Gmail app gets purchase and flight summary cards, like it has on the web

All the info you need at a glance — when it doesn't bug out

A familiar-looking feature is starting to appear in the Gmail app for Android and iOS. Spotted in the last week or so, and confirmed by 9to5Google, a new card-based summary of things like purchases and flight details is now appearing just beneath the subject line of emails, sort of like it does on the desktop/web version of Gmail.

The feature was so familiar, we initially dismissed it as old when we first spotted it last week, but 9to5Google confirms that it is, in fact, new, after following along in its development.

Read More

Gmail app gets purchase and flight summary cards, like it has on the web was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

Waze finally rolls out lane guidance in beta

It's been one of the most requested features from users

Have you ever realized you were driving on the leftmost lane while you needed to turn right? To avoid this embarrassing moment, most navigation systems feature a lane guidance system to show you which one to remain in. Surprisingly, Waze, which is one of the most popular ones around, wasn't able to do this until now. Thankfully, the app is testing out the feature in beta.

The app has rolled out lane guidance for all beta users, in response to popular demand.

Read More

Waze finally rolls out lane guidance in beta was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

Butterscotch Shenanigans DIY platformer Levelhead lands on Android for $7

Who needs Mario Maker when you can play Levelhead instead

The developer behind the much-acclaimed mobile survival game Crashlands has been working on a 2D platforming sandbox called Levelhead, and it's been available on Steam in early access since 2019. Well, the title just popped up on the Google Play Store this morning, and it's currently available for pre-registration.

Read More

Butterscotch Shenanigans DIY platformer Levelhead lands on Android for $7 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

Google Messages begins rolling out RCS support in Italy

First evidence of expanding RCS availability around the world?

After Google deployed RCS (Rich Communication Services) in the US without the help of the four three big carriers, the company seems to be set to repeat that effort in Italy. The first people in the country report that they're able to use RCS features in the Messages app. That might indicate that we'll soon see RCS functionality in even more parts of the world.

RCS support seems to be rolling out without carrier support in Italy, too.

Read More

Google Messages begins rolling out RCS support in Italy was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

Hands on with WeatherPro, a promising Dark Sky alternative

Latest update adds some great features, but there’s still room for improvement

WeatherPro has been around on Android for more than ten years and has gone through changes on both the visual and the monetary front — the subscription-based app used to be a paid product back in 2018 before the company behind it joined forces with another one. Now, the app has received a comprehensive redesign, giving it a rethought bottom bar interface and a customizable home screen. That's reason enough for us to go hands-on with the app, mainly because we wanted to see if it can fill the vacuum left by Dark Sky's demise.

Read More

Hands on with WeatherPro, a promising Dark Sky alternative was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

Google tests a heart-shaped tweak to Discover feed preferences

The old More and Less options for tuning recommendations disappear as part of this test

A new heart icon has been spotted in Google Discover (née Feed), replacing the previous button that triggered the familiar more/less slider for tuning its content to better match your tastes. This isn't just a visual change in iconography, either, as tapping the new heart button doesn't open any menu, apparently and simply indicating to Google that you liked a given piece of content. So far, the change seems to be in limited testing.

Read More

Google tests a heart-shaped tweak to Discover feed preferences was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

Your Phone app lets you control your handset's music and podcasts from your PC

Major sources include Spotify, Pandora, YouTube Music

If you have a phone paired to your Windows 10 machine with the Your Phone app, you'll be able to take advantage of a small improvement that may be useful to those of you who prefer listening to content on your Android device while you're working on the desktop.

If you don't use Your Phone, the app-based service lets you interact with messages, notifications, and photos and videos from your phone when both devices are connected through Bluetooth.

Read More

Your Phone app lets you control your handset's music and podcasts from your PC was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

31 temporarily free and 61 on-sale apps and games for Wednesday

Don't miss out on the sales for Square Enix, Rusty Lake, and Taito

Welcome to Wednesday, everyone. Today I'm excited to announce that Square Enix is offering a boatload of sales for its Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest titles, and yes, Chrono Trigger is also on sale, along with Valkyrie Profile. Besides the plethora of titles from Square, we also have a collection of titles from Rusty Lake, as well as a few games from Taito. As always, I've highlighted all of the interesting titles in bold to make discovery easier.

Read More

31 temporarily free and 61 on-sale apps and games for Wednesday was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

Google Home testing separate Assistant voice volume setting

Please stop shouting at me, Google

One of the longstanding demands of Google Home users, myself included, has been the ability to control Assistant’s volume independently of the music’s. A new setting has started appearing for iOS users that lets you tweak the volume of your Assistant's voice — but it doesn't really work yet.

In addition to the usual Bass and Treble sliders under the Equalizer settings in the iOS Google Home app, some have spotted a third slider to manually adjust the Assistant’s output level.

Read More

Google Home testing separate Assistant voice volume setting was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

Ultimate Custom Night is a Five Nights at Freddy's spinoff that's finally made its way to Android

The latest FNaF game to come to Android delivers customizable scares

The Five Nights at Freddy's survival horror franchise is a popular one, which means there are more than a few titles out there already. Ultimate Custom Night is a game that takes all of the best bits from the other titles in the series, which is why the developer labels Ultimate Custom Night as an FNaF mashup. This means you can expect 50 selectable animatronic characters where you can mix and match them to your heart's content, all while selecting your playthrough difficulty to ensure a worthwhile session no matter your skill level.

Read More

Ultimate Custom Night is a Five Nights at Freddy's spinoff that's finally made its way to Android was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

Two-factor authentication: How to secure your accounts with Authy

New to two-factor authentication, or just want to move to Authy? We've got you covered

Online account security breaches are becoming more common by the day, for two simple reasons: people like to re-use the same password across multiple sites, and many people don't use two-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication, or 2FA for short, adds a second step to the login process that usually involves a temporary code or physical key — which makes it much harder for hackers to gain access to your accounts.

However, it can be a bit difficult to know how to get started with 2FA.

Read More

Two-factor authentication: How to secure your accounts with Authy was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

Weather Underground’s Play Store rating has plummeted since v6 was released (Update: Correction)

Recent updates have improved the situation but users still aren’t happy

Not too long ago, the weather app Dark Sky saw its Play Store ratings decimated overnight after its acquisition by Apple and the subsequent scrapping of the Android app was announced. Another popular meteorological app is seeing a similar trend for its app ratings, although for entirely different reasons.

Read More

Weather Underground’s Play Store rating has plummeted since v6 was released (Update: Correction) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

Google Meet is now free for everyone

Anyone with a Gmail account can now use Google's video conferencing app for nothing

The artist formerly known as Hangouts Meet has seen a number of welcome improvements in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, but until now only G Suite users have been able to use it free of charge. Google has just announced in a blog post that this restriction is being lifted, however, and anyone with a Gmail account will be able to use Google Meet for absolutely nothing.

Other competing products such as Zoom have become increasingly popular with everyone stuck at home — security concerns aside — and Google clearly feels the time is right to bring its rejuvenated app to the masses.

Read More

Google Meet is now free for everyone was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

WhatsApp is rolling out 8-person group calls

Making it easier to stay connected during the coronavirus lockdowns

WhatsApp has supported group audio and video calls since 2018, but you have always been limited to calling three other people at one time. During times of stay-at-home orders and quarantines, that might not be enough to stay connected with all of your friends and family. An update to the WhatsApp beta channel improves that situation as it raises the limit to up to eight participants (including yourself) for the first few users, but it involves a server-side change, too.

Read More

WhatsApp is rolling out 8-person group calls was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

Google just killed an app you've probably never heard of called Shoelace

Google is killing Shoelace, a hyperlocal social networking app the company spun up just last summer from its Area 120 experimental products division. Most folks never got to use it, since it was an NYC-exclusive and, at least at one point, invite-only. Shoelaces formal death is set for May 12th.

Image: @SadeghZanganeh.

The app claimed to be a way to explore "community-powered events in NYC," allowing folks to join one of six communities in a handful of social categories, like nightlife, foodies, and lgbtq+ and join meetups/activities called "Loops" — get it, because you're in the loop?

Read More

Google just killed an app you've probably never heard of called Shoelace was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

Google Stadia: Subscription cost, games list, free games, compatibility requirements, and more

Everything you need to know about Stadia

In fall 2018, Google made its interest in gaming known with Project Stream, a beta that let users play the high-end Assassin's Creed Odyssey from a humble Chrome tab.

Read More

Google Stadia: Subscription cost, games list, free games, compatibility requirements, and more was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

15 free-to-play Android games that don't suck

A handful of F2P mobile games that are worth spending time with

While we generally tend to advocate for games you actually buy once and just can play unimpeded, no one's gaming budget is unlimited. Believe it or not, there are some good free-to-play Android games out there, and I figured it would be a good idea to round up some of the better such titles on the Play Store as a worthy follow-up.

Read More

15 free-to-play Android games that don't suck was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

PUBG is free to play on Stadia starting today, Jedi: Fallen Order coming this fall

Jedi marks EA's first game on Stadia

Google's latest Stadia Connect was today, and there was plenty for game-hungry fans to get excited about. The biggest news was that battle royale PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is out right now, and it's free with Stadia Pro (which everybody currently has access to). Other juicy nuggets include Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order coming this fall and throwback JRPG Octopath Traveler launching today.

PUBG is complete with cross-play, so you shouldn't have any problem finding plenty of people to get murdered by.

Read More

PUBG is free to play on Stadia starting today, Jedi: Fallen Order coming this fall was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

Legends of Runeterra is a new League of Legends card game, out now

Release date, what release date?

Yesterday was Riot Games' tenth anniversary and with that came several huge announcements. Among these, we were introduced to Legends of Runeterra, a strategy card game where "skill, creativity, and cleverness determine your success." The game will feature Champions from League of Legends, while also introducing new characters to the mix.

Read More

Legends of Runeterra is a new League of Legends card game, out now was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

Weather Underground’s Play Store rating has plummeted since v6 was released

Users are rolling back to v.5.10 to regain lost features

Not too long ago, the weather app Dark Sky saw its Play Store ratings decimated overnight after its acquisition by Apple and the subsequent scrapping of the Android app was announced. Another popular meteorological app is seeing a similar trend for its app ratings, although for entirely different reasons. Instead of improving the user experience, a recent major update to Weather Underground monumentally degraded the app by dropping several basic and prominent features.

Read More

Weather Underground’s Play Store rating has plummeted since v6 was released was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

Indie adventure game Kingdom Two Crowns lands on Android for $9.99

A quality sequel that adds co-op gameplay to the series

Raw Fury has announced today that it will release the indie adventure game Kingdom Two Crowns on the Play Store on April 28th. This title will serve as the sequel to Kingdom: New Lands, and since Kingdom Two Crowns has been available on Steam since 2018, we already know this sequel is a quality followup.

Read More

Indie adventure game Kingdom Two Crowns lands on Android for $9.99 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

Todoist gets new Upcoming and Calendar views for more visual task management

Finally brings the app on-par with some of its competitors

Todoist is one of the leading task management apps on the market. It's full of features and easy to use. However, competition is fierce, and while many other solutions offer the option to manage tasks visually with a calendar view, Todoist has been behind on this feature. Thankfully, it's now receiving new ways to see items at a glance and plan for them more efficiently.

   

This was one of the most requested features, so developers obliged.

Read More

Todoist gets new Upcoming and Calendar views for more visual task management was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

Latest AccuWeather beta brings back persistent notification and a widget

The two features were missing in the initial release

Hot on the heels of Dark Sky's demise on Android, AccuWeather is testing a brand-new UI for its app. The latest beta comes with a more prominent 60-minute forecast and adds a bottom bar for easy access to hourly and daily forecasts as well as a radar view.

Read More

Latest AccuWeather beta brings back persistent notification and a widget was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

YouTube Music's new and improved library is rolling out more widely

It works more like Play Music now

Adapting to YouTube Music can be a pain if you've been a Play Music user for years. Google has been promising to make various changes to ease the transition, and it's rolling one of them out today.

Read More

YouTube Music's new and improved library is rolling out more widely was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

You can now video record Google's 3D animals and objects

Be the wildlife videographer you've always wanted to be

You can turn your home into a zoo thanks to Google's AR animals, but so far, you haven't been able to video record your interactions with tigers, alligators, bears, and others. As reported by 9to5Google, the company saw fit to change that and has silently introduced a video recording feature to its 3D viewer that lets you capture your AR visitors on video. That also works for other Google objects like skeletons, cars, planets, and more.

Read More

You can now video record Google's 3D animals and objects was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

This app has tons of free live TV and movies streaming 24/7

Check out Pluto TV if you run out of Netflix to watch

If you've never heard of the app that is the subject of this post, you're not alone: a lot of us weren't aware it existed until recently, either, as we struggle to find more and more TV and movies to keep us entertained. It's a service called Pluto TV, and it offers streaming video with plenty of big-name shows, live news, content from cable staples like Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, and even some sports (though there really aren't many sports to watch the moment).

Read More

This app has tons of free live TV and movies streaming 24/7 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

This app gives you free access to tons of movies via your local library

Catch up on the classics or the latest indie releases while you're stuck at home with Kanopy

Most of us know Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+, but there are other ways to get your flix fix on the web, and some of them are totally free. If you have a library card, you may have access to tons of movies you probably didn't even know existed via a little app called Kanopy.

Read More

This app gives you free access to tons of movies via your local library was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

High refresh rate rendering on Android

Posted by Ady Abraham, Software Engineer

For a long time, phones have had a display that refreshes at 60Hz. Application and game developers could just assume that the refresh rate is 60Hz, frame deadline is 16.6ms, and things would just work. This is no longer the case. New flagship devices are built with higher refresh rate displays, providing smoother animations, lower latency, and an overall nicer user experience. There are also devices that support multiple refresh rates, such as the Pixel 4, which supports both 60Hz and 90Hz.

A 60Hz display refreshes the display content every 16.6ms. This means that an image will be shown for the duration of a multiple of 16.6ms (16.6ms, 33.3ms, 50ms, etc.). A display that supports multiple refresh rates, provides more options to render at different speeds without jitter. For example, a game that cannot sustain 60fps rendering must drop all the way to 30fps on a 60Hz display to remain smooth and stutter free (since the display is limited to present images at a multiple of 16.6ms, the next framerate available is a frame every 33.3ms or 30fps). On a 90Hz device, the same game can drop to 45fps (22.2ms for each frame), providing a much smoother user experience. A device that supports 90Hz and 120Hz can smoothly present content at 120, 90, 60 (120/2), 45(90/2), 40(120/3), 30(90/3), 24(120/5), etc. frames per second.

Rendering at high rates

The higher the rendering rate, the harder it is to sustain that frame rate, simply because there is less time available for the same amount of work. To render at 90Hz, applications only have 11.1ms to produce a frame as opposed to 16.6ms at 60Hz.

To demonstrate that, let’s take a look at the Android UI rendering pipeline. We can break frame rendering into roughly five pipeline stages:

  1. Application’s UI thread processes input events, calls app’s callbacks, and updates the View hierarchy’s list of recorded drawing commands
  2. Application’s RenderThread issues the recorded commands to the GPU
  3. GPU draws the frame
  4. SurfaceFlinger, which is the system service in charge of displaying the different application windows on the screen, composes the screen and submits the frame to the display HAL
  5. Display presents the frame

The entire pipeline is controlled by the Android Choreographer. The Choreographer is based on the display vertical synchronization (vsync) events, which indicate the time the display starts to scanout the image and update the display pixels. The Choreographer is based on the vsync events but has different wakeup offsets for the application and for SurfaceFlinger. The diagram below illustrates the pipeline on a Pixel 4 device running at 60Hz, where the application is woken up 2ms after the vsync event and SurfaceFlinger is woken up 6ms after the vsync event. This gives 20ms for an app to produce a frame, and 10ms for SurfaceFlinger to compose the screen.

Diagram that illustrates the pipeline on a Pixel 4 device

When running at 90Hz, the application is still woken up 2ms after the vsync event. However, SurfaceFlinger is woken up 1ms after the vsync event to have the same 10ms for composing the screen. The app, on the other hand, has just 10ms to render a frame, which is very short.

Diagram of running on a device at 90Hz

To mitigate that, the UI subsystem in Android is using “render ahead” (which delays a frame presentation while starting it at the same time) to deepen the pipeline and postpone frame presentation by one vsync. This gives the app 21ms to produce a frame, while keeping the throughput at 90Hz.

Diagram app 21ms to produce a frame

Some applications, including most games, have their own custom rendering pipelines. These pipelines might have more or fewer stages, depending on what they are trying to accomplish. In general, as the pipeline becomes deeper, more stages could be performed in parallel, which increases the overall throughput. On the other hand, this can increase the latency of a single frame (the latency will be number_of_pipeline_stages x longest_pipeline_stage). This tradeoff needs to be considered carefully.

Taking advantage of multiple refresh rates

As mentioned above, multiple refresh rates allow a broader range of available rendering rates to be used. This is especially useful for games which can control their rendering speed, and for video players which need to present content at a given rate. For example, to play a 24fps video on a 60Hz display, a 3:2 pulldown algorithm needs to be used, which creates jitter. However, if the device has a display that can present 24fps content natively (24/48/72/120Hz), it will eliminate the need for pulldown and the jitter associated with it.

The refresh rate that the device operates at is controlled by the Android platform. Applications and games can influence the refresh rate via various methods (explained below), but the ultimate decision is made by the platform. This is crucial when more than one app is present on the screen and the platform needs to satisfy all of them. A good example is a 24fps video player. 24Hz might be great for video playback, but it’s awful for responsive UI. A notification animating at only 24Hz feels janky. In situations like this, the platform will set the refresh rate to ensure that the content on the screen looks good.

For this reason, applications may need to know the current device refresh rate. This can be done in the following ways:

Applications can influence the device refresh rate by setting a frame rate on their Window or Surface. This is a new capability introduced in Android 11 and allows the platform to know the rendering intentions of the calling application. Applications can call one of the following methods:

Please refer to the frame rate guide on how to use these APIs.

The system will choose the most appropriate refresh rate based on the frame rate programmed on the Window or Surface.

On Older Android versions (before Android 11) where the setFrameRate API doesn’t exist, applications can still influence the refresh rate by directly setting WindowManager.LayoutParams.preferredDisplayModeId to one of the available modes from Display.getSupportedModes. This approach is discouraged starting with Android 11 since the platform doesn’t know the rendering intention of the app. For example, if a device supports 48Hz, 60Hz and 120Hz and there are two applications present on the screen that call setFrameRate(60, …) and setFrameRate(24, …) respectively, the platform can choose 120Hz and make both applications happy. On the other hand, if those applications used preferredDisplayModeId they would probably set the mode to 60Hz and 48Hz respectively, leaving the platform with no option to set 120Hz. The platform will choose either 60Hz or 48Hz, making one app unhappy.

Takeaways

Refresh rate is not always 60Hz - don’t assume 60Hz and don’t hardcode assumptions based on that historical artifact.

Refresh rate is not always constant - if you care about the refresh rate, you need to register a callback to find out when the refresh rate changes and update your internal data accordingly.

If you are not using the Android UI toolkit and have your own custom renderer, consider changing your rendering pipeline according to the current refresh rate. Deepening the pipeline can be done by setting a presentation timestamp using eglPresentationTimeANDROID on OpenGL or VkPresentTimesInfoGOOGLE on Vulkan. Setting a presentation timestamp indicates to SurfaceFlinger when to present the image. If it is set to a few frames in the future, it will deepen the pipeline by the number of frames it is set to. The Android UI in the example above is setting the present time to frameTimeNanos1 + 2 * vsyncPeriod2

Tell the platform your rendering intentions using the setFrameRate API. The platform will match different requests by selecting the appropriate refresh rate.

Use preferredDisplayModeId only when necessary, either when setFrameRate API is not available or when you need to use a very specific mode.

Lastly, familiarize yourself with the Android Frame Pacing library. This library handles proper frame pacing for your game and uses the methods described above to handle multiple refresh rates.

Notes


  1. frameTimeNanos received from Choreographer 

  2. vsyncPeriod received from Display.getRefreshRate()  

Android Match

The new Google Pixel Buds are available today for your listening pleasure

In October, we introduced the all-new Google Pixel Buds—with high-quality sound, an unobtrusive design that fits securely and comfortably in your ear and helpful AI features. We wanted to make sure whether you're streaming content while working out or sitting in a noisy room talking on a conference call, you have the best possible audio experience. Today, Pixel Buds are available for $179 in Clearly White in the U.S. 


We sat down with some of the team behind Pixel Buds to learn more about what’s new, and also to hear how they’ve been using them. 


Get started easily with Fast Pair

“I always used to use wired headphones because I had concerns about the reliability of Bluetooth® connectivity, as lots of other earbuds have pairing problems, including the original Pixel Buds. With the new Pixel Buds, we focused on improving Fast Pair to eliminate these pain points and easily connect to your phone.”

- Ethan Grabau, Product Manager

presto_fastpair_tap.gif

Clear calls with special mics and sensor

“To give you clear calls, even in noisy and windy environments, Pixel Buds combine signals from beamforming mics and a special sensor that detects when your jaw is moving. This helps so you don't have to look for a quiet place to take a call. It’s come in particularly handy these past few weeks for me working from home with two young daughters.”

- Jae Lee, Audio Systems Engineer


Adaptive Sound for better audio  

“Adaptive Sound is perfect for those moments like when you’re steaming milk for a latte, or when you're washing your hands or the dishes. Those noises can eclipse your audio experience for a bit, until the latte, or your dishes are done.” 

- Basheer Tome, Senior Hardware Interface Designer


“To help, Adaptive Sound temporarily and subtly adjusts your volume to accommodate for the new noise in your environment, and goes back to normal after it’s dissipated. It works kind of like auto-brightness on your phone screen: It momentarily adjusts to the world around you to make the experience of using your device a little simpler.”  

- Frank Li, UX Engineer  

Hands-free help with Google Assistant

"When I’m working in the yard and wearing gloves, I can use  ’Hey, Google’ on my Pixel Buds and easily control my music. I can also hear my notifications, and reply to a text message with just my voice and Google Assistant. 


And when I'm taking my dog on our daily walk and using my Pixel Buds, I use Google Assistant to navigate and check my fitness progress hands-free while juggling a leash and bag of dog treats. The Pixel Buds are slim enough they fit snag-free under a hat or hoodie, too." 

- Max Ohlendorf, Technology Manager 

HeyGoogle.png

Real-time translations with conversation mode 

“We set out to see how we could use Google Translate on Pixel Buds to reduce language barriers. Making the conversation as natural as possible even with the use of the phone was important, so we decided to create the split screen UI to show exactly what was being said, and translating it in real time on the screen with conversation mode. Any exposure to a different language is also an opportunity to learn, so we wanted to make the feature is not only as helpful as possible for things like being in a different country, but also as simple as being able to help bilingual households across generations connect through language.” 

- Tricia Fu, Product Manager


Peace of mind with Find My Device

“The fear of losing expensive wireless earbuds is real, and in many cases a reason why people are afraid of trying them. We tried to reduce that fear a bit with Find My Device. If an earbud falls out when you’re walking or running, you know right away. But you may be less aware when you return home and absentmindedly put them down somewhere. So we built the ability to let you ring your earbuds from your phone. We also wanted to make sure we were thoughtful in what that experience is like. You can ring one earbud at a time, to focus on finding either the left or right earbud. The moment your hands touch the lost earbud, the ringing will stop. We hope people won’t need to use this feature often, but if they do, they can find misplaced earbuds more easily.”

- Alex Yee, Interaction Designer

RingEarbuds.png

Like Pixel phones and other Google devices, Pixel Buds will get better over time with new features, including an update to Find My Device which will show the last known location of your earbuds. Check out more cool features on Pixel Buds and see which features will work with your device.


Pixel Buds are available through the Google Store and retailers including AT&T, Best Buy, Target (coming early May), T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Verizon and Walmart. Other colors—Almost Black, Quite Mint and Oh So Orange—will be available in the coming months. Pixel Buds will come to more countries in the coming months as well. 



Android Match

Fast Pair makes it easier to use your Bluetooth headphones

Bluetooth headphones help us take calls, listen to music while working out, and use our phones anywhere without getting tangled up in wires. And though pairing Bluetooth accessories is an increasingly common activity, it can be a frustrating process for many people.

Fast Pair makes Bluetooth pairing easier on Android 6.0+ phones (learn how to check your Android version). When you turn on your Fast Pair-enabled accessory, it automatically detects and pairs with your Android phone in a single tap. So far, there have been over three million Fast pairings between Bluetooth accessories, like speakers and earbuds, and Android phones. Here are some new capabilities to make Fast Pair experience even easier.

Easily find your lost accessory

It can be frustrating when you put your Bluetooth headphones down and immediately forget where you placed them. If they’re connected to your phone, you can locate your headphones by ringing them. If you have true wireless earbuds (earbuds that aren’t attached by cables or wires), you can choose to ring only the left or right bud. And, when you misplace your headphones, in the coming months, you can check their last known location in the Find My Device app if you have Location History turned on.

Ringing Screen (1).png

Know when to charge your true wireless earbuds

Upon opening the case of your true wireless earbuds, you’ll receive a phone notification about the battery level of each component (right bud, left bud, and the case itself if supported). You’ll also receive a notification when your earbuds and the case battery is running low, so you know when to charge them.

Battery (1).gif

Manage and personalize your accessory easily

To personalize your headset or speakers, your accessory name will include your first name after it successfully pairs with Bluetooth. For example, Pixel Buds will be renamed “Alex’s Pixel Buds.”


On phones running Android 10, you can also adjust headphone settings, like linking it to Google Assistant and accessing Find My Device, right from the device details page. The setting varies depending on your headphone model.

Device Details.png

Harmon Kardon FLY and the new Google Pixel Buds will be the first true wireless earbuds to enjoy all of these new features, with many others to come. We’ll continue to work with our partners to bring Fast Pair to more headset models. Learn about how to connect your Fast Pair accessory here.


Android Match

50 temporarily free and 52 on-sale apps and games for Monday

Don't miss out on the sales for aCalendar+, Alien: Blackout, and Kingdom: New Lands

Welcome to Monday, everyone. I love it when I can start the week off with a bang, and thankfully today is one of those days. This means I have more than a handful of app and game sales to share today. So if you're looking to pick up a quality calendar app, aCalendar+ is currently available for half off. I'm also happy to report that the horror adventure game Alien: Blackout is totally free today, and if you're the sort that loves strategic adventure games, then Kingdom: New Lands is a quality pickup currently available at a steep discount.

Read More

50 temporarily free and 52 on-sale apps and games for Monday was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

Netflix trailers now play inside WhatsApp chats just like YouTube videos

WhatsApp on iOS got that feature back in November 2019

It's been possible to watch shared YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram videos right in WhatsApp's native picture-in-picture player for a long time already, and now Netflix has joined the list of supported services. Whenever you share a link to a show or movie from the streaming platform, you and your recipient will be able to view the trailer (if one is available) right in WhatsApp.

To share Netflix content, head to its page in the app and select the share button.

Read More

Netflix trailers now play inside WhatsApp chats just like YouTube videos was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match

The Google Pixel Buds app is now live on the Play Store (APK Download)

Expect the new earbuds to go on sale imminently

Google's first-generation Pixel Buds didn't quite live up to their initial promise, but we're hoping the second-gen earbuds will represent a significant improvement. Announced at the Pixel 4 hardware event in October 2019, we've had to wait a while for them to eventually become available, but it looks like their release is almost upon us. A new app needed to make the most of them is now available on the Play Store.

Read More

The Google Pixel Buds app is now live on the Play Store (APK Download) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.


Android Match