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,...

A record 99.9 percent of smartphones sold worldwide last year were based on either Android or iOS, as all competing platforms have effectively been squeezed out, according to data shared today by research firm Gartner. Android remains more widely adopted than iOS by a significant margin, with a roughly 86-14 percent split between the respective operating systems last year. Android's...

Google's upcoming software update for its Android smartphone operating system will "embrace" an iPhone X notch-like design, according to people familiar with the company's plans speaking to Bloomberg. With the software, referred to as Android P, Google is readying a "new generation" of Android smartphones that will be "mimicking" the iPhone X's front-facing camera cutout design. Just like...

Apple increased its share of smartphone activations in the fourth quarter of 2017, following the release of the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X, according to data shared with MacRumors by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. iPhones accounted for 39 percent of activations in the United States between October and December, up from 34 percent in the year-ago quarter, based on CIRP's...

There's no official way to get iMessages on a non-iOS device like an Android smartphone, but a new Android app aims to provide a workaround, at least temporarily. weMessage is designed to allow you to get iMessages on an Android device, but for it to work, a Mac is required. weMessage uses a weServer app on a Mac, which takes iMessages that are delivered to a Mac and forwards them to an...

Google today announced the launch of its new mobile app payment platform "Pay with Google," following a sneak peek of the feature during its I/O conference this past May. Using Pay with Google, Android smartphone owners can access any of the credit or debit cards they've added to their Google Account -- sourcing products like Google Play, YouTube, Chrome, and Android Pay -- and quickly choose...

Alongside today's release iOS 11, Apple updated its Apple Music app for Android devices to introduce feature parity with the new version of Apple Music in the iOS update. Android users can now create an Apple Music profile to follow friends and see what they've been listening to. The same feature was introduced in Apple Music on iOS devices with iOS 11. Today's update brings a new Recently...

Google today announced the next-generation version of its Android operating system, which is named Oreo. Android Oreo includes dozens of new features, ranging from notification improvements to picture-in-picture support to new emoji. The update introduces an iOS-like feature called Notification Dots (aka app badges), designed to make it easier to see which apps have new content to...

Apple today debuted an overhauled webpage aimed at encouraging Android users to switch to the iPhone, introducing a simpler FAQ-style site that highlights iPhone features and makes it clear how simple it is to switch from an Android device to an iPhone. Apple previously had a webpage dedicated to customers coming to an iPhone from Android devices, but it featured less information on the...

Google today announced that there are now more than two billion monthly active Android devices in use around the world. By comparison, Apple announced it had surpassed 1 billion active iOS devices in January 2016, but it hasn't provided an updated count since then. Apple sells tens of millions of iOS devices each quarter, so it's reasonable to assume the total is above 1 billion, but...

An Italian school has launched the first Android-specific course in Apple's increasingly popular open source Swift programming language. The Swift University based in Reggio Emilia claims to be the first, globally, to offer the course for Android, and aims to show students how to use the programming language across both platforms while avoiding the limitations associated with cross-platform...

Apple today updated its Apple Music for Android app with a new design that mimics the look of the Music app on iOS devices. Version 2.0 of the app includes the redesigned Apple Music experience that was introduced on iOS devices with the release of iOS 10. Like the iOS version, Apple Music for Android features a bolder, cleaner look with reorganized sections: "Library," "For You," "Browse,"...

Google Drive was updated today to make it easier for users to transfer their content from iOS devices to Android devices, Google announced. The company also published a new web page on the Android website detailing how it works. Once a user downloads Google Drive from the App Store, they can navigate toward the backup wizard by going to Menu > Settings > Backup in the app. From there, users...

The latest data from market research firm Strategy Analytics claims Android captured a record 87.5% share of the worldwide smartphone market in the third quarter, reflecting the period between late June and late September. Strategy Analytics director Woody Oh on Android's continued dominance:Android's leadership of the global smartphone market looks unassailable at the moment. Its low-cost...

Earlier in the year, rumors began swirling around the possibility Apple might launch a version of iMessage for Android smartphones due to the company's increased focus on services, "which means opening up certain avenues beyond its own iOS and OS X platforms." The original report pointed to a potential announcement at WWDC, which came and went with no such news, and an Apple executive later co...

Apple Music for Android today surpassed 10 million downloads on the Google Play store, nearly ten months after it was released on the platform. Specifically, the app's total number of installs is now between 10 million and 50 million, up from between 5 million and 10 million, as of some point in the past day. Apple Music expanded to Android in November 2015, around four months after the...

The latest numbers from research firm Gartner reveal that the smartphone industry continues to be a virtual two-horse race between iOS and Android. The operating systems combined for a record 99.1% worldwide market share in the second calendar quarter of 2016, compared to 96.8% in the year-ago period. Android remained the world's most widely used smartphone operating system with 86.2% market ...

Apple today updated its Apple Music app for Android to version 1.0.0, officially dropping the app's beta status and announcing its full release. Apple Music is one of the first Apple-branded apps that Apple has brought to Android devices. First introduced in November of 2015, Apple Music for Android made the Apple Music platform available on Android-based smartphones and tablets for the first...

Apple Music for Android has been updated with a few bug fixes related to playback and playlist issues. In particular, the update resolves a playback issue where songs skip over the first two seconds of music. It also fixes an issue where albums added to a playlist appear in an unexpected order. Apple Music version 0.9.11 is available on the Google Play store as a free...

Google is set to launch its own smartphone by the end of the year in an effort to compete more directly with Apple and Samsung devices, according to The Telegraph. Citing "senior sources" familiar with the matter, the report claims that the company plans to unveil a Google-branded handset that is separate from its Nexus range of phones, which are designed and manufactured through partnerships...

In a wide-ranging commentary piece about WWDC 2016, tech journalist Walt Mossberg included an interesting bit about why Apple has not expanded iMessage to competing software platforms like Android.When I asked a senior Apple executive why iMessage wasn’t being expanded to other platforms, he gave two answers. First, he said, Apple considers its own user base of 1 billion active devices to...