When two emojis really love each other...
Update
New emojis and combos
It's been more than a year since Google introduced the option to combine two emojis in Gboard to create a totally new mashup sticker that embodies both, and yet, I still find myself in awe when I discover a new combination that...
Google's new wired Nest cam makes an early appearance in the Google Home app
Google recently announced four new cameras for its Nest lineup, but only two of them were actually available at the time of the announcement: The Nest Cam (battery) and the new Nest Doorbell (battery). The anticipated Nest Cam (wired) may have just reared its head, though. A recent version of...
Northgard update brings online multiplayer support to Android and iOS, complete with cross-play
2v2, 3v3, and 2v2v2 modes supported
Update
Online multiplayer added to the mobile version of Northgard
Back in June, the release date for the Android port of Northgard was revealed in a YouTube trailer. This popular indie strategy game had already made its way to iOS in April but is only just now...
Russia threatens to block YouTube after it suspended a state news channel over COVID misinformation
Russia suspects that Germany is behind the ban, claiming the country is starting a media war
Russia and Google have never been best friends, but things are about to get much worse if the two parties can't find an agreement in the latest dispute. After YouTube deleted the Germany-based branch of Russia's...
Celebrated paranormal shooter Control is free for Stadia Pro subscribers in October
It's a good chance to grab it if you missed that Epic giveaway
Stadia Pro subscribers get access to a couple of free games every month, but they're usually not all that notable — Google sticks with smaller, cheaper titles if it's giving stuff away. But next month's additions include a critical darling...
13 temporarily free and 31 on-sale apps and games for Wednesday
Don't miss out on the sales for Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins, ReactionLab 2, and Burly Men at Sea
Welcome to Wednesday, everyone. Despite a slow week, I have some solid sales to share with everyone, including a few standouts. First up is a sale for Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins, an enjoyable...
Samsung Health's profile page is way more useful in One UI 4
There are also more gender options to choose from
Samsung Health has steadily been getting better over the years, with new features consistently being added and increasing diversity in the fitness data it can track. The app is getting even better in the latest update that's rolling out in the One...
Gboard's selfie-based 'Mini' stickers are going the way of the dodo
Another Google project dying an early death
Gboard is jam-packed with extra features that augment the regular typing experience, particularly if you love using GIFs, stickers, and emoji when you communicate — Emoji Kitchen, in particular, is incredibly fun to play with. However, one of the most personal...
Netflix's gaming program expands to two new countries with three new games
It’s still very small though
Netflix kickstarted its mobile gaming ambitions by launching two games based on its popular Stranger Things series in Poland in late August. A month later, the company is expanding its mobile gaming initiative with three new games, now available in a total of three countries:...
How to send disappearing messages with WhatsApp
It’s a neat feature, albeit with a few too many caveats
Despite several recent controversies questioning its integrity, WhatsApp continues to be surprisingly privacy-conscious, with end-to-end encryption available by default across all chats. The messaging app even took a step further in that direction...
You can now annoy your coworkers with Google Meet video backgrounds on the go
With six available options to start
Millions of workers are still relying on video calls to stay in touch with their co-workers each and every day. To help with daily routines, Google Meet has continued to improve and advance, offering live translations for captions while giving your lighting situation...
Watch me get wrecked for 25 minutes straight in Battlefield Mobile's multiplayer alpha test
Is this a mobile shooter for the hardcore?
With the success of Call of Duty Mobile, it was only a matter of time before Electronic Arts found someone to develop a mobile version of Battlefield. We've known since April that Battlefield Mobile was in development, with a fresh Play Store listing that...
Google Docs comments are getting a little extra breathing room
Customizable watermarks are also on the way
Some of us prefer 4:3 or even 3:2 aspect ratios for our PCs. If you aren't watching a movie or playing games, square displays are perfect for productivity. Apps like Google Docs are perfectly centered on-screen, barely making use of all that white space...
You can now test Chrome for Android's permanent Desktop View switch
It's working in the latest Canary release
Update
Now live as a flag in Canary
Most websites (like this one) adjust their formatting automatically to account for screens of different size and density. But on tablets (and foldables), formatting often has the tendency to go weird and switch you to...
Garena Free Fire MAX brings a graphics and gameplay overhaul to the popular arena shooter
There's also a new patch available today
Garena Free Fire is an older arena shooter that aped PUBG's gameplay a year before PUBG Mobile was released on mobile platforms. As you can imagine, an arena shooter from 2017 that was rushed out the door to beat PUBG Mobile to market hasn't aged very...
Google Stadia vs. Xbox Cloud Gaming: Which is the streaming champion?
Can Google compete with the gaming giant that is Xbox?
If you'd told me five years ago that one day I'd be able to reliably stream video games to my device over the internet in the same way we do videos on YouTube, I'd have laughed. Services like OnLive had given it a go, but it still felt like it...
Google Meet's captions are starting to get their promised live translation support
It's almost like being bilingual
Google Meet is among the biggest video conferencing apps at the moment. One of its most useful features, at least for me, is automatic call transcriptions. Up until now, though, the feature didn't support live translations, unlike captions in apps like YouTube and...
Skype hopes its latest overhaul is enough to win you back
A visual redesign, performance boosts, and much more
Unsurprisingly, Microsoft has spent the last year and a half focused on making Teams as great as it can be. It's not the only messaging tool the company owns, of course. Skype might not be what you turn to in the age of Meet, Duo, and — yes — FaceTime,...
Old Android phones are breaking today, so get ready to play tech support for your elderly relatives
You can no longer sign into Gingerbread devices with your Google account
If you're reading Android Police, it's safe to say you're a tech-savvy person. You might even be the person your friends turn to for smartphone recommendations. Not everyone keeps up-to-date with the latest technology, though,...
WhatsApp's working on a big improvement to multi-device support
Sync messages without your primary smartphone
Believe it or not, WhatsApp didn't support multiple devices before this summer, requiring your phone to be turned on and connected to the web at all times — even when using the web client to send messages. While that's no longer necessary, the app is still...
Looks like Google has put the old Android TV Remote Control app out of its misery
It's been taken off the Play Store unless you downloaded it previously
Google has dropped visibility for the "old" Android TV remote app from the Play Store, following the rollout of the new Google TV app-based solution, which landed last week. For many, the Android TV Remote Control app listing no...
Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai: A Hero's Bonds launches on Android today
Servers set to go live later today
Latest update
Square Enix preps Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai: A Hero's Bonds for launch
Square Enix revealed Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai: A Hero's Bonds last year, but at the time, the game was only slated for a Japanese release. As of this morning,...
Soon you can use your third-party controller with Stadia on your Chromecast Ultra
You can connect to your phone for wired or Bluetooth controllers, or use touchscreen controls
When Stadia launched it was only available on TV via the Chromecast Ultra, and when going that route, you could only play it with the Wi-Fi powered Stadia controller. Google seems to have realized that was...
11 temporarily free and 25 on-sale apps and games for Monday
Don't miss out on the sales for Ashworld, Pandemia: Virus Outbreak, and Sudoku Ultimate
Welcome to Monday, everyone. It looks like things have cooled off since the weekend. Thankfully I still have some quality sales to share with everyone, including a few standouts. First up is a sale for Ashworld,...
What's new in Chrome 95, now rolling out to the beta channel (APK Download)
Secure Payment Confirmation, Eyedropper support, web app improvements, and more
Just a week after Google released Chrome 94 to the stable channel, the company is back at it again with Chrome 95, which it has just promoted to beta. Since Google accelerated the release schedule to a four-week cycle,...
WhatsApp payments could soon earn cash back
But don't get your hopes up: it's not very much
WhatsApp is pushing hard to get a slice of that money transfer pie, introducing mobile person-to-person payments in India and Brazil. And what's better than sending your friend a fast food combo's worth of money to cover that time you left your wallet...
Check out Google Keep's new Material You widgets
Material You Keep me hangin' on
Update
Material You widgets show up
Google Keep is one of the most useful apps in Google's ecosystem. I personally use it a lot, since the ability to take quick notes on your phone and accessing them from any device is really convenient. And now, it's getting even...
Hey Google, get ready for a Material You refresh for Assistant
The staged rollout is starting on Android 12 beta
Assistant is a key part of Google's app ecosystem. Since it was first introduced in 2016 with the first Google Pixel smartphones, Google has made it central to the Pixel experience and to Android in general. And being so important to Google, it was...
19 new Android games from the last week: The best, worst, and everything in between (9/19/21 - 9/26/21)
Actraiser Renaissance, Collection of SaGa Final Fantasy Legend, Pokémon UNITE, plus more
Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android games that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so. Today's list is broken up into several segments, ranging from best, average,...
Zoom brings 'mute' to your eyeballs with video feed blocking
So you can stop seeing that one coworker's ironic coffee mugs
Virtual meetings over Zoom have become all too popular over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they're potentially going to be a big part of life going forward. Already supporting virtual meetings with up to 100 people, Zoom gets...
Square Enix brings Actraiser to the Play Store with a remastered take on the Super Nintendo classic
A surprise release from Square Enix, but a welcome one
Square Enix released Actraiser Renaissance during a recent Nintendo Direct, surprising everyone since this remaster was also revealed for the first time during the Direct release announcement. Great news for Nintendo Switch owners, but even more...
Viber racks up one billion installs, even without your help
You might not be using it, but a lot of people are
When you think of messaging apps, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and any of Google's 47 attempts likely come to mind. As mainstream as those services might be, they aren't the only options you'll find for texting your friends and loved ones. Viber...
Battlefield Mobile's gameplay leaks online, and it actually looks great
Please EA, don't screw this up
Earlier this month, we learned that Electronic Arts would begin rolling out playtests for the mobile version of Battlefield in autumn. Now that fall is here, the game has entered into early testing in Southeast Asia, so gameplay videos have started to leak online, providing...
34 temporarily free and 55 on-sale apps and games for Friday
Don't miss out on the sales for Dead Cells, Titan Quest, and Atom RPG
Welcome to Friday, everyone. It's almost the weekend, and so I have a plump sales roundup to share with everyone, including some quality standouts. First up is a sale for Dead Cells, a fantastic roguelike platformer that's currently...
Wallpaper Engine is a popular live background tool that's making its way from Steam to Android
It will be free-to-use, but to take full advantage of it, you'll need the Windows program
Google offers a few live wallpapers, but if the pre-installed selection on your phone just doesn't cut it, you need to look into other alternatives. These could soon be joined by a gaming community favorite —...
If installs were currency, Google Pay would have 500 million in the bank
Seems like mobile payments are as popular as ever
Mobile payments are the way of the future (or so I've been told), and it seems Google's well aware of that. The company has spent the last year completely renovating its Pay app to be far more advanced than anything that's come before. Spending habits,...
YouTube receives minor design update, but it's not Material You
Finally, some more consistency for the YouTube app
YouTube is a bit of a weird outlier when it comes to Android app design. While there are some interface inconsistencies among all Google apps, YouTube has long stood out as the app with a much shorter app header, a dated gray status bar, and more...
There's a new The Lord of the Rings game on the Play Store, and it takes place in the movie universe
IAPs are back on the menu, boys
Update
NetEase launches The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War on Android
At this point, you'd think free-to-play developers like NetEase would have run out of brands to slap on top of the typical free-to-play genres we're all familiar with, and then a new disappointing...
Material You styling is en route to Google Maps
Navigate around these sharp corners
Pastel color schemes that adapt to your taste and buttons with low-radius corners are the hallmarks of the Material You design scheme for Android and it's been taking over Google's apps one by one. We're now seeing a drip and a drop of its essence coming down to...
Google Search can get you into the Statue of Liberty (and some other neat places)
If only there wasn't a thing called COVID-19 making travel harder
The first thing people usually do when looking for activities to do on a trip is to look up places or tourist attractions in Google, just as one often looks up pretty much anything in Google. The company already has a hub for all your...
Discord is getting a replacement for those music bots YouTube killed
Watch Together is a poor substitution for Groovy and Rythm
Discord was undoubtedly popular pre-pandemic, but in the time since, it's become a go-to application for virtual hangout sessions among friends who can't get together in person. One of the things that makes the app stand above similar services...
Google Photos canvas prints are getting a big bump in price
Google's now shipping prints directly, and adds new size options across the board
Update
Prices are going up
Google Photos has always been about giving users a reliable resource for storing all their memories, special pictures, and videos in the cloud. And to that effect, it has worked amazingly...
Google boldly decides not to introduce all-new messaging solution, brings Chat to Calendar instead
A truly revolutionary move
We're sure we don't need to tell you why seeing "Google" and "messaging" in a single sentence will make some people cringe a bit. Google has always had problems when it comes to streamlining its messaging solutions — big problems, to be fair. And ever since it started trying...
Google Pay growth continues to explode, with dozens upon dozens of new banks signing on
No, YOU'RE a bank
Latest update
107 new
Google Pay has come a long way over the years, most recently with a complete redesign now under its belt. Not too long ago we crossed an eagerly anticipated milestone for the mobile payment app, with the service finally surpassing more than 3,000 banks in...
