Android

I'm working with limited battery duration but Launchy would be immensely useful for my home screens. I don't want to use it, though, if it is heavy on the battery.

I have a degoogled phone (GrapheneOS), and therefore, the slot that is usually taken up by Google Assistant (or whatever "AI"/ voice control your manufacturer uses) is free.

On Android, you can manually select what tool you want to activate when swiping from the edge up or holding the power button. At least on my device.

Right now, it's only Firefox (search) and Kvaesitso, my home screen, but not much more.
This means, that this system is very modular, and there can be quite a few apps around there that also have this feature!

Currently, I've set Kvaesitso as "assistant", so when I swipe up from the edge, the search opens up instantly. This enables me to instantly search and open apps, perform basic calculations, search the web, and some more. Sounds neat, but I can also achieve that by just swiping down on my home screen.

This however feels unnecessary, and I'd like to replace it by something more useful.

It doesn't need to be an alternative to Siri or whatever voice assistants you think of, it can be whatever you think is useful.
For example, a search bar, some quick access, cool tool, whatever.
I've already heard of Mycroft, but I think I don't need that tbh.

I'm also intrigued by the smart AI picker (circle whatever you see on your screen, and it tells you what it is) Google introduced, but I never tried that to begin with. It just looked cool in the ads, but that's their purpose I suppose.

My only limitation is that it's FOSS. Sure, I could just download Google Assistant or whatever myself, but I don't want to defy the progress I made with all the privacy and security implications. Those assistants often need quite a few privileges, and I don't want to give some proprietary app my screen information for example.

A long time ago, I owned a Motorola Droid 4 and Photon Q. Feeling so nostalgic now 🙂

The keyboard on this one is much better - it's full-sized, and the slider mechanism feels quite robust.

A reward-based habit tracker for android.

Have you found it difficult to build new habits? Habit-Maker uses rewards and encouragements to help get over initial willpower required to form new habits.

Following the announcement in December, Google is now widely rolling out Android’s Identity Check feature to Pixel devices...

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24607994

Currently, you are unable to view the APKMirror web page. Instead, you get the following message shown in the screenshot below.

Tiktok downloads are currently blocked in the United States due to the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.

The link in this statement leads to the following page, containing the bill that was passed:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/7521

This sets a dangerous precedent going forward for the Android community which sideloads applications onto their phones, being that APKMirror is the largest mirror of APKs for Android phones. It's also possible for them to add more apps to be included under this bill, and possible for another bill to be passed which may act as an even more broad blanket to target specific groups of people (e.g. LGBTQ+, people of color), messaging applications that are truly secure (e.g. Signal), and so on.

Then of course there a very real possibility of our president forcing the integration of software updates into both Android (and possibly even iOS smartphones) that can forcibly remove applications for the "sake of national security".

Blocked APKMirror links:

https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/tiktok-pte-ltd/tik-tok/

https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/tiktok-pte-ltd/lemon8/

Although it's only been a few weeks since Google Photos started testing its new Quick Edit feature, the app may soon give users the option to disable it.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24616958

Just wanna post to share my joy. The 3 have the Snapdragon 8 elite globally. Maybe Samsung couldn't make an Exynos that was on par with the 8 elite. Props to Snapdragon. Fast and efficient. Chip improvements like this don't oft come.

If the other brands can't make a better phone, the S25 ultra will probably be the best big phone of 2025.

Last year, Google Maps on Android was revamped so that the main view displayed info using sheets, and the full app is getting this redesign.

Google is preparing to roll out a new shortcut for launching Google Wallet, and it could arrive in this year's Android 16 update.

Google has released Android 15 QPR2 Beta 3 with loads of bog fixes for both user and developer-reported issues.

You used to be able to use the ##4636## trick to get a hidden menu, but now that's gone too. There's nothing in the menu that alllows you to select which network to use. I hate to keep having network disconnects and in perpetual 4G/5G back and forth and battery draining.

I use Samsung btw

Edit: For context: Its due to issues with being near the edge of the 5G zone so your phone keeps going back and forth between 4G and 5G which (I suspect), is what causes constant network disconnection, phone being hot/warm, and battery drain. Very annoying.

Edit: YOOOO I FUCKING FOUND IT

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.szalkowski.activitylauncher/

Search "Phone Info" --> Click the one with the phone icon --> Click again (there should be only one option --> Launch Activity --> Fina a dropdown option, change dropdown to LTE

Voila. I feel like a fucking hacker (why is this so hidden wtf Samsung?)

Our poll results show that only a minority of you want the thinner phones that Apple and Samsung are promising.

Users of android ROMs or rooted devices are often unable to use certain apps because they make a request to google to check whether the phone is "safe" or "secure" or whatever wording they use. Is there a way to trick those apps? Pretend to be google, remove/replace the google check, or even intercept the check at runtime and return that "everything is alright"?

Game have been hacked, cracked, or what for ages. It's surely possible with android apps, isn't it?

With the broader overlay redesign rolling out on Android, the Gemini homepage continues to get simpler. The latest round of...

My daughter gets very limited monitored phone time on the weekends or long trips to play art and learning games. She loves to play with filters, too, but I don't want to grant her access to something like Snapchat that overly-beautifies her image and will wind up giving her a complex.

Does anyone know of any kid-friendly filter apps that will turn them into animals or make their faces look funny, without all the weird filters that are unnecessarily adult or sexy?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24456868

Following the announcement by Samsung at the start of 2025, Google earlier this week shared more details about Eclipsa Audio...

A Googler has shared possible release dates for Android 16 beta builds in a recent comment on the Android Gerrit.

Google Messages gets a new animation for sending and receiving messages, making your conversations more delightful. Check it out!

Google appears to be working on some new features for Messages on Android, including the ability to start a thread in reply to media attachments.

Google Password Manager will soon let you mass delete saved credentials with a "Delete all data" button. Read on to learn more!

I recently came across this term Dynamic Lock Screen and I’m kind of curious about it. I’ve seen it mentioned here and there but I don’t fully get how it works or what it’s used for. From what I gather it seems like it’s something related to customizing your lock screen or making it more interactive? I’m not sure if it’s just for looks or if it has any cool features beyond that. is this something built into the system or do you need to install an app for it? And if anyone’s using it do you find it useful or just a gimmick? I’d love to hear your thoughts tips or even some tricks if you’ve got any. Just trying to figure out if it’s worth exploring.