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The once ubiquitous navigation drawer has become a pariah of app design over the last couple years thanks to a forced movement toward gesture navigation. We've seen plenty of apps switch to a tabbed bar at the bottom of the screen, and now VLC is joining their ranks. Along with a few other new features, the first beta of v3.3 now sports a browser screen with an updated navigation model.
Left + Center: v3.2.
Read MoreLatest VLC beta switches to bottom navigation, adds share menu was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Given how much many of us depend on Google's services, its in the company's interests to ensure its platforms don't serve us bad ads that could be out to fool us. With such a sprawling portfolio of products, that's no mean feat, and in 2019 that meant a total of 2.7 billion ads blocked and removed by various teams at Google. If the scale of that is hard to fathom, it works out as 5,000 ads per minute.
Read MoreGoogle protected us from 2.7 billion nefarious ads last year was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
After Google deployed RCS (Rich Communication Services) in the US without the help of the four three big carriers, the company seems to be set to repeat that effort in Italy. The first people in the country report that they're able to use RCS features in the Messages app. That might indicate that we'll soon see RCS functionality in even more parts of the world.
RCS support seems to be rolling out without carrier support in Italy, too.
Read MoreGoogle Messages begins rolling out RCS support in Italy was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
This story was originally published Mar 30, 2020 and last updated Apr 30, 2020 6:40am PDT.
The Galaxy S20 is an incredibly expensive phone, no matter which one you buy, with the range-topping S20 Ultra starting a jaw-dropping $1400. When you're carrying a phone that's more expensive than some people's first cars, it's understandable that you'll want to buy a good case to keep it crack-free.
Read MoreGalaxy S20 case reviews: Spigen, Samsung, Speck, Ringke, Supcase, dbrand, and more (update: even more!) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Motorola was at the forefront of mobile technology for decades, but it never really found its footing in the smartphone era. Sure, it's had a few hits like the original Motorola Droid and the Moto X, but the success has always been short-lived. Cut to 2020—it's been several years since Motorola launched a flagship phone, and it's taking a big risk with the 5G-equipped Edge+. Naturally, a global pandemic tanks the economy and traps us all indoors where millimeter wave (mmWave) 5G doesn't work.
Read MoreMotorola Edge+ review: A valiant effort isn't enough was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Smart locks are becoming a major convenience for homeowners; whether you rent out your place, have family or friends to stay while you're away, or you just forget your keys, it'll make your life much less tedious. If any of that sounds appealing to you, you're in luck: the August Smart Lock Pro is on sale for just $140 today, 50% off its standard price.
August smart locks are incredibly easy to install, and they work with almost every existing deadbolt setup.
Read MoreUnlock your doors from anywhere with the August Smart Lock Pro for only $140 ($140 off) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
WeatherPro has been around on Android for more than ten years and has gone through changes on both the visual and the monetary front — the subscription-based app used to be a paid product back in 2018 before the company behind it joined forces with another one. Now, the app has received a comprehensive redesign, giving it a rethought bottom bar interface and a customizable home screen. That's reason enough for us to go hands-on with the app, mainly because we wanted to see if it can fill the vacuum left by Dark Sky's demise.
Read MoreHands on with WeatherPro, a promising Dark Sky alternative was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
There's a lot to like about mobile NFC payments. They can prevent identity theft by giving stores alias card numbers, they're faster than chip readers, and most importantly right now, you don't have to physically touch the payment terminal. That last bit is probably why contactless payments have jumped 40%, according to financial services company Mastercard.
"We are seeing an increase in the use of contactless transactions, and we think this trend will continue after the pandemic," Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga said in the company's Q1 earnings call. Read More"We are seeing an increase in the use of contactless transactions"
Mastercard says NFC payments have jumped 40% due to coronavirus concerns was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
These days, you can control most of your smart home using only your voice — Google Assistant lets you adjust your bed, mow the lawn, open your closets, start your Xbox, control your TV, and so much more. Routers and networks are the latest new addition to the Assistant's library of natively supported actions, allowing for things like reboots, software updates, and parental controls on third-party networking devices.
On top of these, you also have access to more advanced functions such as "enabling the guest network and reporting network-specific information such as the current internet throughput rates." While it's fairly obvious what routers are, Google defines networks as "a group of router nodes or a mesh network controlled as one entity rather than as individual devices," so in essence, you can control the same set of options on both routers and networks.
Read MoreGoogle Assistant adds support for router and network control was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
This story was originally published Apr 28, 2020 and last updated Apr 29, 2020 6:00am PDT.
Not too long ago, the weather app Dark Sky saw its Play Store ratings decimated overnight after its acquisition by Apple and the subsequent scrapping of the Android app was announced. Another popular meteorological app is seeing a similar trend for its app ratings, although for entirely different reasons.
Read MoreWeather Underground’s Play Store rating has plummeted since v6 was released (Update: Correction) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
The artist formerly known as Hangouts Meet has seen a number of welcome improvements in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, but until now only G Suite users have been able to use it free of charge. Google has just announced in a blog post that this restriction is being lifted, however, and anyone with a Gmail account will be able to use Google Meet for absolutely nothing.
Other competing products such as Zoom have become increasingly popular with everyone stuck at home — security concerns aside — and Google clearly feels the time is right to bring its rejuvenated app to the masses.
Read MoreGoogle Meet is now free for everyone was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
We've already heard almost everything there is to hear about the Pixel 4a except for a rather important detail: When exactly will it be available for purchase? While we've assumed that Google planned on introducing the phone during its (now canceled) I/O conference in May, we've got some more evidence that it's indeed launching next month: German Caschys Blog got to see some internal Vodafone Germany documents stating the phone will be available through the carrier starting May 22.
Read MoreProbable Pixel 4a shipping date leaked by German carrier was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
This story was originally published Apr 21, 2020 and last updated Apr 28, 2020 11:26pm PDT.
WhatsApp has supported group audio and video calls since 2018, but you have always been limited to calling three other people at one time. During times of stay-at-home orders and quarantines, that might not be enough to stay connected with all of your friends and family. An update to the WhatsApp beta channel improves that situation as it raises the limit to up to eight participants (including yourself) for the first few users, but it involves a server-side change, too.
Read MoreWhatsApp is rolling out 8-person group calls was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
The OnePlus 8 launches this month — both unlocked and from not one, but two carriers in Verizon and T-Mobile. We've already reviewed it, and it's a really solid phone. We've got our qualms, though. Here are five of the best and worst things about the OnePlus 8.
With a Snapdragon 865, eight or 12 gigs of RAM, and UFS 3.0+ storage, the OnePlus 8 feels eager to perform tasks you ask of it.
Read MoreThe 5 best and worst things about the OnePlus 8 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.