Android’s new Theft Detection Lock uses Google’s AI to determine when your phone has been snatched from your hand. If it detects this, the phone’s screen will automatically be locked. Using smartphone sensors, such as the accelerometer and gyroscope, Google trained its algorithms to detect sudden changes in the phone’s positioning and the motions that might indicate it has been snatched.
“There’s a grabbing of the phone, changing hands, and then an attacker running, biking, or even driving away with a device,” Guo says. To train the algorithm, Google’s research staff studied how phones are commonly stolen, then its teams re-created snatching events against each other to collect data about what a simulated theft looks like.
Thieves stealing phones, Guo says, will often open the camera app when they don’t know the phone’s PIN, to stop them from losing access to the device. They also often try to disconnect it from cell networks for a long period of time so they can’t be locked out of the device remotely. The company’s new Offline Device Lock will lock your screen when the phone is offline for an extended period of time, if the setting is turned on.
To increase protections before a phone is stolen, Google says in a blog post, the company is adding four data protection features that can help keep your information locked down. The first stops your phone from being set up after a factory reset, unless the person knows your login details. “This renders a stolen device unsellable, reducing incentives for phone theft,” Google vice president Suzanne Frey writes.
There’s also a new “private spaces” option where you can store sensitive apps, such as banking apps, that require a second PIN or use of your biometrics, such as a fingerprint, to access. There are also extra authentication controls being put in place: If a thief tries to disable Google’s Find My Device location-tracking service they will need to also use your PIN, password, or biometric information to unlock it. If a thief does know your PIN, it will also be possible to turn on the need for biometric authentication to make changes to important Google account and device settings, such as a PIN change or turning off anti-theft settings.
The extra authentication features are similar to those introduced by Apple in its Stolen Device Protection system that debuted in iOS 17.3 earlier this year, although Google’s theft motion detection goes further than these tools. The aim of all anti-theft options is to lock down the information stored on phones but also to make it harder for criminals to abuse devices when they have them. Making it more difficult for criminals to resell phones or transfer money may help to deter thefts.
If your phone does get stolen, Android already allows phones to be locked and wiped. However, Guo says, the experience of having a phone swiped from your hands is a “traumatic” experience, and in the aftermath, people may not remember all their Google account login details to close off access to the phone. To address this, Google’s new Remote Lock feature will allow people to lock their phone using just a phone number. “The content of the device is protected, and it buys the user a lot of time … to be able to organize themselves and do further remediation,” Guo says.
The next version of Google’s mobile operating system—Android 15—is on the horizon, with a host of new features and improvements. Google promises productivity enhancements, better privacy and security, and smoother performance. There are also upgrades for foldable and larger-screen devices. Android 15 is only available as a beta for select devices right now, with the final release a few months away. But we have been trying it out, and these are our favorite new features so far.
Google officially dropped the dessert naming back with Android 10, but it still uses codenames internally. Android 14 was Upside Down Cake, and this year’s release is Vanilla Ice Cream.
Special offer for Gear readers: GetWIRED for just $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access toWIRED.com, full Gear coverage, and subscriber-only newsletters. Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.
How to Download and Install Android 15
Google released the first beta of Android 15 in April, with further releases planned for May, June, and July, ahead of the final public rollout, likely in August or October. These releases enable developers to test the forthcoming version of Google’s mobile operating system, learn about the new features, and prepare their apps or games to work properly. They also give early adopters the chance to get a sneak peek at Android 15.
While the beta releases are more stable than developer previews, you may still encounter some bugs, and you need to jump through a few hoops to install them, so it’s not recommended for everyone. If you are keen to try it, you will need a Google Pixel phone (Pixel 6 or later) or a supported partner device (including select phones from Honor, Nothing, OnePlus, and Xiaomi). You have to sign up for the Android Beta Program. Most folks who sign up for the program will get the beta updates OTA (over-the-air) without wiping their phones, but you won’t be able to quit the beta program without a factory reset. Make sure to back up your Android phone first.
Updates usually pop up automatically, but you can always check whether you have the latest version in Settings > System > System update by tapping Check for update. Want to get off the beta and go back to Android 14? Go to Google’s Android Beta page, scroll down to find your device, and hit Opt out. This will wipe all locally saved data, so back up your device first. You’ll get an update prompt to go back to the older version.
Folks without a Pixel or supported partner device should watch their phone manufacturer’s website, forums, or social media to learn when to expect Android 15.
Top New Android 15 Features
These are our favorite features and improvements so far, but we won’t know for sure what will make the final cut until Android 15 is released. You can learn more at Google’s developer site. And be sure to read our story on all the new features coming to Android and the Android ecosystem—including Wear OS, Android Auto, and Android TV—in this story here.
Private Space
Courtesy of Google
Android 15 includes a new Private Space where you can keep sensitive apps separate from the rest of your phone. Whether you want to safeguard health data or your banking apps, Private Space keeps them safely behind a second layer of authentication, protected with the same password you use to unlock your device or an alternative PIN. When your Private Space is locked, apps are hidden from the recents view, notifications, settings, and other apps. You can wipe your private space completely too.
More Satellite Connectivity
Courtesy of Google
There’s a significant expansion for satellite connectivity in Android 15. Some RCS and SMS apps should now be able to send text messages via satellite (it was previously limited to emergency use). Google has also standardized the pop-ups and other user interface elements to make it clearer when you are connected via satellite.
Partial Screen Recording
Courtesy of Google
Instead of recording or sharing your entire screen, in Android 15, you can share an individual app without revealing the rest of your screen or incoming notifications. Logins and one-time passwords (OTPs) are automatically hidden from remote viewers. This is already available on Pixels, but now Google has baked it into Android.
Malicious App Blocking
Several updates in Android 15 make life tougher for malicious apps. They can no longer hide behind other apps by bringing them to the foreground or overlay themselves invisibly on top. There are also changes designed to prevent the exploitation of intents, which let you start an activity in another app by describing an action you’d like to perform, as they are often misused by malware. This is behind-the-scenes stuff to keep users safer.
App Archiving
Courtesy of Google
If you haven’t used an app or game for a while, you may be prompted to delete it, but what if you think you might use it again in the future? With app archiving in Android 15, you can offload most of the app by archiving it but keep your user settings or save data in games. The auto-archiving feature was announced last year, but Android 15 makes it a systemwide option, so folks can choose to auto-archive apps when storage is running low.
Better PDF Handling
Courtesy of Google
Trying to do anything with PDF files on your Android phone can be a pain, so the news that Google has built several PDF enhancements into Android 15 is welcome. PDFs should load more smoothly, and there is now support for password-protected files, annotations, form editing, and copy selection. Perhaps best of all, you can now search within PDF files.
Enhanced Fraud and Scam Protection
Courtesy of Google
There are several updates in Android 15 aimed squarely at thwarting fraudsters and scammers. Google will employ AI through Play Protect and on devices to scan for and flag suspicious behavior. Messages containing one-time passwords (OTPs), typically used in two-factor authentication, are now hidden from the notifications system, making it harder to intercept them. Restricted settings are also being expanded for side-loaded apps—ones that aren’t downloaded through the Google Play Store.
Loudness Control
It can be jarring when you switch from one app to another and the volume suddenly booms. Thankfully, Android 15 introduces support for the CTA-2075 loudness standard. That means it will compare volume between apps, take into account the characteristics of your speakers, headphones, or earbuds, and intelligently adjust the audio to ensure no sudden jumps or drops.
Better Low-Light Camera
There are a couple of significant improvements for the camera app in Android 15. Firstly, Low Light Boost makes for better previews in low-light conditions, so you can frame your nighttime shots better and scan QR codes when light is limited. There are also new camera app options to give you finer control over the flash so you can adjust the intensity for both single flashes and continuous flashlight mode.
Taskbar Options
For Android tablets and folding phones, Google has changed the way the taskbar dock works. Initially, it was permanent, then it was transient, and now you can choose. This is handy for docked tablets where you might want a taskbar to always display, but it’s also nice to have the option to hide it. You can also pin your favorite split-screen app combinations. Android 15 allows apps to display edge-to-edge, so they can make more of the available screen real estate, even if there’s a taskbar or system bar at the bottom.
Better Battery Life
There are always tweaks and improvements to efficiency in Android updates that should have a positive impact on battery life, but with Android 15, Google is placing more checks on foreground services and clamping down on apps that keep running in an active state. Devices with a lot of RAM should also see faster app and camera launch times with lower power draw, thanks to support for larger page sizes.
Good Vibrations
Android 15 enables you to turn keyboard vibrations on or off systemwide, instead of having to dig into the keyboard settings. There’s a new toggle in Settings > Sound and vibration > Vibration and haptics, where you can also use sliders to adjust haptic intensity (this is something that’s been available on select Android phones, but is now systemwide). The second beta also introduces rich vibrations, so folks can determine between different types of notifications without looking at the screen.
More Foldable Cover Screen Options
Some of the best folding phones automatically switch whatever action you’re performing onto the cover screen when you fold them up, but Google is now integrating that choice into Android 15. If you prefer the cover screen to lock up when you fold, that will be an option too. There’s also more support for apps displaying on smaller cover screens with the more compact flip phone category.
More Health Connect Data
Health Connect started as an app to pull together all your health and fitness data from different devices and apps. It came preinstalled with Android 14, but Android 15 is adding two new data types: skin temperature (collected by wearables like the Oura ring and the Pixel Watch 2) as well as training plans—which can include completion goals for calories burned, distance, duration, repetition, and steps, but also performance goals around as many repetitions as possible (AMRAP), cadence, heart rate, power, perceived rate of exertion, and speed.
Enhanced Theft Protection
Courtesy of Google
Many of the new Android safeguards that Google is rolling out to deter thieves—such as automatic locking when someone snatches your phone, as well as remote lock options—will be coming to devices running Android 10 and up. But the update to factory reset protection, which stops thieves who force a reset of a stolen device from setting it up again without knowing your device or Google account credentials, is only in Android 15.
Google also showed off its new DJ Mode in MusicFX, an AI music generator that lets musicians generate song loops and samples based on prompts. (DJ mode was shown off during the eccentric and delightful performance by musician Mark Rebillet that led into the I/O keynote.)
An Evolution in Search
From its humble beginning as a search-focused company, Google is still the most prominent player in the search industry (despite some very good, slightly more private options). Google’s newest AI updates are a seismic shift for its core product.
New contextual awareness abilities help Google search deliver more relevant results.
Courtesy of Google
Some new capabilities include AI-organized search, which allows for more tightly presented and readable search results, as well as the ability to get better responses from longer queries and searches with photos.
We also saw AI overviews, which are short summaries that pool information from multiple sources to answer the question you entered in the search box. These summaries appear at the top of the results so you don’t even need to go to a website to get the answers you’re seeking. These overviews are already controversial, with publishers and websites fearing that a Google search that answers questions without the user needing to click any links may spell doom for sites that already have to go to extreme lengths to show up in Google’s search results in the first place. Nonetheless, these newly enhanced AI overviews are rolling out to everyone in the US starting today.
A new feature called Multi step reasoning lets you find several layers of information about a topic when you’re searching for things with some contextual depth. Google used planning a trip as an example, showing how searching in Maps can help find hotels and set transit itineraries. It then went on to suggest restaurants and help with meal planning for the trip. You can deepen the search by looking for specific types of cuisine, or vegetarian options. All of this info is presented to you in an organized way.
Advanced visual search in Lens.
Courtesy of Google
Lastly, we saw a quick demo of how users can rely on Google Lens to answer questions about whatever they’re pointing their camera at. (Yes, this sounds similar to what Project Astra does, but these capabilities are being built into Lens in a slightly different way.) The demo showed a woman trying to get a “broken” turntable to work, but Google identified that the record player’s tonearm simply needed adjusting, and it presented her with a few options for video and text-based instructions on how to do just that. It even properly identified the make and model of the turntable through the camera.
WIRED’s Lauren Goode talked with Google head of search Liz Reid about all the AI updates coming to Google Search, and what it means for the internet as a whole.
Security and Safety
Scam Detection in action.
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
One of the last noteworthy things we saw in the keynote was a new scam detection feature for Android, which can listen in on your phone calls and detect any language that sounds like something a scammer would use, like asking you to move money into a different account. If it hears you getting duped, it’ll interrupt the call and give you an on-screen prompt suggesting that you hang up. Google says the feature works on the device, so your phone calls don’t go into the cloud for analysis, making the feature more private. (Also check out WIRED’s guide to protecting yourself and your loved ones from AI scam calls.)
Google has also expanded its SynthID watermarking tool meant to distinguish media made with AI. This can help you detect misinformation, deepfakes, or phishing spam. The tool leaves an imperceptible watermark that can’t be seen with the naked eye, but can be detected by software that analyzes the pixel-level data in an image. The new updates have expanded the feature to scan content on the Gemini app, on the web, and in Veo-generated videos. Google says it plans to release SynthID as an open-source tool later this summer.
Nearly a decade ago, Google showed off a feature called Now on Tap in Android Marshmallow—tap and hold the home button and Google will surface helpful contextual information related to what’s on the screen. Talking about a movie with a friend over text? Now on Tap could get you details about the title without having to leave the messaging app. Looking at a restaurant in Yelp? The phone could surface OpenTable recommendations with just a tap.
I was fresh out of college, and these improvements felt exciting and magical—its ability to understand what was on the screen and predict the actions you might want to take felt future-facing. It was one of my favorite Android features. It slowly morphed into Google Assistant, which was great in its own right, but not quite the same.
Today, at Google’s I/O developer conference in Mountain View, California, the new features Google is touting in its Android operating system feel like the Now on Tap of old—allowing you to harness contextual information around you to make using your phone a bit easier. Except this time, these features are powered by a decade’s worth of advancements in large language models.
“I think what’s exciting is we now have the technology to build really exciting assistants,” Dave Burke, vice president of engineering on Android, tells me over a Google Meet video call. “We need to be able to have a computer system that understands what it sees and I don’t think we had the technology back then to do it well. Now we do.”
I got a chance to speak with Burke and Sameer Samat, president of the Android ecosystem at Google, about what’s new in the world of Android, the company’s new AI assistant Gemini, and what it all holds for the future of the OS. Samat referred to these updates as a “once-in-a-generational opportunity to reimagine what the phone can do, and to rethink all of Android.”
Circle to Search … Your Homework
The upgraded Circle to Search in action.
Courtesy of Google
It starts with Circle to Search, which is Google’s new way of approaching Search on mobile. Much like the experience of Now on Tap, Circle to Search—which the company debuted a few months ago—is more interactive than just typing into a search box. (You literally circle what you want to search on the screen.) Burke says, “It’s a very visceral, fun, and modern way to search … It skews younger as well because it’s so fun to use.”
Samat claims Google has received positive feedback from consumers, but Circle to Search’s latest feature hails specifically from student feedback. Circle to Search can now be used on physics and math problems when a user circles them—Google will spit out step-by-step instructions on completing the problems without the user leaving the syllabus app.
Samat made it clear Gemini wasn’t just providing answers but was showing students how to solve the problems. Later this year, Circle to Search will be able to solve more complex problems like diagrams and graphs. This is all powered by Google’s LearnLM models, which are fine-tuned for education.
Gemini Gets More Contextual on Android
Gemini is Google’s AI assistant that is in many ways eclipsing Google Assistant. Really—when you fire up Google Assistant on most Android phones these days, there’s an option to replace it with Gemini instead. So naturally, I asked Burke and Samat whether this meant Assistant was heading to the Google Graveyard.
“The way to look at it is that Gemini is an opt-in experience on the phone,” Samat says. “I think obviously over time Gemini is becoming more advanced and is evolving. We don’t have anything to announce today, but there is a choice for consumers if they want to opt into this new AI-powered assistant. They can try it out and we are seeing that people are doing that and we’re getting a lot of great feedback.”
A personal gadget needs to feel, well, personal. I have what I call the table test. If I’m out at a restaurant or coffee shop, do I leave the phone with its screen facing up? Or flip it around and admire the design?
Well, it might be functional—placing a Pixel face down toggles on Do Not Disturb mode and keeps me away from attention-grabbing notifications—but the Google Pixel 8A is also too pretty to hide its looks away, especially in the new Aloe color.
This is often a rarity on a smartphone that costs less than $500. Flagships get the star treatment and cheaper phones look bland. This year, I’ve noticed a change, with smartphones like the Motorola Moto G Power 5G and Nothing Phone (2a) making things more aesthetically interesting at the low end. Google’s Pixel 8A continues that trend with its elegant, matte, colorful design.
Say Aloe
Minty! Smartphones are getting more aesthetically interesting at the low end.
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Google’s A-series phones take elements from the flagship Pixels while cutting costs elsewhere to make the package more accessible. The Pixel 8A employs 76 percent recycled plastic in the back cover versus glass, uses the older and less protective Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for the display, and has an OLED panel that doesn’t get as bright, not to mention lesser camera specs. There are other small changes, but this helps bring this phone down to $499, which is $200 less than the Pixel 8.
And yet, this phone doesn’t feel too out of the ordinary compared to its pricier siblings. The metal frame and camera bar give it that luxe look; the lovely curved edges and its 6.1-inch screen size make it a comfy phone to hold and use one-handed. This is the most refined A-series Pixel to date, and the Aloe color steals the show.
My mom noticed it in my hand immediately and asked about it, admiring the translucent green hues. (Google’s official case also color-matches the phone perfectly and makes the camera bar flush with the back so it’s still thin.)
The 6.1-inch screen doesn’t feel too small—it’s quite refreshing considering most of the phones I test these days have screen sizes 6.5 inches or more—and the OLED display is sharp. I stared at this screen on a near-perfect sunny day in New York City this past weekend, and the Pixel 8A ratcheted up its brightness accordingly so I didn’t have to squint. This used to be a common flaw with Pixels of old, but screen brightness is no longer a problem. Google also has brought a 120-Hz screen refresh rate here, so everything is wonderfully fluid (make sure you turn this on in the phone’s settings).
Things aren’t going so well for AI hardware startups.
After years of development, startup Humane launched a $700 wearable in early April that leans heavily on artificial intelligence. The original pitch for the Ai Pin was that you no longer need to juggle different apps; its operating system can “search for the right AI at the right moment,” allowing it to play music, translate languages, and even tell you how much protein is in a palmful of almonds. And because it doesn’t have a traditional display, the Ai pin was supposed to be a tiny tincture for the disease of screentime; smartphones were on their way out.
The pin has been panned. WIRED’s Julian Chokkattu scored the Ai Pin a 4 out of 10. Popular YouTuber Marques Brownlee complimented the device’s hardware design but still called it “The Worst Product I’ve Ever Reviewed … For Now.” The company has since massaged the message that it’s meant to replace your phone. Humane co-founder and chief executive Bethany Bongiorno has been fastidiously responding to displeased customers—and some fanboys—on Twitter, with apologies, assurances that improvements are coming, and video demos of the gadget’s UI, which replaces the smartphone in your palm by projecting lasers onto your palm.
Humane appears to have lost the thread on its own product launch, and it’s not alone. The cheaper Rabbit R1, which was sold for $200 as a generative AI “pocket companion” and generated a lot of initial excitement, has now been labeled “underwhelming,” “half-baked,” “undercooked” and “unreliable.” WIRED’s Chokkattu gave it a 3 out of 10, while some people have questioned the way the device handles logins for outside apps such as Uber.
These early hardware #fails aren’t unprecedented. Plenty of startups have overpromised in marketing and then built and shipped lackluster products. Competing in hardware is especially difficult in the age of Tech Giants, whose ecosystems rule over all. Developer Ben Sandofsky surmised that the Humane cofounders’ adherence to the “Apple Way,” or toiling in a secretive vacuum, is partly to blame. They spent years polishing that singular product the way a giant tech company would, he wrote in a blog post, but with $230 million in venture capital funding instead of billions in cash stores.
But both Humane and Rabbit appear to have made another error in judgment: Both were banking on AI excitement in the ChatGPT era to capture early customers and keep themselves out of the gadget graveyard. Instead, they rode the AI hype train straight into a non-working brick wall. It turns out generative AI doesn’t make hardware any less hard.
Expensive Flops
“To really create a great new AI device you have to have both hardware and software figured out, and the question with some of these startups is how much of that software layer is just a skin,” says MG Siegler, a partner at GV, Alphabet’s venture capital firm.
Sielger says that tech incumbents now have an even bigger advantage, because they can build using their own infrastructure and afford to lose money while they’re iterating on new versions of products. While startups are attempting to launch their scrappy AI products out of nothing, Meta, Google, Microsoft, and Apple can tap existing teams and services to put AI assistants into infinitely wearable sunglasses, churn out phones with built-in generative AI search, create designated keys for AI on their laptops, and pack their tablets with “outrageously powerful” AI chips.
“Bigger tech companies are able to have five shots on a hardware product whereas a startup may only have one,” says Jacob Andreou, an investor at Greylock who spent several years growing products at Snap. “The odds of one of these smaller companies raising a future fundraising round after releasing an expensive flop are not good odds.”
There’s not much to the new Beats Solo 4 headphones at first glance. Starkly missing in this $200 package is any form of noise canceling or transparency mode. There’s no auto pause feature or water-resistance rating—something you might expect from headphones shown as jogging companions in marketing videos.
Beats seems proud of the Solo 4’s stark minimalism, pointing instead to their slimline design, upgraded sound, and versatile core features. Highlights include up to 50 hours of playback per charge, the ability to plug in with either 3.5-mm or USB-C for lossless audio, and most convenient, in-house features for both Android and Apple phones like one-touch pairing and a headphones tracker.
I was admittedly dismissive of the Solo 4 for their lack of firepower at first, but over multiple days of testing, the sound kept calling me back. Their warm, clean, and buttery performance stems from a redesigned acoustic architecture that proves Apple’s sonic influence on the Beats brand runs deep. You can get a lot more tech from other options, but there’s enough here to make the Solo 4 worth considering for some—especially once the price inevitably drops.
Slick and Simple
The Solo 4’s aesthetic hasn’t strayed far from its roots. You’ll get all the trappings of a modern Beats device here, like matte plastic casing in flamboyant colors and the signature Beats logo on each earcup. The headphones fold down for travel, fitting into a nifty compact case with pockets inside for the included 3.5-mm and USB-C cables.
Photograph: Ryan Waniata
On-ear headphones like the Solo 4 are a rarity these days, and I generally find over-ear headphones more comfortable since they press against your head, not your ears. The Solo 4’s clamping force can cause some discomfort over time, but I was able to wear them for multiple hours without major complaints, and had no trouble throwing on some sunglasses.
The firm grip keeps the headphones in place and provides some solid passive noise isolation—a good thing considering the Solo 4 eschew any form of ambient audio. It’s undeniably odd in 2024 for such sporty-looking headphones to forgo transparency mode so you can hear the world around you when working out. A good water-resistance rating, something most flagship headphones don’t offer, would have been a nice inclusion in its place.
I do like the Solo 4’s simplified control system, offering intuitive volume and playback keys centered around the left-side Beats logo. Like the Studio Pro, the plastic key feels a bit clanky, but it’s less of a concern at this price. The Solo 4’s other major omission that vexed me over multiple days is the lack of auto pause sensors or auto power-down. Once again, it’s not a huge deal given the massive 50-hour battery life, but it’s something I’d expect at this level.
Either/Or
That’s not to say the Solo 4 are without advanced features. They offer an intriguing double dip of tricks for both Android and Apple devices courtesy of the Beats Proprietary Platform. The system, which also drives the Studio Pro (7/10, WIRED Recommends) and many of the latest Beats earbuds, allows for convenient one-touch pairing and Find My features for either device type, while catering to each in a few key ways.
Android-friendly features include auto pairing and audio switching between Google-connected tablets and phones, as well as a Beats app for some basic customization and firmware updates. On the Apple side, you’ll get “Hey Siri” hands-free voice control, basic in-phone customization options, message playback, and audio sharing. They’ll also auto handoff to your Apple Eatch, but don’t allow for automatic switching between iCloud devices like AirPods.
The chirping of birds, the buzzing of bugs, the soft patter of Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s shoes as he bounds across the stage. The sounds of spring are here, so you know what that means: Google I/O is blooming.
Hot on the heels of Apple’s iPad launch event last week, Google is going all out for its I/O developer conference on Tuesday, May 14. The event is taking place at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California, just down the road from Google’s headquarters. The keynote starts at 10 am PDT on Tuesday, and as usual, it will be livestreamed. Expect to hear and see updates about Android 15, Google search, the already announced Pixel 8A budget phone, and just an absolute torrent of news about the tech topic of the decade: artificial intelligence.
AI All the Way Down
While Google’s Gemini AI platform has experienced some growing pains, the company is still eager to put its generative AI offerings into any and all of its services: search, its photo and video tools, and its workspace suite of tools like Gmail and Google Docs. Google has also been slowly infusing AI features into its Google Assistant, so it will be interesting to see whether those new capabilities result in a more evolved form of natural-language voice assistant, or more of a true AI assistant that acts as an agent to perform tasks through all your connected services.
The company will, of course, show off features from its upcoming Android 15 mobile operating system, more in-car integration through Android Auto, and its smartwatch software Wear OS. Expect each of those to be newly endowed with all sorts of exciting (and maybe slightly creepy) AI-powered features.
Google’s AI announcements could also offer a hint at whatever news Apple might have in store for its WWDC developer conference keynote, which will take place June 10. Just a couple months ago, news trickled out that Apple may be working with Google to wrangle the latter’s Gemini AI platform into iOS. Neither company has officially confirmed the news, and it’s not entirely clear what such an uneasy partnership between the two mobile heavyweights might look like on the iPhone. Google’s presumably AI-heavy keynote announcements could provide a hint at whatever is being cooked up on Apple devices.
Hard Where?
I/O is a software-focused event, but that hasn’t stopped Google from using the keynote to announce new hardware devices in the past. If the dearth of recent leaks about the company’s ambitions are any indicator, this year may be slimmer on the hardware front that I/Os past.
Generally speaking, Google is usually pretty unbothered about keeping its new gadgets under wraps before a big public event. Details about its upcoming Pixel 8A phone leaked a couple weeks ago, but Google officially announced the device last week. (The phone goes on sale on May 14, the same day as I/O.) Google will probably talk about its new Pixel on the block, and how it will utilize Android 15 and Gemini AI.
It’s always possible that another device might appear. Google announced its first Pixel Fold at I/O last year, and that’s probably due for an upgrade at some point, but we aren’t expecting that to come this month. Google has also been keeping quiet about any new augmented reality tech it’s working on, though it has shown concepts like Project Starline and language-translating smart glasses at past I/O events. We really expect that with so much attention being paid to artificial intelligence development, Google will likely make its AI announcements the star of the show.
Watch This Space
Google’s keynote address, which should open with remarks from Pichai before the team rolls out all the new stuff, starts Tuesday, May 14, at 10 am PDT (1 pm EDT). You can watch it on Google’s I/O website or on Google’s YouTube channel. The videofeed is also embedded right here on this page.
Beyond the main keynote, there’s a subsequent developer-focused keynote starting at 1:30 pm PDT (4:30 EDT), viewable using the same links as the first stream.
The optical in-display fingerprint scanner is quick and reliable, and while there’s no headphone jack on this handset, you get a microSD card slot to expand on the base 128 GB of storage. The Galaxy A35 is IP67 water resistant, so it’ll be OK if you accidentally drop it in the pool, and it supports contactless payments—I’ve been using Google Wallet to pay for pretty much everything these past few weeks.
Problems start with the performance. The Samsung Exynos 1380 chipset inside is paired with 6 GB of RAM, and while it bested the Moto G Power 5G’s benchmark scores, my real-world testing has been noticeably laggier than Motorola’s phone, with far more stutters in daily operation. I can do everything I usually do with flagship smartphones, but apps load slowly, switching to another app can feel stuttery, and the interface can feel janky with the slowdowns.
It’s not frustrating like the Galaxy A15’s performance, just annoying. It’s not always like this; there are periods when it feels smooth and fast when I’m siloed in one app for a while (like doomscrolling on X before bed).
Battery life is also nothing to write home about. There’s a 5,000-mAh cell. With average use, I usually ended a full day with around 40 to 30 percent left. But on a few occasions, if I used it more rigorously—for GPS, music streaming, browsing Instagram, and taking pictures (around five and a half hours of screen-on time)—I’ve had to recharge it by 5 or 6 pm.
Strong Points
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
There’s a triple-camera system on the A35, but you should stick to the main camera. It’s a 50-megapixel primary sensor joined by an 8-MP ultrawide and a 5-MP macro. Over on the front is a 13-MP sensor. Selfies look sharp—no qualms there—and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the photos out of the main sensor.
The Pixel 8A is powered by Google’s Tensor G3 chipset with 8 GB of RAM, just like the Pixel 8 series. That means it’ll be capable of much of the same software wizardry Google showed off last year with the debut of its flagship, including Audio Magic Eraser, which lets you erase unwanted sounds in video clips (like sirens); Magic Editor, where you can move subjects around and have the software generate a background to fill in the space; and Best Take, which can replace a person’s face in a photo by clipping it from a similar photo, which is useful in case someone blinked and ruined an otherwise perfect shot.
This phone will also be able to tap into Google’s Gemini Nano large language model. To enable Gemini Nano, you’ll have to go into the Pixel’s developer settings and check a box that says you agree to run experimental features that may or may not work perfectly yet. When enabled, Gemini Nano lets you access specific on-device AI features, like summarize in Google’s Recorder app and Smart Reply in Gboard. Gemini Nano will be available in a future software update, but Google confirmed that while the default assistant in this handset remains Google Assistant, you can replace it with its Gemini assistant easily out of the box, just like you can on most other Android phones today.
Speaking of, just like the Pixel 8 series, Google is promising seven years of software updates on this phone. That makes the Pixel 8A one of the only sub-$500 devices to get such a long software support window. Google’s also offering the same built-in VPN function too. The device comes with 128 GB of storage, and there’s now a 256-GB option, though that’s restricted to the Obsidian color. The Pixel 8A’s other colors include Bay, Porcelain, and a lovely new Aloe.
The Pixel 8A comes in Bay, Obsidian, Porcelain, and Aloe.
