Android

After a long wait, Meta this week announced the ability to transfer WhatsApp chat history, photos, videos, and voice messages from Android to iPhone while maintaining end-to-end encryption. The system uses Apple's Move to iOS app for Android phones, and can be initiated during the setup process for a new (or factory reset) iPhone. This article runs through the steps involved in transferring...

Since Apple launched AirTags, the company has been enhancing their security to prevent stalking using the Bluetooth devices. One of these enhancements includes giving Android phone users the ability to detect an unknown AirTag if it is close to them. ‌AirTags‌ are designed to play a sound when away from their owner and will also alert iPhone owners if there's an unknown tag nearby, but...

In iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, you can enable anyone, even if they don't have an Apple device, to join a FaceTime call with you by creating a link to a FaceTime conversation that can be shared anywhere. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Using this new link facility, friends and family members who do not have an Apple account can log into a FaceTime call with you using a...

Though designed for iOS devices, Apple's Beats-branded Powerbeats Pro are also compatible with Android smartphones and tablets, so you can take advantage of Apple's wire-free tech even if you're an Android user or have both Android and Apple devices. The downside to using Powerbeats Pro with Android is that you do lose some functions, like Apple's unique H1 chip pairing features and its...

In just a couple of weeks, Apple is going to make it ridiculously easy for Android users to switch to iOS with an upcoming app alongside iOS 9 called "Move to iOS." It will give Android users the ability to wirelessly migrate contacts, message history, photos and videos, web browser saves, mail, calendars, and more. Until then, we have to do these things manually. Luckily, it isn't difficult ...

Though designed for the iPhone, Apple's AirPods are also compatible with Android smartphones and tablets, so you can take advantage of Apple's wire-free tech even if you're an Android user or have both Android and Apple devices. You do, of course, lose some bells and whistles like Apple's unique AirPods pairing features. AirPods work like any other Bluetooth headphones on an Android device,...

Apple today updated its Apple Music for Android app to introduce support for Spatial Audio and Lossless music quality, bringing feature parity to the Android and iOS operating systems. Spatial Audio and Lossless for Apple Music came to Apple devices in June, and has been available in a beta capacity on Android since last month. From the release notes for the update:In this update, Apple...

For the last several years, Google has been pushing a new communications protocol called Rich Communication Services, or RCS. RCS is designed to replace SMS, the current text message standard, and it offers support for higher resolution photos and videos, audio messages, bigger file sizes, better encryption, improved group chat, and more. Verizon today announced that it is planning to adopt...

Activations of iOS and Android devices are now evenly split in the United States, with little sign of movement toward either platform dominating over the past two years, according to data sourced by Consumer Research Intelligence Partners (CIRP). CIRP estimates that iOS and Android each had 50 percent of new smartphone activations in the year ending this quarter. iOS's share of new...

When Apple last week launched Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio for Apple Music, it said that the new features would be "coming soon" to Android. Now, the company has released a new ‌Apple Music‌ beta for the rival mobile platform that brings support for both features. As per the changelog for the release, spotted by 9to5Google: In this update, Apple Music adds spatial listening on...

Apple is planning to bring the new Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos feature to Android devices in the near future, according to a brief mention on the Spatial Audio intro page available in the Apple Music app. All Apple Music subscribers using the latest version of Apple Music on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV can listen to thousands of Dolby Atmos Music tracks using any headphones. When...

To help new iPhone owners transition from an Android device, Apple uses the "Move to iOS" Android app for transferring content like contacts, message history, photos and videos, web bookmarks, mail account information, calendars, DRM-free songs, wallpapers, and more. This app has been around since 2015, but with the release of iOS 15, Apple is improving the Move to iOS experience. With...

Android users, later this year, will have the ability to opt-out of tracking across apps on Android devices, limiting the ability for apps to access their unique advertising ID, Google announced in a support page update (via Bloomberg). The new change, in theory, is similar to Apple's recently launched ATT, or App Tracking Transparency framework; however, it differs in direct...

Apple Music on Android devices will not include Dolby Atmos support when Apple launches Spatial Audio on the streaming service in June. That's the claim from MySmartPrice, which says it received confirmation from Apple India that the sound technology would not be crossing the divide between Apple and Android ecosystems. For anyone confused by all the audio nomenclature that's been bandied...

Google is facing internal concerns that implementing an Android equivalent of Apple's ATT or App Tracking Transparency framework, which offers iOS and iPadOS users the ability to opt-out of tracking across apps and websites, will hurt its more than $130 billion annual spending budget for ads, according to a new report from The Information. According to the report that cites sources within...

A new leak from XDA Developer shows that with Android 12 slated for release later in the year, Google plans to introduce a new notification that's displayed to users when an app accesses their clipboard. With iOS 14, Apple introduced a small banner at the top of iPhones and iPads that notifies users when an app accesses content from their clipboard. Clipboard access notification was one of...

Google and Apple both collect data from their users on their respective mobile operating systems, even when users are simply browsing the settings page or inserting a SIM card. Android, however, collects 20x more data from users compared to iOS, according to newly published research. A study from Douglas Leith at Trinity College, reported by Ars Technica, says that while both OSes collect data ...

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates this week participated in his first meeting on Clubhouse, the increasingly popular invite-only conversation app, where he fielded a range of questions as part of an ongoing book tour. Gates was interviewed by journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin, and given that the Clubhouse app is currently only available on iOS, naturally one of the questions that came up was...

Google is expected to unveil the next-generation version of Android, Android 12, in just a few weeks. Ahead of the software's debut, XDA Developers has shared some leaked screenshots that give us an idea of what we can expect from the new software. According to XDA Developers, the screenshots are sourced from an "early draft of a document made to summarize changes in Android 12," and those...

Apple Music received a redesign in iOS 14 with a more personalized Listen Now tab, an improved search experience, autoplay functionality, and more, and these features have just been rolled out to the Android version of the app. Apple Music for Android version 3.4 during beta testing via Android Police Version 3.4 of Apple Music for Android has also gained a crossfade feature. When enabled...

Microsoft will launch its Surface Duo dual-screen Android phone on September 10, with prices starting at $1,399. Pre-orders will begin today at AT&T, Best Buy, and the Microsoft online store. The Surface Duo features two 4:3 OLED displays that are connected side by side with a hinge. Each display is 5.6 inches in size, which results in a 3:2 8.1-inch overall tablet-style screen size....

Microsoft's upcoming "Project xCloud" game streaming service is set to launch on September 15th, exclusively on Android devices. Despite extensive testing via TestFlight on iOS, xCloud's launch on iOS seems to have been postponed indefinitely. Project xCloud is Microsoft's "vision for game-streaming technology that will complement our console hardware and give gamers more choices in how...

Qualcomm today unveiled its latest fast charging standard, Quick Charge 5, which it says can charge a smartphone from 0 to 50 percent in five minutes, or to full in 15 minutes. According to Qualcomm, Quick Charge 5 is the world's fastest commercial charging solution, supporting more than 100W of charging power for smartphones. In addition to offering much faster charging, Quick Charge 5...

Google is reportedly testing an interesting new gesture for its Pixel smartphones that lets users double-tap the back of the handset to control various functions. XDA-Developers discovered the new gesture system, codenamed "Columbus," in the Android 11 developer preview for Pixel phones. According to the site, the double-tap gesture can be used to perform the following actions: Dismiss...

Following in the footsteps of the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, the first Android smartphones with Ultra Wideband technology will be released starting later in 2020, according to Barclays analysts. In a research note obtained by MacRumors, the analysts said Android smartphones will be equipped with an all-in-one Ultra Wideband, NFC, and Secure Element chip introduced by Dutch chipmaker NXP...

A security flaw in Android smartphones from companies like Google and Samsung allowed malicious apps to record video, take photos, and capture audio, uploading the content to a remote server sans user permission. The vulnerability was discovered by security firm Checkmarx, and was highlighted today by Ars Technica. The flaw had the potential to leave high-value targets open to having their...