore" app that I previously discovered in Android 14 Beta 3.

The denoscription for the app says it powers "intelligent features across Android".

"AI-driven features run directly on your device using the latest foundation models."

"To keep those features smart, your device updates the AI models automatically."

"AI Core manages these updates while providing AI functionality to other apps."

If you access AI Core's Play Store listing on a non-Pixel 8 series device, it says the app isn't compatible with your device. Google previously said the Pixel 8 Pro will run the company's generative AI "foundation" models on-device, so this app could be what installs and updates those models. Though interestingly, the AI Core stub is installed on other Pixel builds plus the Play Store listing has the required OS as Android 12+, so who knows!

H/T Nail Sadykov from the Google News Telegram group for spotting the listing!

The Google Play Store may be rolling out a new feature that shows you the installation progress of apps in a bubble overlaid on top of all screens in the app store.

I just noticed this feature on my Pixel 8 Pro with Google Play version 38.3.22. Does anyone else have this yet?

This feature has been in development for over a year now. Its codename is "download buddy" and it can be toggled by going to Play Store settings > expanding "general" > Notifications > show install progress bubble. It was enabled by default for me.

Android 14 QPR2 Beta 1 adds the previously mentioned "single app" screen recording and screen casting features!

When you start a screen recording, you now have the option to record a single app or the entire screen. Choosing single app opens an app selector with recent apps. The resulting screen recording won't include the navigation or status bar areas.

You can also choose to screen cast a single app instead of the entire screen.

In Android 14 QPR2 Beta 1, the taskbar's app drawer icon has been updated, and there's also finally a search bar in the taskbar's app drawer!