Google is rolling out a significant update to the Play Store aimed at saving smartphone battery life by cracking down on apps that prevent devices from properly entering Sleep mode. In collaboration with Samsung, the company announced a new measure called “excessive partial wake locks” to monitor and penalise apps that force a phone’s CPU…
Megan Ellis / Android Authority I feel like 2025 has been the year of quitting apps for me. Some of this has been due to moving to more privacy-focused open-source or self-hosted apps, but a pervasive theme has been free apps simply getting worse as a way to try to push users to a paid…
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority TL;DR Google is working to make it easier for ‘experienced users’ to install apps made by unverified developers. The company is building a new ‘advanced flow’ that allows these users to accept the risks of installing unverified apps. Previously, the only permitted method for experienced users to install apps from…
Joe Maring / Android Authority TL;DR Google has issued new app quality guidelines to prevent apps from excessively draining your phone’s battery life. Starting March 1, 2026, if an app is found to be holding wake locks excessively, it will be penalized on the Play Store. Apps responsible for excessive battery drain will display a…
India has emerged as the biggest target for mobile malware, with over 42 million installs of malicious Android apps on the Google Play Store, according to a new report by cloud security firm Zscaler. The findings, published in the ThreatLabz 2025 Mobile, IoT, and OT Threat Report, highlight a sharp rise in mobile cyberattacks between…
Tushar Mehta / Android Authority The Android apps that come preinstalled on a phone have several advantages. For one, they’re already there — you don’t need to visit the Play Store and sift through numerous options to find one that might meet your needs. Secondly, they’re usually from the manufacturer itself, which means they’re tightly…
New Delhi: A new study by IIT Delhi has uncovered how Android apps with precise location permissions can extract far more information than users might imagine.By analysing subtle variations in GPS signals, such as changes in strength, noise and frequency shifts, the research shows it is possible to infer a user’s surroundings, activities, and even…
Andy Walker / Android Authority Keeping up with the latest and greatest apps and games is a difficult task, but I’m here to help. Each month, I detail a list of the best new Android apps and games, and the November edition is packed with a wide range of options for all. Let’s jump right…
The Samsung Galaxy XR is designed to be a showcase for Android XR, Google’s new AR / VR operating system, but unlike competing mixed reality headsets, Google says there will be few limits on the apps the Galaxy XR will actually be able to run. In fact, a Google spokesperson tells Engadget that “almost all…
Megan Ellis / Android Authority For a while, I wanted to keep my phone as streamlined as possible, only keeping my essential apps installed. But this year has been a tough one and keeping track of everything mentally has been getting more difficult to do. I decided to start leaning on some niche apps, while…