⏩ Your Pixel phone quietly got a big boost in GPU performance in the latest Android update

Pixel phones with Tensor chips are seeing significant increases in GPU benchmark scores, likely due to GPU driver updates

More details👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/pixel-phones-gpu-performance-boost-3537248/

🛰 The Pixel 9a offers like ... 90% of the experience that the Pixel 9 offers (totally making that number up)

But to make it $300 cheaper, Google had to cut some corners. And one of those cut features is, sadly, satellite SOS/messaging.

More details👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/pixel-9a-satellite-sos-3536849/

🛜 The Galaxy S25 is Samsung's first phone to support Android's Instant Hotspot feature

With Instant Hotspot, you can share your Samsung phone’s Internet connection with any Android tablet, not just Samsung-made ones.

More details 👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/galaxy-s25-instant-hotspot-3537161/

⏩ The Pixel 10 will have faster startup performance thanks to this Android change

A change in Android’s boot process has resulted in a 30% reduction in module loading time on the Pixel 10 and other Android devices.

More details 👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/pixel-10-startup-performance-3537302/

📂 Here's how to access your Android phone's files from the new Linux Terminal

Android makes its downloads folder available to the Linux VM, but unfortunately other files aren’t available

More details👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/access-android-files-from-linux-terminal-3536713/

🔓Android 16 now lets all Pixel phones use fingerprint unlock even when the screen is off

The Screen-off Fingerprint Unlock feature expands to all Pixel phones in Android 16 Beta 3. It was previously limited to the Pixel 9.

More details👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/screen-off-fingerprint-unlock-pixel-3537472/

🔐 Exclusive: Google will develop the Android OS fully in private, and here's why

Parts of Android (ART, Bluetooth, Virtualization, etc.) are currently developed in public, but soon ALL Android OS development will happen internally.

Here's why👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/google-android-development-aosp-3538503/

Just to be clear: Android is NOT becoming closed source!

Google remains committed to releasing Android source code (during monthly/quarterly releases, etc.) , BUT you won't be able to scour the AOSP Gerrit for source code changes like you could before.

✨Hands-on: Gemini Live's new video and screen-sharing features make it way more useful

I got the new Project Astra capabilities in the Gemini app on my Xiaomi 15 Ultra the other day, and I was surprised by how well it worked!

Here's a demo👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/gemini-live-video-screen-sharing-hands-on-3538786/

💻 Android OS development is going fully private, but Google still wants help from other developers

Google has shared details on how external developers can still contribute to Android as well as what will happen to AndroidX and CI builds.

Details👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/aosp-development-private-help-3539648/

🌐 FIRST LOOK: This special version of Chrome for Android supports extensions

Chrome for Android doesn’t support browser extensions yet, but Google is developing a version that does, and I went hands-on with it.

More details + video 👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/chrome-for-android-with-extensions-demo-3540132/

Since I originally posted this news on April 1, some of y'all thought this was a joke. It's not. There really is a version of Chrome for Android now that supports browser extensions, and you can try it for yourself!

You can see it in action in this video.

🚗 Google made a dashcam app for cars with Android Automotive, but you can't download it

Google wants more cars with Android Automotive to have dashcams, so it built a production-ready, customizable dashcam app for OEMs.

More details👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/android-automotive-dashcam-app-3540443/

🪞Android 15 blocked Phone Link from mirroring sensitive notifications, but Microsoft has a fix

Android 15 blocked Link to Windows from mirroring notifications w/ OTP codes as the OS deemed them “sensitive,” but Microsoft has a fix.

More details👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/phone-link-sensitive-notifications-fix-3540158/

⚙️ Android 16 could mimic how iOS handles app settings, but it's not as bad as you think

Apps can contribute their own preferences to Android Settings in Android 16, similar to iOS

More details on how this works👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-app-settings-3540868/

🎧📺 Google wants to make Android 16 even better at streaming music and video

Android 16 adds support for running media codecs within an app’s process instead of a sandboxed process, which would make media playback more efficient.

More details👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-in-process-software-audio-codecs-3541408/

🎮Google will require new Android 16 devices to support this game-changing graphics feature

New Android 16 devices must support Host Image Copy, a Vulkan 1.4 feature that one Google engineer says is a "game changer for games on Android."

Here's why👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-host-image-copy-3541523/

⏩ Android 16 has a new trick to speed up app installation

Android 16 adds support for cloud compilation, a feature that bypasses on-device app compilation to speed up app installs

More details on how this works can be found 👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-cloud-compilation-3541910/

📺 Exclusive: Google says all upcoming Google TV remotes will have a 'Free TV' button

I hope you like dedicated buttons on your TV remote, because starting this month, new Google TV devices will have a “Free TV” button that launches Freeplay.

Details👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/google-tv-remote-free-tv-button-3542332/

—-

Follow-up: In markets where Google TV Freeplay isn't available, OEMs can map the "Free TV"/"Live TV" button to launch live guides instead. The article has been updated to reflect this new information.

💬 Google Messages is making it easier to unsubscribe from automated text messages

Google says it's rolling out a new feature that makes it easier to opt out of business texts sent via A2P SMS or RBM (RCS Business Messaging).

Details + screenshots👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/google-messages-unsubscribe-button-3542411/

Oof: the OnePlus Watch 3 is finally available in the US again after it was pulled to fix the "Meda in China" typo...but it now costs $499 (!) instead of $329.99!

When asked why, OnePlus refused to comment, but we can all probably guess why...

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/oneplus-watch-3-us-price-increase-3543595/