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The best Android phones of 2025: Expert tested and reviewed

The best Android phones in 2025 feature different models from multiple brands. That's the beauty of the current phone market, which spans from the best foldable phones, like the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, that challenge the status quo, to cheap phones, like the CMF Phone 2 Pro and Google Pixel 9a, that cater to consumers on a budget. Just last month, Samsung kicked off the thin-phone craze with the Galaxy S25 Edge, and I expect other phone makers to follow suit in 2025.

Your Android phone just got a big upgrade for free - these Pixel models included

Kerry Wan/ZDNET Android 16 is officially here, and Google has some big upgrades on the way. Instead of releasing a new OS and a new phone lineup at the same time, Google is making the same move it did with Android 15 and giving both software and hardware their time to shine. Also: 'End of 10' offers hope and support to Windows 10 users who can't upgrade their PCs This is the earliest Google has launched a major Android release in a while (for comparison, Android 15 was released on Oct. 15, 2

Google to scale up AI-powered fraud detection and security operations in India

Google has unveiled its Safety Charter in India, which will expand its AI-led developments for fraud detection and combating scams across the country, the company’s largest market outside the United States. Digital fraud in India is rising. Fraud related to the Indian government’s instant payment system UPI grew 85% year-over-year to nearly 11 billion Indian rupees ($127 million) last year, per the government’s data. India also saw several instances of digital arrest scams, where fraudsters pos

Circle to Search could be getting an AI Mode upgrade, and here’s what it looks like (APK teardown)

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority TL;DR Google is testing integrating Search’s AI Mode into the Circle to Search feature. When the feature rolls out, users may be able to launch AI mode via text or voice from within the Circle to Search screen. Google Search’s AI Mode breaks down your question into subtopics and conducts multiple simultaneous queries. It can be accessed by users in the US through the AI Mode icon in the Google widget on your home screen, or by selecting AI Mode from the Goog

Android 16 QPR1 Beta 2 adds new animation for the power button long-press gesture

Joe Maring / Android Authority TL;DR Android is getting several new animations as part of its Material 3 Expressive revamp. Google has started testing one of the upcoming animations in the latest Android 16 QPR1 beta release. It appears as a black overlay that expands from the screen borders when you long-press the power button. In addition to refreshed UI elements, Android’s new Material 3 Expressive design language is set to introduce some slick new animations. We gave you an early look at

Google issues apology, incident report for hourslong cloud outage

Google apologized for a major outage that the company said was caused by multiple layers of flawed recent updates. The company released an incident report late on Friday that explained hours of downtime on Thursday. More than 70 Google cloud services stopped working properly across the globe, knocking down or disrupting dozens of third-party services, including Cloudflare , OpenAI and Shopify . Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Google Meet and other first-party products also malfunctioned.

Google Adds Button to Generate Error-Laden AI Podcast About Your Search Results Instead of Just Reading Them Like a Functioning Member of Society

Google has released a baffling new AI feature that turns your web search into a podcast. Why anybody would want to enable the feature is unclear. Why be plagued by misleading and hallucinated AI Overviews search results when you can have a robotic voice read them out loud instead? Have we really lost the ability as a species to parse written information, nevermind original sources? The opt-in feature — which currently lives inside Google's experimental "Labs" section and has to be manually tur

Google’s up to some monkey business with these Pixel 12 codenames

C. Scott Brown / Android Authority TL;DR Possible codenames for Google’s Pixel 12 series have just leaked: Galago, Sasquatch, Silverback, and Capuchin. These primate-themed names would follow the Pixel 11’s bear names and Pixel 10’s horse names. Expect the same sort of four-device lineup, including a foldable, for Google’s 2027 launch. In just a couple more months, we’re looking forward to meeting Google’s Pixel 10 lineup. We’ve already seen lots of good reasons to be excited about this year

Topics: 10 12 google names pixel

Android 16 is out on all eligible Pixel phones, with new live update notifications feature

As usual, the new Android release comes to Pixel phones first, but others like Motorola and Samsung are doing testing. Google has released Android 16 to the masses, as it's now available for compatible handsets. The company says new devices will come preloaded with the OS in "the coming months." As usual, it's first coming to Google's own Pixel phones. The update includes several notable features. The biggest one might be live updates in notifications. This means that stuff like ride-shares an

Google issues apology, incident report for hours-long cloud outage

Google apologized for a major outage that the company said was caused by multiple layers of flawed recent updates. The company released an incident report late on Friday that explained hours of downtime on Thursday. More than 70 Google cloud services stopped working properly across the globe, knocking down or disrupting dozens of third-party services, including Cloudflare , OpenAI and Shopify . Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Google Meet and other first-party products also malfunctioned.

Google Play Store just make it harder to fat-finger an accidental purchase

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR Google is replacing the Play Store’s one-tap buy button with a new “Slide to buy” gesture. The update aims to reduce accidental purchases by requiring a more deliberate action. The change is rolling out with version 46.5.19-31 of the Play Store across all purchase interfaces. Online retailers are increasingly keen to make the buying process as smooth as possible, but that convenience can lead to unintentional purchases. To counter this, Google is int

Google Discover may finally stop hiding the links it shares (APK teardown)

Ryan Haines / Android Authority TL;DR Earlier this year, Google implemented automatic link shortening for stories shared through Discover. If you’d rather keep the full URL intact, it looks like Google is developing an option to disable the shorteners. Right now we’re able to activate an early preview of the toggle, but it’s not yet operational. Google is absolutely no stranger when it comes to controversies, but they don’t have to all be big “federal antitrust case” scale for us to take not

Gemini overlay tries out a new look with a splash of Google colors (APK teardown)

Ryan Haines / Android Authority TL;DR A teardown of the Google app’s recent beta shows Gemini’s overlay UI may soon adopt Google’s brand colors. It replaces Gemini’s current two-tone colors with Google’s trademark red, blue, green, and yellow colors. The colors accent the mic button and highlight the chat box for interacting with Gemini. Google has gradually refined how Gemini appears over the past few months. The assistant’s interface has become more polished, and more integrated, with feat

You can turn your Google search into a podcast now - here's how

Google / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Last fall, Google unveiled a new feature for NotebookLM -- an option to turn your research into a fake podcast that helps you easily digest information. Now, your favorite faux podcast hosts are coming to Search. Also: How to remove your personal info from Google Search - it's quick and easy When you search for something in Google, you'll now see an option to make a podcast summarizing the information. It's for more in-depth queries, not straightforward

You can turn your Google Search into a podcast now - here's how

Google / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Last fall, Google unveiled a new feature for NotebookLM -- an option to turn your research into a fake podcast that helps you easily digest information. Now, your favorite faux podcast hosts are coming to Search. Also: How to remove your personal info from Google Search - it's quick and easy When you search for something in Google, you'll now see an option to make a podcast summarizing the information. It's for more in-depth queries, not straightforward

Gemini will auto-summarize your PDFs now and tell you what to do next

VINCENT FEURAY / Contributor / Getty Last year, Google introduced the ability for Gemini in Drive to interact with PDF files, summarizing a long document into digestible paragraphs. Gemini now has some new tricks related to PDFs stored in Drive, going beyond just a basic summary. Google introduced PDF summary cards for Gemini, Thursday. When you open a PDF stored in Drive, Gemini will proactively summarize the file's contents and suggest next actions like "Draft a sample proposal" or "List int

This Battery-Powered Doorbell Now Costs Peanuts, Amazon Is Clearing Out Google’s Stock

When it comes to home security and convenience, the battery-powered Google Nest Doorbell is a top choice for many and for good reason. This device offers the flexibility of battery power which makes it perfect for those who want a smart doorbell without the hassle of wiring—something especially appealing if you’re not comfortable working with electrical systems. With this model, installation is as simple as mounting the device to your door frame and you’re set. No drilling holes, no complicated

ChatGPT Plus Review: A Feature-Rich AI Chatbot That's Great for Research

CNET’s expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise. 9.0 / 10 SCORE ChatGPT Plus Review Pros Very accurate Powerful reasoning models that are great for research Voice mode for long chats Long-term memory Robust image generation Document and image analysis Custom GPT creation Suite of tools for more niche tasks Cons Can still hallucinate ChatGPT has completely changed how I do my job. Over the past ye

Google Home’s latest bug: Setting an alarm for this time is nearly impossible (Updated: Fixed)

Update, June 16, 2025 (04:50 AM ET): A Nest spokesperson informed us that Google is aware of the issue and working on a resolution. The issue seems fixed at the time of this update, as we could no longer reproduce the bug across several Google Home devices. All of them now correctly set the alarm for 12.30am when prompted. Original article, June 13, 2025 (06:50 AM ET): Google Home is no stranger to more than the occasional bug like bricked Nest Hubs and gimped Thermostat commands. To Google’s c

Topics: 50 bug google home issue

I tried replacing Google Search with Perplexity. It didn’t go well

Joe Maring / Android Authority It’s no secret that Google Search is in a weird place right now. The regular search experience has seen better days, with ads and unhelpful results making the search engine feel far less helpful than it was a few years ago. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence features like AI Overviews and AI Mode aren’t where they need to be. Despite its imperfections, Google Search has remained my go-to search engine. But why should it when there are so many other options out th

Survey shows people are deeply divided over Pixel battery issues

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority Pixels are among the best Android phones money can buy, but if there’s one issue that keeps coming back to haunt them, it’s battery safety. We’ve seen battery overheating problems take down the Pixel 4a. The Pixel 6a took it further, and in one alarming case, it reportedly melted completely. More recently, Google acknowledged that a batch of Pixel 7a units was experiencing “unexpected” battery swelling. In response, Google pushes out software updates that re

Got a new password manager? How to clean up the credential mess you left in the cloud

koyu/Getty Images Every modern web browser has tools for tracking the passwords you use with secure online services. Those features are often turned on by default, which means you probably have a random collection of passwords saved in the cloud along with your bookmarks and settings for your default browser. Also: The best password managers: Expert tested Those built-in utilities might have been good enough for an earlier era, but they aren't good enough for our complex, multi-platform wor

The Fitbit app just got a quiet Pixel Watch-inspired makeover

Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority TL;DR The Fitbit app has introduced a new Device Settings page for smartwatches and fitness trackers. The new layout mimics the one used in the Pixel Watch app. The device settings menu has also been updated Google has quietly updated the Fitbit app, introducing a redesigned Device Settings page for smartwatches and fitness trackers. The new look brings the Fitbit app closer to the design of the Pixel Watch companion app. The update was highlighted by 9to5

Play Store search tab pops with color in latest Material 3 Expressive refresh

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR The Play Store is getting a taste of Google’s Material 3 Expressive design language with colorful new icons in the search tab. The new icons make search shortcuts more vibrant and easier to tell apart at a glance. The update was spotted on version 46.5.19 of the Play Store app and seems to be a server-side change. Google is rolling out a colorful and visually appealing update to the Play Store’s search tab. The tab now features colorful new icons ins

SEO for chatbots: How Adobe aims to help brands get noticed in the age of AI

Adobe For years, Google has effectively been the sole gatekeeper to online advertising, determining which brands get seen and which get lost in the noise. That paradigm is slowly but surely starting to shift, as people increasingly turn to AI chatbots like ChatGPT to find information online. Brands are having to adjust their marketing strategies in response. On Monday, Adobe introduced a platform designed to help advertisers capitalize on the wave of large language models (LLMs) that's been sw

Week in Review: WWDC 2025 recap

Welcome back to Week in Review! We have lots for you this week, including what came out of WWDC 2025; The Browser Company’s AI browser; OpenAI’s partnership with Mattel; and updates to your iPad. Have a great weekend! The Apple experience: We kicked the week off with WWDC 2025, Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, where the company showed off a newly designed iOS 26, new features across its products, and much more. There was considerable pressure on Apple this year to build on its promises

Google reportedly plans to cut ties with Scale AI

In Brief Meta’s big investment in Scale AI may be giving some of the startup’s customers pause. Reuters reports that Google had planned to pay Scale $200 million this year but is now having conversations with its competitors and planning to cut ties. Microsoft is also reportedly looking to pull back, and OpenAI supposedly made a similar decision months ago, although its CFO said the company will continue working with Scale as one of many vendors. Scale’s customers include self-driving car com

I’ve been using Google Photos for 10 years and this is what I want to see in the next 10 years

Joe Maring / Android Authority I’m as cynical as the next tech writer about Big Tech’s trajectory, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Google Photos. The app recently turned ten years old, and I’ve been there every step of the way, although it certainly took me a while to discover its full potential. Many retrospectives have been written about how the app has evolved from its launch in 2015, but I’ve been thinking more about what the next decade holds. As good as the app is, here’s what I’d lik

Google Search uses AI-generated podcast hosts to answer your questions

Instead of digging through all the top search results, you can now ask Google Search to give you a comprehensive AI-generated summary with its Audio Overviews feature. The AI feature uses Google Gemini models to create a short audio clip that sounds like a conversational podcast with two hosts. It's not ideal for your basic search queries like finding out when Father's Day is, but it's helpful if you want an in-depth and hands-free response to the history and significance of Flag Day. The Audio

Got a new password manager? How to clean up the password mess you left in the cloud

koyu/Getty Images Every modern web browser has tools for tracking the passwords you use with secure online services. Those features are often turned on by default, which means you probably have a random collection of passwords saved in the cloud along with your bookmarks and settings for your default browser. Also: The best VPN services (and how to choose the right one for you) Those built-in utilities might have been good enough for an earlier era, but they aren't good enough for our complex