Android Police

The latest Google Home update goes way beyond Gemini and fixes your Nest gear too

Rajesh Pandey — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 06:01:35 GMT

For the last few months, Google has regularly rolled out biweekly updates for Gemini for Home and Google Home. You’d expect the changelog to get shorter by now, but the latest release notes are the most exhaustive yet. More importantly, Google is rolling out a bunch of improvements for its Nest and Google Home speakers, which improve streaming performance and deliver smoother audio playback.

Android 17 QPR3 Beta 3 puts useful Pixel features back on the menu

Rajesh Pandey — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 05:12:08 GMT

Less than a month after Google released the first Android 17 QPR3 beta, the company has pushed the third beta for compatible Pixel phones. Google's official release notes for the new build highlight a number of bug fixes — 26 in total! — and stability improvements, but there's more to the update than that.

Pixel Watch owners report severe battery drain across multiple generations

Timi Cantisano — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 01:43:44 GMT

Even solid hardware can still have problems when the software isn't tuned properly. We've seen this many times over the past decade, affecting phones, smart home products, tablets, computers, and even smartwatches. And the worst thing about all of this is that it can all change overnight.

This Pixel 9 Pro Fold owner got a repair swap upgrade nobody expected

Timi Cantisano — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 00:51:13 GMT

Google has a pretty good repair program for its Pixel devices. The brand doesn't have many physical locations worldwide to handle repairs, but it partners with third-party repair locations to provide service where it's needed. Customers can also send in their devices to Google for repair. I've done this before, and it was a pretty painless process. In fact, they just sent me a refurbished replacement, which I was okay with.

Get a 2K video doorbell and wireless outdoor camera for $31 today

Timi Cantisano — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 23:50:59 GMT

We've seen smart home setups with affordable security cameras before, but this Blink bundle takes affordability to a new level. It includes the Blink Wired Doorbell 2K+ and the Blink Outdoor 4 wireless camera. One covers your front door, while the other can be placed pretty much anywhere. It's a fantastic combo and is dirt cheap right now at $31, which is 76% off the usual retail price.

One open source app replaced three apps and freed 12GB of storage on my phone

Akshay Bhalla — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 23:00:10 GMT

Freeing up storage space on my phone can be a task, and doing it manually can be time-consuming.

Reddit is moving to a "logged-in experience" to protect its content and improve the experience for its users

Timi Cantisano — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 22:11:38 GMT

Thanks to AI, the information you get from a search result is now far more useful than it used to be. There was a period when the internet was really broken, and the results were just websites with the best SEO.

Leaving the Gmail app on Android came with major wins, but I had to accept a few trade-offs

Jon Gilbert — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 21:00:10 GMT

I try to spend as little time in my email account as possible. I take a brutal approach to filtering emails; 90% of what I receive goes to the trash.

I tracked my YouTube Premium usage for a full year to see if it was actually worth the money

Rahul Naskar — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 19:00:10 GMT

I watched a lot of movies and web series on several popular OTT platforms when COVID-19 happened, to the point that I almost became an addict. I no longer use any of those subscriptions, and I don't regret my decision.

Is now the time to buy a OnePlus 15? [Video]

Ryan-Thomas Shaw — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 17:59:10 GMT

The final review.