Android

Google seems to have identified the “issue” locking up Pixel 6, 6 Pro, and 6A phones that were factory reset recently.

Now, there are two recommended ways shared by Google in the Pixel Phone Help forum to avoid the problem:

Leaving your device powered on and idle for 15 minutes after it has rebooted following a system update

Factory reset your device before taking the latest (June) system update.

Google’s July Pixel update is here with a “fix for back gesture navigation not working in certain conditions.” Sounds annoying! It doesn’t seem to be a widespread problem — I found a thread on the XDA forums complaining about broken navigation, and that’s about it. But if this bug was bothering you, rest assured that the fix has arrived.

Google Keep is one of a long list of note-taking apps we like, and if you’re using it on a “large screen Android device,” it has a new feature for you.

Expanding on the ability to open two instances of the app at once, now the platform will let you sign into separate accounts at the same time — no hacks required.

The announcement, made in a social media post by Nick Twork, Lucid Motors’ new head of communications, comes over a year after the company added CarPlay support to its vehicles.

Speaking to Android Authority, Qulacomm’s head of handsets, Chris Patrick, says that the company will make announcements later this year about how it plans to help “keep Android phones closer to up to date.”

While definitely improved in recent years, updates are still slow to come for some OEMs — and plenty of budget phones only see one or two OS updates. Say more, Qualcomm.

“The I/O Crossword” isn’t anywhere near as zany as Wordle’s original name, but it is awfully cute. Google says it created the crossword with the help of Gemini Advanced and a bunch of its own developer tools. You don’t have to be a developer to join in and help solved the puzzle, but it would probably help — I’m stumped.

RCS appears to be working for people with the iOS 18 beta installed — no tinkering necessary. RCS support is part of the second iOS 18 developer beta, but despite toggling the feature on it wasn’t working for people yesterday. 9to5Mac notes that this has changed today, indicating that carriers in the US have flipped the switch to enable RCS. It’s happening! It’s really happening!

A new setting in Android 15 called “adaptive timeout” suggests that phones will be able to turn off the screen faster if they detect you’re not around. Right now, the system is more worried about keeping it turned on when you are nearby.

But not because of the hardware: because of Google’s Find My Device network. All the reviews I’ve read so far say that it’s just not finding the devices. Here’s Android Central:

The next day, I marked all Bluetooth trackers as lost. Surely, at least one of the five trackers would be found over the next few days? Shockingly, three whole days passed before I heard anything back.

And get this: it wasn’t even the network that helped me find my “lost” trackers.

Looks like Motorola will be the next company to get into the tracker tag game. MySmartPrice spotted the Moto Tag on a UAE certification site, and seems to be an extremely likely candidate to join Google’s Find My Device network.

There’s no information about a potential launch date, but the sooner the better — tracking tags from Chipolo and Pebblebee are both on backorder.

Phone Link already lets you share files from PC to certain Android phones — a new Windows Insider Preview now adds your phone directly to the Windows Share menu, too. Also, you can quickly summon jump lists by right-clicking an app pinned to the Start Menu. More here.

Next, can I get phone mirroring without needing to unlock my Samsung, pretty please?

Android Authority reports that the latest APK for Google Messages contains a new fab that allows users to chat with Gemini directly instead of tapping the button at the bottom of the messages list.

It's a slightly more streamlined process, but given this isn’t even available to beta testers yet there’s no word on when it could be generally available.