Android users may be spared some headaches, with Google Play now warning them before installing buggy apps.
First spotted by Android Police, Mishaal Rahman tweeted screenshots of a Google Play dialog that warns users when an app they’re about to download has not been performing well on similar hardware.
The feature is a nice addition to the Play Store and should save users some irritation.
Samsung’s Galaxy S23 has become the definition of mobile bloatware, with a base install taking roughly 60GB.
Operating systems growing in size is an inevitable trade-off of new features, improved support, and the addition of new technologies. Unfortunately for S23 users, Samsung seems to be taking OS growth to all new heights.
Mishaal Rahman, Senior Technical Editor for Esper, asked his Twitter followers how much of their phone’s space their system installs were taking:
Some users reported the S23’s Android install taking almost 60GB:
Shockingly, one user even reported a 75GB install:
With the S23 topping out at 256MB, and the S23+ topping out at 512, it’s hard to imagine how or why Samsung can justify taking up 60-75GB of space just for the OS.
Samsung users may finally get seamless Android updates, easing a major pain point with some of the world’s most popular smartphones.
Android, especially on Google’s own line of Pixel phones, has had the ability to download and install system updates in the background, without interfering with what the user is doing. Once the OS has updated to the latest version, the user is notified that a restart will be required to finish the update, which the user can perform when they’re ready.
Unfortunately, Samsung has never adopted the feature. As a result, Samsung’s phones have a much more obnoxious updating process that gets in the user’s way until it’s completed.
According to Android Central, Google may mandate that all OEM’s shipping Android 13 adopt A/B Seamless Updates. The report is based on a tweet by Mishaal Rahman, senior technical editor at Esper.
The news is likely to be a welcome improvement for Samsung users, although it will only apply to phones that ship with Android 13.
According to XDA Developers, Android’s Google Phone app may be getting call recording in a future update.
The Google Phone app is the default phone dialer on Google’s own line of Pixel smartphones, as well as Android One devices. Other manufacturers sometimes include their own dialer apps with more features than Google’s. Xiaomi is one such company, with their dialer offering built-in call recording. Recently, however, Xiaomi announced that its European smartphones would come with Google Phone instead. As XDA points out, however, the company promised that the feature would be “obtainable” in 2020.
When Android version 43.0.289191107 was released for the Pixel 4, XDA editor-in-chief Mishaal Rahman noticed three developer strings that specifically pertain to call recording, including the status of an in-call button to activate or deactivate recording.
As XDA highlights, call recording was available before Android 9 Pie, and is a feature that has been sorely missed in the Android community. If the developer strings Rahman found indicate Google’s plans, this should be a welcome improvement for many users.