The Google Play Store is also A/B testing a new "App FAQs" section that gives you AI-generated answers to frequently asked questions.

(Thanks to Arseniy Graur and Leonardo on my Telegram group for the tip, and to Leonardo for the screenshots!)

Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy S23 series (excluding the S23 FE), the Galaxy Z Flip 5, and the Galaxy Z Fold 5 will support Auracast (Bluetooth LE Audio broadcasts) in One UI 6.1!

In One UI 6.1, you can start an Auracast broadcast by going to Settings > Bluetooth > three-dot menu > Broadcast sound using Auracast. This feature lets you broadcast the media you're listening to to nearby devices.

Other new announcements:

* Samsung's Interpreter is coming to the Galaxy Buds to provide real-time translation support when paired to a Galaxy S24 series device.

* 360 Audio support is coming to the 2023 Neo QLED 8K and 2023 Micro LED Samsung TVs. Requires a Galaxy Buds2 series device to be paired.

* Auto Switch is coming to PCs, starting with Samsung's Galaxy Book4 series when paired to a Galaxy Buds2 Pro.

ML Kit has a new Document Scanner API that helps apps digitize physical documents.

Once an app triggers the document scanner flow, users have full control over the scanning process and can optionally crop, apply filters, remove shadows or stains, and send the digitized files back to the app. All the processing is done on-device.

The ML models and resources are contained in Google Play Services, which means the impact on your app size is minimal. Plus, your app doesn't need the camera permission since Play Services handles the scanning.

Android's Virtualization Framework seems to be getting GPU support.

"Enable GPU feature. crosvm in virt APEX now supports GPU feature. This is to support VMs with display."

AVF was introduced in Android 13 and supported on select Pixels but is now supported by a variety of non-Pixel phones running Android 14. It's still only accessible to system apps, though with root, you can theoretically run your own VM.

Developer Danny Lin famously managed to get Windows 11 on ARM booting in a VM on his Pixel 6 two years ago (wow time sure flies), but at the time, there was no graphics acceleration.

Android 14 quietly introduced two changes to move the needle forward on deprecating older apps:

- Deprecated ABI warning: When you launch any 32-bit app, you'll see a dialog warning you that "this app isn't compatible with the latest version of Android. Check for an update or contact the app's developer." This is part of Google's multi-year efforts to deprecate support for 32-bit builds of Android. (Patrons/Twitter subscribers have access to a story from me that goes into more detail on these efforts).

- Updated deprecated target SDK warning: When you launch an app that targets SDK version 27 or lower (Android 8.1 Oreo or older), you'll see a warning that says "this app was built for an older version of Android. It might not work properly and doesn't include the latest security and privacy protections. Check for an update, or contact the app's developer."

The deprecated target SDK warning isn't actually new like the deprecated ABI warning, as it previously existed in Android 13 but the limit was set to SDK 23. In Android 14, the threshold for the warning to appear was bumped to SDK 28. Meanwhile, Android 14 also introduced a change that blocks the installation of apps that target SDK 22 or lower, ie. apps that used to trigger the deprecated target SDK warning in Android 13 are now blocked entirely in Android 14.

Google is preparing to fully remove support for non-A/B updates from Android, leaving A/B updates as the only officially supported OTA update mechanism moving forward.

However, this won't stop certain device makers from continuing to use non-A/B as they can either use their own implementation or just revert Google's changes. Google would need to actually mandate the use of A/B through the CDD or GMS licensing, which they've tried to do but ended up reneging.

A/B updates = Seamless Updates, in case you weren't aware. Most OEMs have switched over to using A/B updates, with one notable exception: Samsung. If you want to learn more about how Android's update schemes work, check out this article I wrote (though note that Google ended up not going forward with this requirement).

One UI 6.1 will roll out to the Galaxy S23 series, S23 FE, Z Fold 5, Z Flip 5, and Tab S9 series at the end of March, bringing several "Galaxy AI" features Samsung unveiled with the Galaxy S24 series!

Here are the features the update will add:

* Chat Assist: Adjust message tone and translate messages in 13 different languages

* Live Translate: Voice and text translations for phone calls (Samsung Phone)

* Interpreter: A split-screen interface that shows text translations for live conversations

* Circle to Search with Google

* Note Assist: Create formats, generate summaries, and translate notes (Samsung Notes)

* Browsing Assist: Generate comprehensive summaries of news articles (Samsung Internet)

* Trannoscript Assist: Transcribe meeting recordings and generate summaries and translations (Samsung Voice Recorder)

* Generative Edit: Resize, reposition, or realign objects in photos (Samsung Gallery)

* Edit Suggestion: Get suggestions to edit photos (Samsung Gallery)

* Instant Slow-mo: Generate additional frames for slow-motion videos (apparently not available on S23 FE)

* AI wallpapers: Generate custom wallpapers using AI

Games like Pokemon Go and Dragonball Legends have reportedly been crashing for many users with Android phones powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, such as the Galaxy S24 Ultra and OnePlus 12.

According to a Niantic help article, this is due to "our underlying game engine Unity's support for these devices." Pokemon Go version 0.301.0 seems to have included a fix for this issue, per user reports, but other Unity-based games may separately need to receive updates for this issue to be resolved.

If you own a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered device, let me know if you've encountered this issue (and what games have crashed for you)!