Users slip on the Garmin Instinct E, priced at $199.99 (was $300), and immediately notice its lightweight polymer case resting comfortably against the skin. No heavy metal edges or glossy finishes compete for attention. Instead the watch settles in like an old reliable tool built for actual use rather than display. Its monochrome screen stays readable under bright sun or in deep shade without draining power. Buttons feel deliberate and few in number, keeping every interaction straightforward during a hike or while checking the time at work.
Battery life is the one element that continues to surprise users long after the first unboxing experience has worn off. In standard smartwatch mode, the 45-millimeter device can last up to sixteen days, but when you switch to energy saver mode, those numbers jump to thirty-five or even forty days. Even if you’re using GPS to navigate, the watch can last for more than twenty hours before needing to be recharged. In real life, however, we’re talking about days filled with exercising, monitoring sleep, and sporadically receiving notifications, which last far longer than anyone anticipates from a device strapped to your wrist. Charging it becomes something you do on weekends rather than every day, saving up time and mental space.
Health monitoring runs discreetly in the background, never interfering with your everyday activities. Your wrist-based heart rate data is fed into your sleep scores, stress readings, and the “Body Battery,” which shows you how recovered you are at any one time. The watch automatically logs your steps and intensity minutes, and then provides straightforward insights into how you’re recovering from a strenuous workout. None of this requires you to constantly tap on the screen or navigate endless menus. They simply sit there silently until you need them, at which point they provide genuine valuable information that allows you to change your routine, rather than simply cluttering your screen with numbers.
Sports monitoring includes activities that are important to outdoor enthusiasts such as running, hiking, cycling, swimming, and strength training. The watch features built-in profiles for everything that uses GPS to properly track distance and pace. It also captures elevation changes and heart rate zones throughout longer workouts, which are subsequently synced to your phone app for further review. There isn’t a vast list of extras cluttering up the experience, either, because you just get the precise info on effort and route that you need, without having to trawl through things you’ll never use. For weekend warriors or daily trainers, this balance simply feels right.
Smart notifications appear on the screen in a clean and straightforward manner as long as your phone is nearby. Calls, messages, and calendar alerts appear with little effort and no complicated setup. You may make changes to your music or respond to a fast message in seconds, even while on the go. The watch conveniently bypasses music storage and contactless payments, both of which keep the software lean and the battery solid. What remains, however, functions perfectly on a daily basis, providing you with just enough connectivity to stay current without diverting your focus away from reality.
The build quality, as expected, matches the simple style to the best of its ability. The case satisfies military shock and temperature resistance standards and can even be submerged in 10 atmospheres. The lens barely registers scratches, while the overall design easily withstands trail dust, rain, and unexpected drops. People who have worn their Instinct E through rugged terrain or on their regular commutes all say the same thing: it just keeps going. When things go difficult, there are no finicky components or showy embellishments to worry about because the watch simply keeps ticking away.
Marshall designed the Stanmore III, priced at $249.99 (was $400), to capture the look and feel of its famous amplifiers while giving people a straightforward way to fill a room with music. The result sits in that sweet spot between lifestyle speaker and serious audio hardware, and it earns plenty of praise as one of the stronger home Bluetooth options available. A cloth grille stretches across the front with the gold Marshall script logo front and center. Leatherette sides and top give it a durable, premium texture that feels good to the touch. Brass-finished knobs and switches on the upper panel complete the vintage amplifier impression without looking like a costume piece.
Listeners keep returning to the top-mounted controls because they work so well. A large volume knob sits between the bass and treble dials, each having clear markings and a comfortable weight. A button to switch between Bluetooth and wired inputs is right there in the mix, as are extra playback buttons for pause, skip, and connection, making things refreshingly clear. In terms of what’s going on within the boxy cabinet, a five-inch woofer handles the low end with the help of a rear bass reflex vent, while two smaller tweeters are directed outwards to expand the stereo image significantly over the previous Stanmore model. You have three class-D amplifiers that generate 80 watts of power, cover frequencies from 45 Hz to 20 kHz, and reach a peak of 97 dB at one meter.
HOME-FILLING SOUND: Stanmore III has an even wider soundstage than its predecessor, delivering immersive, home-filling Marshall signature sound.
PAIR, PLAY AND TURN IT UP: Stanmore III is straight to business, so you can just pair and play without the hassle of a complex set-up.
NEXT-GENERATION BLUETOOTH: Stanmore III is ready for the future of Bluetooth technology and has been built to deliver next-generation Bluetooth…
The sound is full-bodied and robust, but not in a neutral way. The bass can really dig in and stay rather tight even when the thing is burning away. The mids are clear enough to pick out the singers and guitars, while the treble adds just enough brightness to keep things interesting. This tuning is especially handy for rock and metal, but the actual tone knobs allow you to tune down or amplify the desired bits as much or as little as you need, whether they are pop, techno, jazz, or classical.
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Bluetooth 5.2 can easily manage wireless connections up to 30 feet away. Phones, PCs, tablets, and other devices pair fast and consistently. If you don’t require the sophisticated wifi or are working with older equipment, the rear panel includes dual RCA inputs and a 3.5 mm auxiliary connector for connecting. Most of the time, you can just plug it into a turntable, computer, or mixer with no problems.
Marshall’s phone app allows you to change the sound based on how it’s configured, including location compensation to help the sound out when it’s on a shelf, against a wall, or out in the open, as well as firmware upgrades. The physical knobs control the majority of the settings, so you won’t need the app.
The Stanmore III is 35 cm wide, 20.3 cm tall, and 18.8 cm deep. It’s large enough to be noticeable on your credenza or lowboard, but not so big that it’s difficult to handle, and its weight of 4 and a quarter kilograms makes it appear quite substantial once placed. Some rubber is placed on the bottom to protect the area it is sitting on and prevent it from sliding around.
Stellenbosch University’s Jeran Cloete and Dian Spear, South African National Biodiversity Institute’s Jessica da Silva, University of Fort Hare’s Lavhelesani Dembe Simba and University of Cape Town’s Peter J Carrick discuss AI’s use in conservation efforts.
Conservationists analyse overwhelming volumes of ecological data in their work. For example, they might need to process decades of weather data or the movements of millions of insects. Up until now, these scientists and decision makers have had to manually find and sort information, then use statistical tools which often oversimplify the source information.
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools now promise to help with all that. But can they deliver on the promise?
They are far from perfect. It’s been shown that they can confidently make up information and amplify hidden biases in their training data. And different AI tools have different uses, strengths and weaknesses. They need to be chosen carefully.
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AI featured among the top 10 emerging issues in biodiversity conservation in South Africa in a recent horizon scan that we undertook. As part of a group of 14 experts in biodiversity conservation, we drew on discussions within our diverse professional networks, literature and news trends to identify issues likely to emerge and intensify over the next five to 10 years.
The issues fell into three main groups: technological disruption, regulatory complexity and infrastructure impacts.
Among them, AI featured as both an opportunity and a risk for future biodiversity conservation.
AI opportunities
Our scan brought to the surface the power and pitfalls of AI in the kind of work we do.
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One potential use of AI is in tracking. Tracking animals and insects at scale is essential for conservation decisions. Birds and whales migrate across the planet every year, and insect numbers change through the seasons in the billions. Image recognition AI can process camera trap data to help populate databases such as Wildlife Insights and provide information about animal behaviour to help predict the impacts of global processes like climate change and industrial development on biodiversity.
Mass monitoring also records people sharing those landscapes with animals. This surveillance can be used to detect illegal wildlife harvesting (poaching) or avoid human-animal conflict.
Land use is another area of conservation where AI offers opportunities. Using economic data together with landscape information, custom AI models can be trained to predict deforestation, allowing preventive action, or choose land with high conservation value for the best price.
Ecosystem complexity needs to be summarised and condensed into maps and categories to inform broad landscape-level decisions. Using AI increases the amount of data that can be summarised.
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Chatbots are one kind of AI tool that can distil information from huge amounts of text. For example, they can be used to monitor product listings and detect illegal wildlife trade online the moment it occurs. They can read hundreds of scientific publications to help decide which species are at risk of extinction. They can draw on many different sources to create environmental impact assessments; the basis of land development decisions, offering a tempting shortcut around a time-consuming reporting task.
But we also identified downsides and risks.
The risks
Local communities living off the land might experience the mass surveillance as an intrusion. Alienation of local communities in this way could cause them to oppose conservation governance and sabotage technology in the field to protect their privacy.
Another challenge is that the technology itself has limitations. Using AI for tracking animals means specially training image and audio identification systems to work with each ecosystem and piece of hardware. An AI model is only as good as the effort that was put into teaching it. For example, training a model on recordings from a city might cause it to ‘hear’ pigeons everywhere, producing a confident but incomplete list of birds from natural area data.
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Another worry about AI is that replacing human involvement could lead to job losses. When used for animal identification, it could contribute to an ongoing decline in taxonomy knowledge which is more severe in biodiversity-rich, low-income countries in Africa. That knowledge is essential for improving and correcting AI systems.
We also found reasons for concern in land use applications.
The risk is that using AI tools for map making could disconnect the map from reality on the ground by replacing human judgement in the field and favouring data sources compatible with AI methods. A skilled ecologist surveying an ecosystem will notice unexpected things that were not specified during the planning stage. For example, speaking with local people may reveal planned farming expansion or harvesting wildlife activities. An AI system would miss this critical context because it can only read information that has been digitised.
AI can’t see animals that evade cameras or identify animals that were not expected to occur in that location (images that it was not trained on). It also can’t speak to humans to discover their intentions or uncover ecological wisdom passed down from their ancestors.
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Chatbots too need to be used with caution. They can generate or embed fictional information. Even when drawing on real information, they often reflect bias in their training data, favouring research and perspectives from well-represented institutions in the global north, where publications have historically been dominated by men in high-income universities.
Uncritical use of chatbot-generated recommendations could lead to poor environmental decisions. For example, it might suggest planting trees without considering diverse ecosystems like Africa’s savannah grasslands.
Using chatbots as a shortcut to summarise knowledge and inform conservation decisions in Africa will reinforce colonial systems and marginalise indigenous communities and knowledge.
Careful use of AI
Strong regulation of the use of AI in environmental science is therefore a moral and legal imperative. The sector needs clear safeguards, standards and oversight mechanisms to prevent faulty or inappropriate AI outputs from influencing decisions. It needs:
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validation protocols to catch fabricated information
limitations to prevent chatbots from overriding human knowledge and perspectives
mandatory disclosure of AI prompt histories
standards for describing training datasets so that appropriate models can be selected.
The explosion of AI presents a powerful opportunity for conservation if we use the right tools with care. If we replace human judgement with unchecked automation, we risk becoming tools of the very systems we built.
Most people use Google services every day without thinking about how much activity gets recorded. This is very useful for Google, as it allows it to personalize the information presented to its users. But some individuals would rather limit the number of entries made in their accounts. The good news is that Google offers various options for managing one’s activity history.
Before you delete your Google search history, though, there are certain things that should be taken into consideration after deletion. For one, deleting activity might lead to fewer targeted advertisements appearing in front of you. On the other hand, Google may still hold on to some of the information for reasons such as safety or legal concerns. Activity collection will also continue if you have not disabled your tracking preferences. It is always a good idea to check your privacy settings from time to time.
Delete Your Google Search History
Follow the steps below to clear your Google activity history:
Meta launched AI Mode on Facebook, using Meta AI to surface answers from public posts across Groups, Reels, and Marketplace listings.
Meta has launched AI Mode on Facebook, a new search experience that uses Meta AI to pull answers from public posts across the platform. The feature surfaces information from Facebook Groups, Reels, and Marketplace listings, turning years of user-generated content into a searchable knowledge base. It is rolling out now to users in the United States.
AI Mode sits inside Facebook’s existing search bar. When a user asks a question, Meta AI generates a conversational answer drawn from public content rather than returning a list of links. The system can recommend products from Marketplace, surface advice from Group discussions, and pull clips from Reels that match the query.
The feature builds on Meta’s broader push to embed AI across its platforms. In May, the company launched Forum, a standalone Reddit-style app built on Facebook Groups that includes an AI “Ask” tab for querying Group discussions. AI Mode extends that same logic to the main Facebook app, giving Meta AI access to a far larger pool of public content.
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The timing is notable. Google’s AI search overhaul has accelerated a traffic collapse for publishers, with zero-click searches now accounting for roughly 60 per cent of all queries. Meta is applying the same approach to social content, synthesising public posts into AI-generated answers instead of sending users to the original discussions.
Meta did not say whether Group admins or individual users can opt their public posts out of AI Mode results. The company has not disclosed how it handles posts that were public when written but later changed to private, or whether deleted posts are excluded from the training data. These are significant gaps for a feature that treats user content as raw material for an AI system.
AI Mode is one piece of a much larger AI rollout. Meta now offers AI-generated animated profile pictures, introduced in February. A Marketplace auto-reply feature launched in March uses Meta AI to draft responses to buyer inquiries. A creator assistant tool, available since June 3 in the US, India, and Canada, helps content creators with captions and engagement suggestions.
The company is also building a subscription business around AI. Facebook Plus and Instagram Plus launched on May 27 at $3.99 per month each, offering ad-free browsing and premium features. Meta has announced two additional AI-specific tiers coming later this year: Meta One Plus at $7.99 per month and Meta One Premium at $19.99 per month, which will include access to more advanced AI models and higher usage limits.
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The subscription pricing positions Meta’s AI features against standalone chatbot services. ChatGPT Plus costs $20 per month. Google’s Gemini Advanced is $19.99 per month. Meta is betting that embedding AI into apps people already use every day, rather than asking them to open a separate tool, will drive adoption more effectively.
Whether that bet pays off depends on accuracy. AI-generated answers drawn from social media posts carry a higher risk of misinformation than those sourced from curated databases or verified publishers. Facebook Groups contain medical advice from unqualified strangers, financial tips from anonymous accounts, and product recommendations that may be paid promotions. Meta AI does not distinguish between a dermatologist’s post and a conspiracy theorist’s, at least not in any way the company has publicly described.
Google’s AI Overviews have already demonstrated the problem at scale. An analysis by Oumi found that Google’s AI answers are roughly 91 per cent accurate, but with trillions of queries per year, that error rate translates to millions of incorrect answers served daily. Meta’s content pool is arguably less reliable than Google’s web index, and the company has not published comparable accuracy metrics for AI Mode.
The feature also raises questions about the value exchange between Meta and its users. People post in Facebook Groups to help each other, share experiences, and build communities. AI Mode extracts that value and repackages it as Meta’s product, without compensation or clear attribution to the original authors.
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Meta has been restructuring aggressively to fund its AI ambitions. The company cut roughly 21,000 jobs across 2023 and 2024, then announced another round of layoffs in early 2026 focused on underperforming employees. Mark Zuckerberg has described AI as the company’s top priority, with capital expenditure on AI infrastructure expected to reach $60 to $65 billion in 2025 alone.
AI Mode is the latest product to emerge from that spending. It is a straightforward play: Facebook has decades of public content that no competitor can match, and Meta AI now has a front door to all of it. The question is whether users will trust an AI that answers their questions by mining their neighbours’ posts, and whether the people whose posts are being mined will be comfortable with that arrangement.
Considering all the Android 16 QPR updates and the new ones announced at The Android Show and Google I/O 2026, Android 17 is definitely shaping up to be one of the most ambitious updates the company has shipped in years.
Between Gemini Intelligence that gets things done on your behalf, the new security features, and productivity-based features like App Bubbles, there’s a lot to unpack. The stable update is expected in June or early July 2026, but plenty of the upcoming features are already live on the Android 17 Beta version for compatible Pixel devices.
Here’s everything we know so far, including the latest Android 17 news, release timeline, how to download the beta version, compatible devices, and all the features that might reach a wider audience with the upcoming stable build release.
Google
Android 17: Latest news
June 10, 2026 Google released Android 17 QPR1 Beta 4 for Pixel devices.
June 1, 2026 Android 17 Beta 4.1 went live with a couple of new features like Continue On.
May 12, 2026 At the Android Show 2026, Google announced several developments including Gemini Intelligence, which itself is a suite of AI-powered features, along with Chromebooks, and Android 17.
May 12, 2026 Instagram is getting Ultra HDR capture, playback, built-in video stabilization, and Night Sight support for flagship smartphones with Android 17.
The Android 17 release cycle looks slightly different from anything Google has done before, and that’s largely because Google retired its long-standing Developer Preview this year. Instead of the early, developer-only preview that used to kick off each Android release, Google has now placed the Android Canary channel.
While Android 17 reached platform stability in April 2026, Google just dropped the Beta 4.1 upgrade on June 3, 2026, an unscheduled big-fix drop addressing the lingering issues ahead of the stable launch, which is also expected to roll out in June 2026.
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Stage
Date
What It Means
Android Canary Channel
Continuous (2025 – early 2026)
Google’s permanent replacement for Developer Previews.
Beta 1
February 13, 2026
The first public beta, open to all enrolled Pixel devices. Introduced app-facing API changes, early security architecture updates, and camera and media capability improvements.
Beta 2
February 26, 2026
Refinements across system stability, early UI changes, and behavior adjustments based on Beta 1 developer feedback.
Beta 3: Platform Stability
March 26, 2026
Google locked down Android 17’s final SDK and NDK APIs with this build.
Beta 4
April 16, 2026
The last scheduled public beta.
Google I/O & The Android Show
May 19, 2026
Google’s official consumer-facing reveal.
Beta 4.1
June 3, 2026
A minor, unscheduled bug-fix drop addressing lingering issues ahead of the stable launch.
Stable Public OTA Rollout
Expected June 2026
Over-the-air delivery to all supported Pixel hardware.
QPR1 Minor SDK Release
September 2026 (estimated)
Google’s Q4 platform drop, adding additional APIs and features outside the main release.
However, before you proceed, there’s one important caveat: if you leave the beta program before the stable Android 17 release, Google will require a full factory reset of your device before returning it to the stable Android 16 channel.
The steps required to install the Android 17 beta are given below.
Head to Settings > System > Backup and initiate a manual backup to your Google account.
Enroll your device in the Android Beta Program by signing in to the portal with the Google account tied to your Pixel, and locate your device in the list of eligible hardware.
Once you locate your device, tap “Opt in” to enroll.
Now, on your compatible Pixel device, go to Settings > System > System update and tap “Check for update.” The beta package should appear in a few minutes after you enroll.
Download the update and wait for the installation to run in the background. You’ll see a restart prompt once your phone is ready.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
Which devices support Android 17?
Google Pixel
Every Pixel smartphone that runs on a Tensor chip is eligible for Android 17. This includes the older models from the Pixel 6 series, all the way up to the latest Pixel 10 family, both flagships and the A-series devices. More than 20 Pixel devices will receive the Android 17 stable update.
It’s worth mentioning here that Google extended the software support for the Pixel 6 series, including the regular Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, and the Pixel 6a, keeping them in the update window through October 2026. However, Android 17 will be the final major operating system update for these devices.
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Refer to the complete list of supported Pixel devices below.
Samsung’s new custom skin, One UI 9, is based on Android 17. The skin is already available as part of the One UI 9 beta program (through the Samsung Members app), which went live for Galaxy S26 users in May 2026 in regions like the United States, United Kingdom, Poland, South Korea, and India. This makes Samsung one of the earliest non-Google partners to roll out the Android 17 beta.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
Regarding the stable launch, Samsung is expected to roll out One UI 9’s stable version with its second major hardware event of the year, Galaxy Unpacked in July, along with its latest generation of foldables. Older lineups like the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S24 series could get the stable OTA update around the same time.
However, the S23 series, along with the mid-range A-series devices and the Galaxy tablets, could get the stable release later in 2026.
Devices expected to receive One UI 9 are given below.
For the first time, Google has opened the Android 17 beta pipeline to international hardware partners during the Beta 4/4.1 stability phase. Nine manufacturers currently have devices in the official beta program, including OnePlus, Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo, Honor, iQOO, Lenovo, and Realme.
Most of these don’t sell smartphones in the United States, but they’re quite popular in other major markets like India. Stable Android 17 rollouts for these brands are expected to begin in Q3 2026, along with their respective software skins, such as OxygenOS 17 for OnePlus and HyperOS 4 for Xiaomi.
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What’s new in Android 17?
Android 17 is the most feature-loaded operating system upgrade Google has shipped in years. The credit goes partly to the new features confirmed at The Android Show and Google I/O 2026, and partly to a wave of Pixel-exclusive Android 17 QPR updates that will finally reach a broader audience through the stable update.
While Google has already confirmed a bunch of new features for the stable Android 17 release, a couple of others introduced in Android 16 QPR updates could also make their way to other OEMs with Android 17.
Gemini Intelligence can parse an open Chrome tab (through on-screen awareness), identify details like event times or prices, and complete bookings or fill forms in the background, using the new Gemini in Chrome and the new, smarter Autofill. You only confirm the payment details; Gemini Intelligence takes care of the rest.
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Create My Widget
Android 17 will also embrace vibe-coding (in a controlled manner) by allowing users to create their own custom widgets. The new tool will let users describe a widget in plain language and build it for them on the spot, such as one that includes a to-do list for shopping, fetches information from Daily Brief, or shows a countdown to an event marked in their calendar.
Gboard RamblerGoogle
At the same event, Google confirmed a new feature called Rambler, which redefines what traditional speech-to-text means.
Built into Gboard, the feature can not only remove filler words (such as “umm” or “ya”), but it can also handle awkward phrasing, mid-sentence conversions, recognize multiple languages, and produce a clean transcription of whatever you ramble (that’s where the name comes from).
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Split Notifications and Quick Settings Panels
The upcoming update will split the combined notifications and Quick Settings drawer into two different panels, wherein swiping down from the top-left corner will bring up the notifications, while swiping from the top-right will let you access the Quick Settings menu. While the redesign is mandatory on foldables and tablets, it will remain optional on smartphones.
Available in the Pixel Launcher for Android 17, this particular feature will let you remove app names from beneath the home screen icons entirely, resulting in a cleaner layout. Apple iPhones got a similar feature with iOS 18 in 2025.
Google has redesigned all of its Noto emoji with a subtle, textured look. Called Noto 3D, these emojis will be available first with Android 17 on Pixel phones via Gboard, YouTube, and Gmail.
Android 17 Easter Egg
This is the first new Android Easter egg since Android 14. Head to Settings > About Phone > Android version, tap the version number repeatedly, and you should see a black screen with diamond-shaped dots arranged in a circle. You can connect them in any order, and it reveals the Android 17 logo.
At Google I/O 2026, Google announced the Metric Style update of Android’s Live Updates framework. Designed for health, fitness, and travel apps, the Live Updates can now display up to three data points across the always-on display, lock screen, and status bar at once.
Pill-style media app switcher
This particular feature arrived with Android 17 QPR1 Beta 3, replacing the carousel-style media control tile in the notification section with a compact card layout. This eliminates any accidental seek-bar scrubbing.
Confirmed in Android 17 QPR1 Beta 4, the feature adds a dedicated Quick Settings tile for switching input methods like Gboard’s voice typing or Gemini.
Medical companion device profile
This new companion device profile tier gives health-critical apps a dedicated Bluetooth connection that goes around standard battery optimization settings.
The UI overhaul arrived with Android 16 QPR1, exclusively for Pixel devices, and should reach other Android OEMs with Android 17. It introduces bouncier, physics-based animations, and background blur effects in the app drawer and notification shade.
Forced Auto-Themed Icons
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Released with Android 16 QPR2, the feature mandates that all app icons adopt the system’s chosen color theme, and not just those whose developers chose to support it.
Yet another feature from Android 16 QPR2, this one expands and applies a forced dark theme on apps that lack native support for dark mode. It also includes a per-app override setting, letting you exempt select apps from dark mode.
Lock Screen Widgets
Launched with Android 16 QPR2 on Pixel phones, Lock Screen Widgets might expand to all supported phones with Android 17.
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Flashlight Brightness SliderShikhar Mehrotra / Digital Trends
Released in Android 16 QPR3 Beta 1, this update will roll out to all Android 17 users, allowing them to access a vertical brightness slider instead of simply toggling the flashlight on or off by long-pressing the flashlight tile in the Quick Settings menu.
Ability to remove At a Glance
With Android 17, you’ll be able to remove the At a Glance widget from the home screen on Pixel phones. This ability was first introduced with Android 16 QPR3.
First rolled out with Android 16 QPR1, pointers now move seamlessly from the device screen to a connected external monitor without getting stuck at the edge. Furthermore, a pointer acceleration disable toggle delivers flat 1:1 movement tracking.
At Google I/O 2026, the company revealed its Android Auto redesign, introducing media card configurations that adapt to a broader range of infotainment display aspect ratios. The stable update will also add a swipeable card-based media app switched to Android Auto.
Content creation and gaming
Screen Reactions
Screen Reactions uses the native screen recorder to capture the screen and the video from your front camera simultaneously, stitching the video (with your reaction) directly onto what you’re recording. It will roll out exclusively for Pixel devices with Android 17.
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⏺ You can now try Screen Reactions in Android 17 QPR1 Beta 4!
As we previewed at The Android Show, this feature lets you record yourself and your screen at the same time without setting up a green screen.
Meta’s Edits app gets two more flagship-exclusive tools with Android 17: Smart Enhance and Sound Separation. While the former upscales photos and videos, the latter isolates individual audio layers from the noise, letting creators boost their vocals.
APV support
Co-developed with Samsung, Google has integrated Advanced Professional Video (APV) support directly into the Android 17 framework. Currently available on flagships like Galaxy S26 Ultra, the storage-efficient video format will expand to more flagship devices with the upcoming update.
Google has partnered with Meta to introduce Instagram-specific updates for flagship Android devices. These include Ultra HDR capture and playback, built-in video stabilization, and Night Sight into the Instagram app.
Floating screen recording toolbar
Confirmed with the third beta of Android 17, the screen recorder’s controls no longer live exclusively in the notification shade. Instead, they live in a compact pill overlay on the screen (during recording).
Adobe’s Premiere mobile app is coming to Android this summer, with its launch timeline tied to the Android 17 stable update rollout.
System-wide loudness management
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Confirmed via Android 17’s audio framework changelogs, this particular addition automatically balances volumes across streaming apps and media sources.
Native gamepad button remapping
Google’s upcoming operating system update contains a system-level controller configuration dashboard for both USB-C wired and Bluetooth-based gamepads, allowing users to remap buttons and adjust analog thumbstick curves without using third-party keymapping apps.
🎮 Try our new controller remapping feature in the Android 17 Beta!
Although Android supports a wide variety of gamepads, we recognize that a one-size-fits-all control scheme doesn’t work for everyone, so we’re excited for you to try this new feature👇https://t.co/3yL7J97Kmw
Versatile Video Coding is integrated at the platform level in Android 17, with hardware-accelerated decoding on supported silicon, and can deliver the same visual quality as H.265/HEVC at about half the data rate.
Vulkan 1.4
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Android 17 increases the minimum graphics API floor to Vulkan 1.4 and mandates ANGLE (Almost Native Graphics Layer Engine) support.
In the fourth Android 17 beta, Google enforces app resizeability by removing the opt-out mechanism for developers that allowed them to block split screen resizing. All apps must allow users to customize their window size or split configurations.
App Bubbles
Long-pressing any app icon in Android 17 Beta 3 or newer reveals a new Bubble option that keeps the app active as a small circular icon in one corner of the screen, helping users with two or three-app-based workflows.
Pause Point adds a 10-second waiting period before opening an app you’ve marked distracting. During the pause, Android 17 offers a breathing exercise, a favorite photo memory, or an audiobook suggestion.
Split-screen adjustment arrows
Confirmed in Android 17 Beta 4, the thin window splitter between split-screen apps now features small directional arrows that users can tap to change the split ratio to 70:30 or 90:10.
Desktop Mode external monitor workspaces
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Desktop Mode arrived with Android 16 QPR1 and might expand to more devices with Android 17. It transforms compatible phones into a full windowed computing experience (like Samsung DeX) when connected to an external display.
🖥Super excited to see Desktop mode finally launch!
With the release of Android 16 QPR3 today, connected display support has reached general availability.
This means you don’t need to flip a Developer option to enable it – just connect a compatible Android device to an… pic.twitter.com/itmTe38vmo
Android 17 Beta 4 comes with RAM usage limits on a per-app basis. Apps that exceed their allocation are closed by the system, preventing a few heavy apps from hogging all the available memory.
Custom keyboard shortcut rebinding
The feature lets users map specific hardware key combinations to open apps or trigger system functions. It might expand to a broader range of devices with Android 17.
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⌨️Android 16 QPR2 adds the ability to assign a custom keyboard shortcut to launch any app of your choice!
To do so, tap “+ Add shortcut” at the bottom of the “App shortcuts” tab in the “keyboard shortcuts” menu. pic.twitter.com/RHeWLMqnNo
A toggle in Settings > Accessibility > Color & motion > Reduce blur effects reduces the frosted glass effect from the user interface. It was first rolled out with Android 16 QPR2.
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Privacy and security-related updates
Bank Spoofing Protection
When a suspicious call arrives, Android silently queries the bank’s app installed on users’ phones to confirm whether a call is actually in progress from the bank’s end. If not, the call is immediately terminated. The feature won’t just work with Android 17, but Android 11 and newer versions.
With Android, Google’s on-device AI scam scanner can now flag apps secretly forwarding SMS messages or abusing accessibility permissions to place invisible overlays that capture user inputs, and there’s a new “dynamic signal monitoring” feature as well.
SMS OTP hiding
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Confirmed in Beta 2, Android 17 only allows the intended recipient apps or the device’s default SMS app to read OTPs within three hours from receiving them.
Granular contacts access picker
The upcoming Android version will introduce a contact-level permission selector instead of granting apps blanket access to the entire contacts directory.
📣 New feature in Android 17!
Android 17 is introducing a new Contact Picker feature that provides a standardized, secure, and searchable interface for contact selection.
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Historically, apps needing access to your contacts relied on the broad “READ_CONTACTS” permission, which… pic.twitter.com/eLZ1zVRArS
Android 17 adds a new button that surfaces which apps are actively using GPS data in real time, along with a single-tap option to revoke location access immediately.
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Background audio isolation and restrictions
The audio framework enforces strict limits on background apps trying to start an audio playback, request audio focus, or adjust system volume without actively informing the user.
Biometric lock for lost devices
The Mark as Lost feature in Find Hub now requires biometric authentication on top of PIN/passcode.
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Time zone change notification
When a local cell tower overrides the device clock, something that silently changes calendar events and alarms, a system notification confirms the time zone adjustment. The feature was rolled out with Android 16 QPR2, and should reach more devices with the stable Android 17 update.
Google is removing Chrome’s last remaining workarounds for Manifest V2 extensions, effectively ending support for legacy ad blockers such as the original uBlock Origin. 9to5Google reports: CyberNews points out a Chromium commit that removes support for the “kExtensionManifestV2Disabled” flag, which is referred to as “dead code” seeing as Chrome no longer supports Manifest V2 extensions. This removal acts as the final stop for many Manifest V2-based ad blocker extensions that were still in use today — the flag was effectively a loophole to continue using these extensions.
A Googler on the commit explains: “MV2 extensions are no longer allowed in any supported version of Chrome, and we are removing support for them and the associated functionality. We won’t be able to provide / maintain this functionality indefinitely due to the complexity and tech debt, as well as the security risks it entails (we’ve actually found a number of bugs that are specific to MV2 lately). Of course, other browsers can continue supporting these if they so desire.”
This will also impact other Chromium-based browsers, though the comment notes that “other browsers can continue supporting these if they so desire.” Neowin points out that Microsoft Edge and Opera are likely to follow suit. Chrome 150, set to be released later this month, will remove this flag, while other leftover bits of Manifest V2 will be removed in the v151 release.
As drone technology continues to evolve, much of the attention has focused on how drones might be the future of warfare. But it’s also starting to reshape surveillance closer to home, as some law enforcement agencies in the United States are now using drones to monitor and potentially track vehicle movement in traffic. It may sound like something out of a spy film, but these systems are already being tested or deployed in some cities.
These drones are typically sent in response to live incidents on the road, connecting them to tools already in use that monitor vehicle movement. So if you spot one overhead or in your rearview, it could be connected to those efforts. A recent example of this comes from Oakland County, Michigan (via Fox 2 Detroit), where the sheriff’s department has received approval from the city to use a fleet of automated drones for emergency response and public safety operations. This move came amid public concerns over both surveillance and personal privacy.
A similar program in Denver kicked off in October 2025, when Denver officials signed a one-year pilot agreement with Flock Safety (via 9News). The company would provide a drone system to work in conjunction with license plate cameras, 911 dispatch, and other data platforms used in law enforcement investigations. But this move also faced some pushback. Some city officials voiced concern over the program’s lack of transparency and the fact that they were not fully informed about the agreement when it was finalized.
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Flock Safety is facing legal challenges across the US
Flock Safety’s drones launch automatically when triggered by connected sensors and can fly directly to an incident location within seconds. These drones provide HD video feeds in real time, with features like color night vision, high-powered zoom, and thermal imaging that allow operators to monitor events day or night. Recorded video is stored securely and can be used later for incident review and investigations.
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The downside of all this tech is that law enforcement agencies may be using Flock’s systems in ways they weren’t intended. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Flock’s license plate reader system has been used for everything from school residency checks to noise complaints. The EFF has argued that the lack of a warrant requirement for accessing the databases of Flock’s controversial AI license plate reader system has enabled agencies to search through vehicle movement data with very few restrictions, opening up the risk of abuse.
Flock isn’t having things its own way, though. Cities are fighting back against Flock Safety’s cameras, with the company facing several lawsuits in states across the U.S., including California, Colorado, New York, and Virginia. These lawsuits are over privacy concerns and the company’s vehicle tracking practices. While these lawsuits do not focus on Flock’s drone system, they do reflect important issues regarding how its surveillance tools are being used in law enforcement.
A new Google AI tool might be able to translate at the speed of actual conversations, allowing you to talk more naturally with someone speaking a different language from you.
Google recently unveiled Gemini 3.5 Live Translate, a new audio model designed to make real-time multilingual conversations feel more natural. Unlike traditional translation systems that process speech in turns, Gemini 3.5 Live Translate continuously listens, translates and speaks, allowing conversations to flow with only a few seconds of delay, mimicking natural speech patterns.
The model automatically detects spoken languages and supports more than 70, enabling thousands of language pairs within a single conversation. Google says the technology is now available to developers and partners, who can integrate it into meetings, communication platforms and mobile applications.
The biggest change is how translation happens. Rather than waiting for one speaker to finish before generating a response, Gemini 3.5 Live Translate performs continuous streaming translation. The result is a more fluid conversational experience with fewer awkward pauses, interruptions and delays.
The model is built for the realities of everyday communication. Google said it can operate in noisy environments and is designed to handle background sounds, overlapping voices and informal speech patterns. That makes it suitable for a wide range of use cases, including customer support calls, guided tours, classrooms, ride-sharing services and live broadcasts.
Google is also emphasizing speech quality. Instead of producing a generic synthetic voice, the system attempts to preserve elements of the original speaker’s delivery, including pacing, intonation and emotional tone. This helps the translated speech sound more natural and makes conversations easier to follow.
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A new era for translations
The broader goal of Gemini 3.5 Live is to move live translation beyond occasional demonstrations and into everyday communication. By enabling near real-time multilingual conversations without requiring speakers to change how they talk, Gemini 3.5 Live Translate could make cross-language interactions more practical for businesses, organizations and individuals alike.
This seems to signal a new era in translation and international communication, as many companies are rolling out products and services to make real-time translation more ubiquitous.
Last year, Apple released the AirPods Pro 3 with the headline-grabbing feature Live Translation. Google Translate has slowly rolled out live headphone translation to Apple and Android devices since December, and even T-Mobile is testing AI-powered Live Translation phone calls. At CES in January, I wrote about a handheld device that can translate real-time vocal conversations to text, allowing me to speak to a woman in Polish, though I don’t speak a word of Polish.
Gemini 3.5 Live is just the latest in a long line of translation products powered by AI. This growing trend shows the desire to communicate efficiently across cultures, allowing travel, language learning and understanding to be more frictionless.
As Meta tries to catch up in the AI race and boost engagement with its AI bot, the company announced Monday that it’s rolling out new AI features on Facebook that aim to change how users find information, create content, and interact with the platform.
The headline update is “AI Mode,” a new way to search Facebook that uses Meta AI to surface answers pulled from public posts across the platform, including Groups and Reels. Instead of scrolling through search results, users can ask a question in plain language and get a synthesized answer based on what people are actually discussing.
Image Credits:Meta
This follows Meta’s quiet launch last month of Forum, a Reddit-style app that includes its own AI “Ask” tab, letting users pose questions and get answers pulled from discussions happening across Facebook Groups.
Both AI Mode and Forum’s Ask tab raise a familiar question: How reliable are answers generated from public posts and group chatter? Because the AI is summarizing content from everyday users rather than vetted sources, there’s a real risk of outdated or misleading information slipping through, a concern that’s already been raised about Google’s own AI Mode on Reddit.
Beyond search, Facebook also added editing tools that let users play around with collage cutouts and transition effects for their video montages. Another new feature is the AI-powered photo presets, allowing users to change up their look with different clothes, hairstyles, and accessories.
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Sports fans, for instance, can virtually wear their favorite team jerseys just by tapping the “AI Edit” icon in Stories and choose “Wear It,” or go directly to their profile picture and select “Restyle profile picture with AI” and “Wardrobe.”
Image Credits:Meta
These updates add to a growing list of AI features Meta has shipped on Facebook in recent months. In February, the company introduced animated profile pictures that bring still photos to life — adding a wave, or placing a virtual party hat on someone’s head. In March, Meta added an AI feature to Facebook Marketplace that automatically replies to buyer messages on sellers’ behalf.
Most recently, earlier this month, Facebook launched an AI assistant for creators that offers personalized suggestions — including the best times to post and summaries of what audiences are saying in the comments — based on a creator’s content and performance history.
Taken together, the flurry of releases points to a broader strategy: Meta wants Facebook’s AI tools to make the platform stickier and more useful, while also diversifying how it makes money. Alongside these feature rollouts, the company recently launched global subscription plans for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp — starting at $3.99 a month — that unlock additional features, with more AI-related subscription tiers reportedly on the way.
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Limoncello promptly replied: “My apologies; but I don’t have any more information to share on this topic.” With that, the discussion and Kilpatrick’s inquiry were over.
The Lendacky comment in 2020 Kilpatrick referred to came in this thread discussing encryption features available in AMD CPUs. Lendacky said that the Ryzen 3700x, a consumer CPU, “should support TSME.” In a 2025 comment in the same thread, the engineer followed up on his comment concerning the 3700x.
“I recommend using TSME (Transparent SME), but it is a BIOS option that needs to be exposed by your BIOS provider,” Lendacky said in response to the question about the consumer chip.
There’s no indication that AMD ever advertised or marketed TSME as being available in consumer CPUs. AMD has long said that a related memory protection, Secure Memory Encryption (SME), is available only in the Pro and Epyc CPU tiers. SME is OS-managed. It uses a single key and allows the OS to selectively encrypt individual memory pages. TSME is firmware-managed. It encrypts all RAM with no OS involvement. When active, it provides protection against physical attacks, including cold boot exploits, DRAM interface snooping, and memory module removal. It activates silently when enabled in the BIOS, making it the more practically useful of the two protections.
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AMD engineers’ comments, such as those mentioned above, and the years of TSME working just fine in the lower-cost tier processors, have understandably conditioned Kilpatrick and other users to reasonably regard it as an expected part of the chip package. AMD quietly removing it and providing no acknowledgment or explanation strikes these users as something of a betrayal.
“They could have not realized they did it leading to their cagey responses, or they could have done it intentionally and tried to get away with it, leading to the same cagey responses,” Joe Fitzgerald, an expert in silicon-level security, said in an interview, referring to AMD’s potential motivations for withdrawing TSME. “But I really feel like an explanation should be in order, even if it was ‘TSME was never supposed to be supported. We did ship some firmwares that erroneously enabled it, but you shouldn’t use them since we can’t guarantee it’ll work properly.’”
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