The Verge: WhatsApp for Android will again use Google Drive space for backups. “Android users on WhatsApp won’t have a free ride anymore when it comes to backups. The change comes after five years of Android users’ backups not counting toward Google Drive storage limits at all — something that was never true for iOS users.”
The Verge: A secret Google deal let Spotify completely bypass Android’s app store fees. “On the stand, Google head of global partnerships Don Harrison confirmed Spotify paid a 0 percent commission when users chose to buy subscriptions through Spotify’s own system. If the users picked Google as their payment processor, Spotify handed over 4 percent — dramatically less than Google’s more common 15 percent fee.”
9to5 Google: Google Play Protect will prompt you to scan unknown apps before sideloading. “Google is now updating Play Protect with real-time scanning at the code level. It will ‘extract important signals from the app and send them to the Play Protect backend infrastructure for a code-level evaluation.’ This is intended to detect emerging threats, like polymorphic malware that can change its identifiable features.”
Ars Technica: Thousands of Android devices come with unkillable backdoor preinstalled. “When you buy a TV streaming box, there are certain things you wouldn’t expect it to do. It shouldn’t secretly be laced with malware or start communicating with servers in China when it’s powered up. It definitely should not be acting as a node in an organized crime scheme making millions of dollars through fraud. However, that’s been the reality for thousands of unknowing people who own cheap Android TV devices.”
9to5 Google: Google Now was the better phone assistant, no AI or LLMs needed. “Google’s in-progress plan to revitalize Assistant is by infusing it with LLMs (large language models), starting on mobile, which should mean Android. Hopefully that ‘supercharged Assistant’ will be able to analyze what’s on my screen, find dates/times/locations, and offer to save it in Google Calendar for me. It’s ridiculous, however, that we had that functionality 6-7 years ago and didn’t need the bleeding edge in computer science to get it.”
The Verge: Google delays its upgraded, more expansive Find My Device network. “Google is delaying the broad expansion of its Find My Device feature, and it says it’s doing so with personal safety in mind since the industry spec proposed by itself and Apple isn’t quite ready yet.”
Engadget: ChatGPT’s Android app arrives in the last week of July. “When OpenAI released a ChatGPT app for the iPhone in May, it promised that Android users will get theirs soon. Now, the company has announced that ChatGPT for Android is rolling out to users sometime next week. Moreover, its Google Play listing is already up, and users can pre-register to get it as soon as it becomes available.”
Ars Technica: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls. “As the BBC reports, Android 12 added an easy-access feature for emergency services: just press the power button five times, and your phone will dial emergency services for you. That’s apparently pretty easy to do accidentally when a phone is sitting in your pocket, or if you have a wonky power button, resulting in a surge of totally silent accidental calls to emergency dispatch.”
Engadget: Android can now ‘remix’ emojis and help with reading practice. “Google has listed a bunch of features rolling out to the Android ecosystem starting today, June 1st, and one of them can help new readers improve their diction and vocabulary.”
The Verge: An Android app started secretly recording users almost a year after it was listed on Google Play. “An Android recording app called iRecorder Screen Recorder began as an innocent screen recording app but turned evil nearly a year after it was first released, as detailed by Ars Technica. The app first came out in September 2021, but after an update the following August, it began recording a minute of audio every 15 minutes and forwarding those recordings, through an encrypted link, to the developer’s server.”
Bleeping Computer: Google launches bug bounty program for its Android applications. “Google has launched the Mobile Vulnerability Rewards Program (Mobile VRP), a new bug bounty program that will pay security researchers for flaws found in the company’s Android applications.”
How-To Geek: ChatGPT Now Has an Official iPhone App. “Ever since ChatGPT took the world by storm, there has been a pile of unofficial mobile apps, some of which were outright scams. OpenAI has now released an official iPhone app for ChatGPT, with an Android version on the way.”
The Verge: It looks like Google’s working on a dashcam feature for Android phones. “Google appears to be working on a native dashcam recording feature for some Android phones that could run in the background for up to 24 hours, and it sounds pretty great.”
Engadget: Most states halt use of Google and Apple’s COVID-19 exposure notification system. “States have turned off COVID-19 exposure notifications on iPhones across the US now that the public emergency has expired. At least some states also appear to be shutting down notifications for Android users. You won’t get alerts if you approach someone who tested positive and reported their results. No personal data traded hands, as the system relied on anonymized Bluetooth exchanges rather than GPS.”
Engadget: Android can automatically archive apps you aren’t using. “After a teaser last year, Google is ready to help you save space on your phone by shelving unused apps. The company is rolling out an auto-archive feature that removes key parts of apps without erasing personal data. So long as an app is still available on the Play Store, you just have to tap its icon to re-download the missing pieces. This can free as much as 60 percent of an app’s space, Google says.”
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