Developers can now show users a full-screen prompt to get them to update their app, in case they're running an outdated or broken version.

This feature is available if you're enrolled in Play App Signing and distributing your app as an Android App Bundle. Prompts can be narrowed down to users on a selected app version, by country/region, or by Android version. If the full-screen prompt is dismissed, it will be shown again on the next cold start of the app.

This feature is available through the Google Play Console by going to the Releases overview or App Bundle Explorer page and clicking Recovery tools > Prompt users to update.

More details on Google's blog post.

Circle to Search is now rolling out to the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro!

You won't get a notice that it's there, so just check by performing the gesture. Lots of Pixel 8 users on Reddit are reporting that it's working for them now.

The PC apps for Samsung's Quick Share and Google's Nearby Share are reportedly going to be "integrated" by Q3 of 2024, according to a Samsung Quick Share platform manager.

Also:

* Samsung says their rollout of the latest version of Quick Share to Galaxy devices will be completed by tomorrow. You'll need these 4 APKs:

Quick Share: v13.6.11.7
Quick Share Connection: v1.5.2.30
Quick Share Agent: v3.5.19.23 (T OS), v3.5.14.38 (Q/R/S OS)
Wi-Fi Direct: v3.4.14.35 (Q/R OS)

* Google's rollout of Quick Share on other Android devices is scheduled for between 2/2 - 2/16, though as I first reported last night, this rollout has already begun. Once this rollout is complete, the Nearby Share button will disappear on Samsung devices.

Google's Quick Share rebrand also brings with it a new feature: the ability to select targets directly from the share sheet!

Full details in this article on Android Police.

If you have a Pixel phone and have been unable to access your files after updating to the January 2024 Google Play System Update, Google has shared a fix.

1) Download and set up ADB on your PC (there are many tutorials online for this).

2) Connect your phone to your PC and run the following ADB commands:

adb uninstall com.google.android.media.swcodec

adb uninstall com.google.android.media

3) Reboot your phone.

Google says that this issue is more prevalent in devices with multiple user accounts and/or work profiles and that they working on a fix for the root cause of this issue. Google's temporary solution today involves uninstalling updates to the Media and Medic Codecs Mainline modules.

Last week, I learned from a source that Google halted the January 2024 GPSU because they discovered that the DCLA Mainline module was inadvertently rolling back to the factory installed version for some users, causing mismatched dependency issues with other DCLA-enabled modules. It looks like both Media and Medic Codecs are DCLA-enabled modules, and this mismatch caused them to misbehave and resulted in the storage access-related issues that some users have been facing.

For a more detailed step-by-step guide, see Google's post on the Pixel community forums.

I've been using Android's Circle to Search on the Galaxy S24 for over two weeks now, but I JUST learned that you can move the search bar and zoom in!

How did we all miss this? Video available in this Android Police article.

The OnePlus 12 joins Google's Pixel lineup and Samsung's Galaxy S24 series in supporting Android 14's Ultra HDR format! This means HDR photos you capture from the OnePlus 12 can be shown properly on both SDR and HDR displays.

Full details on what this means are available over on Android Police.

Wish more Android apps would go edge-to-edge, ie. take up 100% of your screen? Google has heard you, because they're working on adding a config in Android 15 that forces apps to go edge-to-edge by default!

Full details in this Android Authority article.

When will Google launch its Find My Device network? We still don't know, but here's the latest update:

Background

Google said they won't roll their Find My Device network until Apple implements unwanted tracker alerts in iOS. Apple is waiting for the Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers (DULT) specification they jointly developed with Google and other industry vendors to be chartered by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

Google said they expected this specification to be finalized by the end of 2023, but it seems that timeline was a bit optimistic. In recent weeks, the DULT mailing list called for feedback from participants on whether they approved of the current draft being chartered.

Where we are today

Today (2/2/24), the call for feedback was closed by the IETF's Security Area Director, who said that these are the next steps:

1) The IESG will conduct an initial review of the charter at the next telechat (2/15/24).

2) The charter will be sent to the IETF community for review.

3) The IESG will conduct a final review on the charter at another telechat (2/29/24 or 3/7/24).

If all goes well, the earliest that the DULT specification can be chartered is by IETF 119, which starts on 3/16/24.

This means we'll have to wait until at least mid-March for DULT to be finalized, and then we'll have to wait for Apple to roll out unwanted tracker alerts based on this spec to iOS, and finally Google will roll out their Find My Device network.

(Getting industry consensus on such a sensitive issue takes time and there are a lot of things that need to be done, so this is no fault of the IETF. I'm just relaying the latest update on what's happening.)

Android 15 may introduce a new APEX (the package format used by many Project Mainline modules) module called CrashRecovery.

CrashRecovery is a new module that will contain all the APIs related to Android's Rescue Party feature, a feature introduced in Android 8.0 Oreo that helps users recover from reboot loops. Rescue Party detects when core system components (like the system_server process or a persistent system app) repeatedly crashes in a short period and takes different actions (like clearing all changes to Settings tables) to see if the device can be recovered. If not, then the user is prompted to factory reset their device.

I don't know if CrashRecovery will be updatable via Google Play System Updates or even really why this code is being migrated into its own APEX, but I'll keep an eye out on AOSP for more info.

OnePlus is rolling out an update to the OnePlus 11 and OnePlus 12 in China that adds several AI features, likely in a bid to compete with Samsung. According to the changelog:

"* Al Summariser is now available to help generate call summaries by extracting times, places, action items and other key information from your phone calls.

* AIGC Remover is now available to help you remove unwanted objects or people and make your photos look cleaner.

* Article summaries can now be generated with just one tap through key information extraction.

* Upgrades Breeno Touch, which can recognize onscreen content and provide quick access to relevant services."

The update for the OnePlus 11 brings the version to PHB110_14.0.0.403(CN01) and also adds a few other features, like a new "device motion & orientation" permission, the ability to use fingerprint unlock without waking up the screen, the ability to show the screen recording indicator in either a floating window or in the status bar, and the ability to control QQ Music on the AOD.

Credits to Reddit user milkyteapls for spotting the OP11 update!