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Poco has unveiled its F9 Pro and F9 Ultra flagship phones, continuing its Bose audio partnership for a second year. The F9 Ultra features an upgraded 2.1 Bose sound system with a glowing LED ring around its subwoofer, plus a 6.9-inch OLED display rated at 10,000 nits peak brightness and a 185Hz refresh rate aimed at gamers.
Samsung has begun rolling out the first One UI 9 beta update to the Galaxy S25 lineup, following months of testing limited to the Galaxy S26 series. The update, roughly 3,862MB with firmware DZHK, brings Android 17 and the August 5, 2026 security patch, and is currently available in South Korea, the UK, and India, including on the Galaxy S25 FE.
Google is rolling out a refreshed Android Auto app icon, replacing the familiar blue design with a green one featuring rounder corners, spotted in version 17.6.663424. The change appears tied to a broader Android Auto redesign expected in the coming months that will bring widget support, video playback, and a more fluid visual style.
The guide walks Android users through checking their OS version, applying pending system updates via Settings, and enabling or manually triggering app updates in Google Play. It also notes that some app updates require accepting new privacy permissions before installing.
A new leak from tipster @phonefuturist suggests Samsung's standard Galaxy S27 and S27 Plus could adopt the same 3x telephoto camera system found in the upcoming Galaxy S27 Pro. An earlier ETNews report had pegged that Pro model's zoom lens at 12MP, though the new leak doesn't confirm sensor details for the base models. Samsung is separately said to be testing a 50MP 4x telephoto for the Galaxy S27 Ultra.
Google confirmed that Device Help, a Gemini feature that lets users describe what they want their phone to do and have Gemini adjust settings automatically, isn't limited to the Pixel 11 series. A Google employee showed the feature working on other Pixel devices running Android 17, and said support will expand to additional devices over time.
Google Search is now showing some AI Overview answers fully expanded by default on desktop, complete with an 'Ask anything' box that launches AI Mode conversations. Previously, this prompt only appeared after users clicked 'Show more' beneath a summary. The change, spotted by an SEO consultant and unconfirmed by Google, currently seems limited to desktop searches for definitions and similar queries.
Google explains that using Find Hub to mark an Android device as lost will log it out of the owner's Google account and strip all cards from Google Wallet, with an option to show a contact message on the lock screen. If account access isn't possible, users can lock the phone remotely via android.com/lock by verifying their identity and phone number. Samsung devices with SmartThings Find offer a similar safeguard, automatically locking Samsung Wallet and pausing transactions until identity is confirmed.
Google has pushed a new update to the standalone Now Playing app on Pixel devices, tweaking its interface and reintroducing support for secondary user accounts on a device, a feature that had gone missing after the app was split out from Pixel's system settings in March. Android Authority also found early code evidence that Google is working on restoring song-recognition notifications and a history-sync feature, both of which were casualties of that earlier redesign.
Android phones running version 6.0 or later include a built-in feature called Absolute Bluetooth Volume, which links your phone's volume buttons directly to connected Bluetooth speakers or headphones. When the phone's volume scale doesn't match a Bluetooth device's internal amplification, the sync can glitch, causing unresponsive buttons followed by sudden full-volume blasts. Android includes a native toggle to turn this feature off without installing extra apps.
Google's Android 17 QPR2 Beta 4 introduces a new 'Data logging' section inside Privacy Dashboard that lets users monitor data leaving the Private Compute Core, the isolated sandbox behind features like Live Caption and Smart Reply. Users can toggle logging on or off, choose between a limited three-day/100MB mode and a more exhaustive 12-hour/100MB detailed mode, and download or delete the resulting log files.
The unofficial Android Auto app Xtream Player, successor to Fermata Xtream, has released version 1.4.0 with a new Games add-on for Premium subscribers, starting with Chess and Connect 4, meant only for use when the car is parked. The update also refreshes app icons, improves YouTube Music playback behavior, and fixes a bug that caused a black screen when using the side-panel skip control.