Android 7.0 Nougat

Android 7.1 Nougat is slowly making its way to more devices after debuting on the Pixel smartphones. A developer preview is currently available for many Nexus users, and earlier this month, CyanogenMod announced a new version of its ROM based on Google’s latest OS for a handful of devices. Now nine more devices have been added to that list.

In this week’s top stories: Our Google Daydream View review, the best affordable Android smartphones for November, renders of a bezel-less Meizu smartphone leak, we show you how to take full advantage of Google Assistant with IFTTT, and much more.

Android Nougat brings a lot of new features to the table, but sometimes it’s the little things that really make software great. One of those little things in Nougat was Night Mode. It first popped up in the developer previews and remained hidden just under the surface, but in 7.1, it was blocked completely and left only on Pixel devices.

As Android Nougat starts to permeate the Android ecosystem, OEMs are preparing updates for many different smartphones. So far we know that LG is about to push an update to the LG G5 and Samsung is actively testing out Nougat on the S7 family. However, while speaking to Engadget, OnePlus confirmed when Nougat would hit the OnePlus 3.

In the news for manufacturing the Pixel and Pixel XL, HTC is back with its own new smartphone available on Friday for Sprint. The HTC Bolt is essentially a larger version of the HTC 10 announced earlier this year with some key enhancements, but slightly worse specs.

Android Nougat’s adoption rate has been pretty slow to date, only taking 0.3% of the Android market since its debut. However, that is set to increase as more OEMs update their devices to the new OS. LG announced a Nougat update for the LG G5 earlier this week, and soon after, a Nougat beta program kicked off for the Galaxy S7…

Android 7.1 has been off to an odd start. While the OS is already running on Google’s Pixel smartphones, it’s only available as a developer preview for supported Nexus devices. However, that’s not stopping the team at CyanogenMod from putting together a new ROM based on Google’s latest OS.

With every major release of Android, Google releases an Android Compatibility Definition Document which lays out Google’s rules for Android OEMs in order for those devices to be approved to ship with Google’s services, including the Play Store. With Android Nougat the company waited a couple of months to release that document and today, it’s finally here. The 85-page document spells out Google’s plans for Android OEMs, and while most of the document is relatively unimportant for most people, there are some points worth talking about…

Android Nougat has been out for a couple of months now, but in that time, it hasn’t caught on all that much. While Nexus, Pixel, and LG V20 users have the OS, few others do. While OEMs like LG are working on updating phones to the latest version of Android, Samsung is going to play a key role is getting that adoption rate up. Luckily, the company seems to be doing just that.

Following a preview period for customers earlier this year, LG today has announced that it is now rolling out Android 7.0 Nougat to G5 users in South Korea. The company says that South Korea is just the start of the rollout and that the update will expand to additional countries as time progresses.

For some reason, Google didn’t post Android distribution numbers last month. Now updated for November, however, Nougat finally enters the fray. Marshmallow, meanwhile, sees a decent jump to nearly a quarter of all devices — despite there being a huge share of KitKat and Lollipop devices still in the wild…

It’s the first Monday of the month, and that means it’s time for Google’s monthly slew of security patches. This month is also the first with the Pixel smartphones included. Updates are available now for both Nexus and Pixel owners running 7.0 and 7.1.

It’s been about 3 months since Android Nougat first went official, and OEMs have already taken the new OS to new smartphones such as the LG V20 and Huawei Mate 9. However, we haven’t seen any big OTA updates from OEMs. Luckily, it seems like Samsung is preparing a beta update for Galaxy S7 Edge users in the UK.

Android has evolved a lot over the years, but in the past, it had a serious problem with its looks. While stock Android has looked pretty good for the past several years, OEM skins had a tendency to ruin that, at least to a certain extent. And if not ruin, they definitely brought lots of design inconsistencies…

Huawei’s latest flagship Android smartphone is here, the Mate 9. With that new hardware, Huawei has also updated its software skin, EMUI. We’ve seen this skin of the company’s other devices such as the Mate 8, Honor 5X, and Honor 8, but with the Mate 9, we get our first look at Huawei’s take on Android Nougat…

Android Nougat has a lot of useful features, but one of my personal favorites is Quick Settings tiles. We’ve had these in Android since KitKat, but in Nougat Google introduced the ability for developers to add their own Quick Settings tiles into that menu.
It’s been a couple months since Nougat debuted and while adoption is pretty slow, developers are still working on adding new features to their applications. We’ve seen a handful of apps include support for Quick Settings tiles so far, so let’s go over a few of them.

We told you last week that Chainfire had achieved root on the Google Pixel, and as we predicted, said systemless root is now available for you to download.

While Google’s Pixel is taking the spotlight from Google’s former flagship, the Nexus 6P, that’s not going to stop a lot of people from continuing to use the decent spec’d device. However, it seems like a handful of those users are experiencing some odd battery issues on their devices…

Android 7.1 launched on the Pixel and as a Developer Preview a little over a week ago. Since then, several third-party apps have already been updated to support the latest system features. Twitter for Android is the most notable, with shortcuts and a circular app icon already in testing on the latest alpha build.

In this week’s top stories: Pixel pre-order delays, we go hands-on with the LG V20 in our full review, Xiaomi unveils its new Mi Mix phone, Google Allo and Assistant get updates, and much more.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Earlier this month Motorola released a list of all of their devices that would receive Android 7.0 Nougat and they are now kicking things off with the Moto G4 and G4 Plus…

As announced and arriving just in time for the Pixel’s release, the Android 7.1 Developer Preview is now available for the Nexus 5X, 6P, and Pixel C. With Google customizing the software on the Pixel, there were some questions as to what’s exclusive to the new phones and what features are a part of stock Android.
After loading up the developer preview on a Nexus 5X, we’ve found some nice improvements to Android. Keep reading for our complete list of all the changes in Android 7.1.1…

After being first announced earlier this month, Google has today released a brand new developer preview for the next version of its mobile OS ─ Android 7.1…

Over the past year or so, Google has been adding a lot of stock apps to the Google Play store, and today it’s debuting two new ones ─ the Pixel Launcher and Wallpapers.