Android

Google has released Android 15 QPR2 Beta 3 with loads of bog fixes for both user and developer-reported issues.

Google is preparing to roll out a new shortcut for launching Google Wallet, and it could arrive in this year's Android 16 update.

Last year, Google Maps on Android was revamped so that the main view displayed info using sheets, and the full app is getting this redesign.

You used to be able to use the ##4636## trick to get a hidden menu, but now that's gone too. There's nothing in the menu that alllows you to select which network to use. I hate to keep having network disconnects and in perpetual 4G/5G back and forth and battery draining.

I use Samsung btw

Edit: For context: Its due to issues with being near the edge of the 5G zone so your phone keeps going back and forth between 4G and 5G which (I suspect), is what causes constant network disconnection, phone being hot/warm, and battery drain. Very annoying.

Users of android ROMs or rooted devices are often unable to use certain apps because they make a request to google to check whether the phone is "safe" or "secure" or whatever wording they use. Is there a way to trick those apps? Pretend to be google, remove/replace the google check, or even intercept the check at runtime and return that "everything is alright"?

Game have been hacked, cracked, or what for ages. It's surely possible with android apps, isn't it?

With the broader overlay redesign rolling out on Android, the Gemini homepage continues to get simpler. The latest round of...

Our poll results show that only a minority of you want the thinner phones that Apple and Samsung are promising.

My daughter gets very limited monitored phone time on the weekends or long trips to play art and learning games. She loves to play with filters, too, but I don't want to grant her access to something like Snapchat that overly-beautifies her image and will wind up giving her a complex.

Does anyone know of any kid-friendly filter apps that will turn them into animals or make their faces look funny, without all the weird filters that are unnecessarily adult or sexy?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24456868

Following the announcement by Samsung at the start of 2025, Google earlier this week shared more details about Eclipsa Audio...

A Googler has shared possible release dates for Android 16 beta builds in a recent comment on the Android Gerrit.

Google appears to be working on some new features for Messages on Android, including the ability to start a thread in reply to media attachments.

Google Password Manager will soon let you mass delete saved credentials with a "Delete all data" button. Read on to learn more!

Android 16 may bring a major upgrade to split-screen multitasking on tablets. The new system may be inspired by OnePlus' Open Canvas feature.

I recently came across this term Dynamic Lock Screen and I’m kind of curious about it. I’ve seen it mentioned here and there but I don’t fully get how it works or what it’s used for. From what I gather it seems like it’s something related to customizing your lock screen or making it more interactive? I’m not sure if it’s just for looks or if it has any cool features beyond that. is this something built into the system or do you need to install an app for it? And if anyone’s using it do you find it useful or just a gimmick? I’d love to hear your thoughts tips or even some tricks if you’ve got any. Just trying to figure out if it’s worth exploring.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24607994

Currently, you are unable to view the APKMirror web page. Instead, you get the following message shown in the screenshot below.

Tiktok downloads are currently blocked in the United States due to the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.

The link in this statement leads to the following page, containing the bill that was passed:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/7521

This sets a dangerous precedent going forward for the Android community which sideloads applications onto their phones, being that APKMirror is the largest mirror of APKs for Android phones. It's also possible for them to add more apps to be included under this bill, and possible for another bill to be passed which may act as an even more broad blanket to target specific groups of people (e.g. LGBTQ+, people of color), messaging applications that are truly secure (e.g. Signal), and so on.

Then of course there a very real possibility of our president forcing the integration of software updates into both Android (and possibly even iOS smartphones) that can forcibly remove applications for the "sake of national security".

Blocked APKMirror links:

https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/tiktok-pte-ltd/tik-tok/

https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/tiktok-pte-ltd/lemon8/

Google Messages gets a new animation for sending and receiving messages, making your conversations more delightful. Check it out!

Hey /c/android

I'd like to change the default media picker for my pixel 7, but I'm not sure how to do it. Right now, a lot of apps are getting me use Google Photos, which I think sucks. For instance, it won't show folders I've created using google gallery.

I like google Gallery better, but more and more apps are pushing me to use photos, and want something that's a bit more intuitive to use.

Are there third party apps I can use to do this, or a way to force my system to use just google gallery?

thanks a bunch

Google Play Store is testing a new minimal design for app listings for core system apps that could prevent review bombing. Check it out!

Now that we have Circle to Search, Google Lens has been updated so that it immediately starts the camera viewfinder upon launch.

I have an old Samsung Galaxy A3 (SMA300FU) that I upgraded to android 10 with an unofficial lineageOS ROM for android 10. Anyway, the entire experience has been fine, but it didn't resolve one of the main issues I had with the stock OS, this SD card issue. the SELinux policy is set to permissive & the SD card slot is fine, the SD card is a 32GB SONY card that has nothing wrong with it. The card mounts fine, but the system always mounts it as read-only & if you eject then mount it again, it will be marked as corrupted. if you format, the SD card will disappear from view of all apps, I can only see it in /storage/ with read/write perms. Any app on my phone refuses to acknowledge the card & if it sees it it wont read it. help please.

Here are some ADB shell outputs that might help diagnose the issue

a3ultexx:/ $ su a3ultexx:/ # ls -l /storage/ total 40 drwxrwx--x 5 root sdcard_rw 32768 2025-01-13 10:41 608F-5CE8 drwx--x--x 4 root sdcard_rw 4096 2025-01-13 10:39 emulated drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 60 1979-10-23 16:20 self a3ultexx:/ # mount | grep /storage/608F-5CE8 /mnt/media_rw/608F-5CE8 on /storage/608F-5CE8 type sdcardfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,fsuid=1023,fsgid=1023,gid=1015,mask=6) a3ultexx:/ # a3ultexx:/ # ls -Z /mnt/media_rw/608F-5CE8 <> u:object_r:vfat:s0 System\ Volume\ Information a3ultexx:/ # chcon -R u:object_r:sdcard_external:s0 /mnt/media_rw/608F-5CE8 <> chcon: '/mnt/media_rw/608F-5CE8' to u:object_r:sdcard_external:s0: Read-only file system chcon: '/mnt/media_rw/608F-5CE8/System Volume Information' to u:object_r:sdcard_external:s0: Read-only file system chcon: '/mnt/media_rw/608F-5CE8/System Volume Information/IndexerVolumeGuid' to u:object_r:sdcard_external:s0: Read-only file system chcon: '/mnt/media_rw/608F-5CE8/System Volume Information/WPSettings.dat' to u:object_r:sdcard_external:s0: Read-only file system 1|a3ultexx:/ # ls -Z /mnt/media_rw/608F-5CE8 u:object_r:vfat:s0 System\ Volume\ Information a3ultexx:/ # mount | grep 608F-5CE8 <<THIS COMMAND SHOWS SOME AEAS WITH R/W BUT THE MAIN BLOCK IS RO>> /dev/block/vold/public:179,65 on /mnt/media_rw/608F-5CE8 type vfat (ro,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,fs=vfat:32,eio=0x1,uid=1023,gid=1023,fmask=0007,dmask=0007,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=utf8,utf8,shortname=winnt,namecase=0,symlink=0,bps=512,errors=remount-ro) /mnt/media_rw/608F-5CE8 on /mnt/runtime/default/608F-5CE8 type sdcardfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,fsuid=1023,fsgid=1023,gid=1015,mask=6) /mnt/media_rw/608F-5CE8 on /storage/608F-5CE8 type sdcardfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,fsuid=1023,fsgid=1023,gid=1015,mask=6) /mnt/media_rw/608F-5CE8 on /mnt/runtime/read/608F-5CE8 type sdcardfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,fsuid=1023,fsgid=1023,gid=9997,mask=18) /mnt/media_rw/608F-5CE8 on /mnt/runtime/write/608F-5CE8 type sdcardfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,fsuid=1023,fsgid=1023,gid=9997,mask=18) /mnt/media_rw/608F-5CE8 on /mnt/runtime/full/608F-5CE8 type sdcardfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,fsuid=1023,fsgid=1023,gid=9997,mask=7)

Late last year, Google widely rolled out “profile sharing” wherein you set what name and contact photo other people see in the Messages app.