This iOS 26 Feature Might Make Your iPhone Photos Look Much Better

With iOS 26, Apple is introducing a host of changes through the iPhone’s operating system. There’s the controversial Liquid Glass UI, which you can “fix” if you’d like; a redesigned Phone app, complete with Google-like call screening features; and a minimalist Camera app that hides most of your settings and tools until you need them. It’s a sizable update to be sure.

But every year, there are features that don’t make it into Apple’s big keynote presentation. These smaller changes are sometimes my favorite, because while they aren’t flashy enough to get a spotlight during the event, many are quirky, fun, or otherwise worth highlighting in their own right.

The Camera app has one such feature. Despite Apple’s focus on the app during the keynote, this feature wasn’t mentioned directly. Instead, Apple included it in a slide of 36 iOS 26 features they didn’t have time to talk about. I’m not sure why they didn’t take ten seconds to show it off during the Camera app segment, because not only is it a small change, it’s a very helpful one at that. With iOS 26, the Camera app will now alert you when your camera lens is dirty.

You can see how this works in this Reddit post. When iOS 26 detects that the lens is smudged or otherwise obstructed, it’ll display a small pop-up at the top of the viewfinder. In this case, it reads “Clean Back Camera,” but I presume it will also issue a similar warning for the front camera when taking a selfie.

From various Reddit discussions, it does appear that this feature isn’t available on all iPhones running iOS 26. While Apple supports devices as old as the iPhone 11 with this latest OS, the oldest iPhone I’ve seen mentioned that’s compatible with this feature is the iPhone 15 Pro. That user suggests it might be an AI feature, which makes sense—Apple reserves Apple Intelligence features for iPhone 15 Pro and newer.

Again, this is an iOS 26 feature, which means you won’t see it on your compatible iPhone until either Apple releases the OS in the fall, or you decide to install the iOS 26 beta on your device. I don’t recommend the latter, though, as the current developer beta comes with too many risks that might result in a glitchy iPhone or even data loss. If you want to try out iOS 26 early, I recommend at least waiting until the public beta, which Apple says will launch next month.

How to turn lens cleaning hints on or off

While the alert has an X you can tap to dismiss it when it appears, Apple also has a new on/off toggle for this option if you’d prefer not to see it all. To find it, head to Settings > Camera, then scroll down until you see Lens Cleaning Hints. Tap the toggle to enable or disable the feature.

Secretary Rollins Signs State Waivers to Make America Healthy Again by Removing Unhealthy Foods from SNAP in Arkansas, Idaho, and Utah in Addition to Indiana, Iowa, and Nebraska

(Washington, D.C., June 10, 2025) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins, joined by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., signed three new food choice waivers to Make America Healthy Again. The signed waivers will amend the statutory definition of food for purchase for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP) in Arkansas, Idaho, and Utah, each commencing in 2026.

You Can ‘Fix’ Apple’s Liquid Glass Transparent Design

Change isn’t always easy. Case in point: “Liquid Glass.” Apple’s upcoming “26” updates for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Vision Pro introduce this new design language that adds a transparent, glassy look to icons, menus, and windows. Some people are digging it, while others are hating on it. And the haters are hating.

I generally like the new look, though perhaps what I like best is that it matches across all of Apple’s products. It’s also nice to have a fresh look on Apple devices—especially the iPhone—for the first time in years. That said, I understand some of the criticisms: In the right conditions, these icons and menus look great, but depending on the background, it can be very difficult to read text or view certain elements.  

Unless you download the latest Apple betas (which I don’t recommend you do), you won’t be dealing with these changes until the fall, when the company releases the official updates to the general public. But if you do decide to try out the updates at some point during the beta cycle, or you install iOS 26 or macOS Tahoe this fall and find you really can’t stand how transparent some of these windows are, there’s something you can do about it.

“Reduce Transparency”

As it turns out, a setting that has existed on Apple devices for years is now responsible for limiting the effects of Liquid Glass’ most overt design: “Reduce Transparency.” This is an accessibility feature present on most Apple devices that swaps the transparent effect on some UI elements with a solid background. The idea is to boost contrast and visibility for readers who have trouble viewing items through the transparency effect, even before Liquid Glass was ever a concept. 

According to users who are experimenting with the beta, toggling on Reduce Transparency goes a long way to, well, reducing the transparency of the Liquid Glass design. You can see that here: Before the setting is enabled, the menu bar lets in all the colors and graphics of the items beneath it. Once Reduce Transparency kicks in, the menu bar is much flatter, which makes the text within it (especially the artist name) much easier to read.

If you find yourself drawn to the latter option, just enable Reduce Transparency when you update your devices. On iOS and iPadOS, you’ll find the option in Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size. On macOS, you’ll find it in System Settings > Accessibility > Display.

Because these OS updates are currently in beta testing, there’s no telling how things will change by the time Apple finally releases them to the public. For all we know, the final iteration of Liquid Glass will be much more legible than it is now. But in case you still find it difficult to use, or you just don’t like it, this setting should help.

Apple Music Can Now Translate Lyrics, DJ Your Playlists, and Start a Karaoke Session

While iOS 26’s Liquid Glass design deservedly got most of the attention at Apple’s WWDC 2025 keynote, there were still several other additions worth talking about. These include a bunch of new Apple Music enhancements, such as lyrics translation, a new DJ-like feature called AutoMix, and animated cover art on the lock screen. Here are all the new Apple Music features in iOS 26.

Lyrics Translation for your favorite songs

Apple Music has had time-synced lyrics for a while now, which works great when you speak the language of the song. However, it’s not as helpful when you’re listening to songs in different languages, and that’s where Lyrics Translation comes in. It adds translations below each time-synced lyric line, making it easy to follow the song’s meaning, too. This hasn’t yet been added to all songs, but I expect that to change over the coming months.

Learn how to pronounce lyrics correctly

Another iOS 26 lyrics upgrade lets Apple Music show you the correct pronunciations for lyrics in foreign languages. Not every song has lyrics in the Roman script, so if you can’t read the alphabet they’re in, this new feature will help you learn how to pronounce those words. It does this by showing you a transliteration from the original script to Roman, which makes it easier to sing along.

AutoMix is an AI DJ for your playlists

AutoMix is a new addition to Apple Music’s playback controls. You’ll see it alongside the Shuffle, Repeat, and Autoplay buttons. When enabled, AutoMix will analyze the audio features of songs and use DJ-like tricks such as time stretching and beat matching to deliver continuous playback. Some people may like this, but I tried this during a run today and I’m not a big fan. I make lots of custom playlists on Apple Music, and some of those are painstakingly curated by matching the sounds at the end of one song with the start of the next one. AutoMix undid all my hard work and made the transitions feel unnatural. This may work for some types of playlists and for people who don’t care much about transitions, but it’s not doing much for me.

Pin your favorite playlists

This is a sweet feature that lets you quickly open your favorite Apple Music playlists. You can press and hold any playlist in the Music app in iOS 26, and pin it to the top of the Library tab. If you’ve pinned your favorite contacts in Messages, then you’ll find music pinning to be a familiar feature.

Animated cover art comes to your lock screen

Animated cover art is one of the more visually appealing features of Apple Music, and now it’s coming to your lock screen as well. When you play a song that has animated album art, you can tap the player on the lock screen to see it in a neat full-screen view.

A karaoke feature for Apple TV users

Apple Music is also getting a new feature called Sing, which only works if you have an iPhone with iOS 26 and an Apple TV running tvOS 26. With all those requirements in place, you can use your iPhone as a mic and have your voice amplified by Apple Music to have a fun karaoke experience right at home.

I Tried This DIY Mosquito Trap, and It Actually Works

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I’ve previously shared the Good News about mosquito dunks, which stop mosquitoes from being able to breed in standing water. For the third year running, I am using dunks to create what’s sometimes called a “mosquito bucket of doom,” a trap that entices mosquitoes to breed in standing water that you have (muahahaha) poisoned against them. 

Not only is a bucket of doom easy to create—it took about five minutes, and my elementary-aged daughter did most of the work—it’s also more effective than other mosquito control attempts, like mosquito foggers. 

Why the bucket of doom is more effective than other types of mosquito management

There are three main ways of dealing with a mosquito problem in your yard: 

  • Keep the mosquitoes away from you personally, with box fans, bug spray, and barriers like screening. They’re still out there, but at least they aren’t biting you.

  • Kill adult mosquitoes, for example with foggers. Those individual mosquitoes won’t be able to bite anymore, since they’re dead, but the small amount you’ve managed to kill is not much of a dent in the mosquito population. This is the least effective strategy.

  • Kill larvae or interfere with breeding. This is where the bucket of doom comes in. You’ll eliminate breeding sites in your yard, except for that very special bucket. The bucket will kill the baby mosquitoes before they can grow up. 

The first and third options are the ones that will make a difference: box fans and bug spray for yourself, mosquito breeding control for your yard. If you’re interested in trying to kill adult mosquitoes, read up on adulticides. They can be toxic to other insects like bees. They also don’t tend to help mosquito problems unless you can manage to kill a lot of the adult mosquitoes, which can be difficult and expensive.

The bucket of doom is an easy and effective form of breeding control, but be aware that it works best in places where there aren’t other breeding sites for the mosquitoes. If you live next door to a swamp, the bucket may not help much. On the other hand, if you’re in a place where you and your neighbors are good about cleaning up stagnant water, the bucket will be more effective.

How a mosquito bucket of doom works

First, you need to understand the mosquito life cycle. (There are different species, with different preferences about who to bite and where to breed, but the same basic facts apply.)

Just as butterflies have a larval stage (the caterpillar), mosquitoes also have a larval stage and an adult flying stage. Females lay their eggs in or near water, and the larvae are aquatic. If you’ve ever looked into a bucket or pond and noticed wriggling wormy things near the surface, those were mosquito larvae. They hang upside down, breathing through a tube in their butts (I promise I am not making this up) but can swim around to hide or to look for microscopic bits of food to eat. 

They pupate (like caterpillars) and emerge from the water as adult mosquitoes. Male and female adults drink flower nectar (!!!) which is enough to keep them alive, but when a female is ready to breed, she needs protein. That’s where the biting comes in. She needs a “blood meal” to be able to build those little baby mosquito eggs. So she bites you, drinks a drop of your blood, and then a few days later she lays her eggs. Then the cycle can begin again.

The entire life cycle only takes a few weeks, so mosquitoes will breed (and bite) continuously all season. We’re going to disrupt this process by poisoning the water that the larvae live in. The eggs will hatch, but the larvae will die.

Is a mosquito bucket of doom safe? 

One of the things I love about the bucket of doom is that it targets mosquitoes and doesn’t affect most other insects, nor people and animals. 

The “poison” that we’re using is actually just a naturally occurring bacterium with the scientific name Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (often abbreviated Bti). This type of bacteria makes a toxin that can kill mosquitoes, fungus gnats, and blackflies, but Bti is nontoxic to mammals, birds, and fish. Insects that don’t breed in water aren’t affected by dunks, so butterflies and bees are safe

A bucket of water can be a safety hazard for small children and for animals, just because they could fall into it and drown. If your bucket of doom is in an area where children, pets, or wildlife could access it, consider covering the bucket with a barrier. Chicken wire makes an easy DIY cover, but if you want something a little neater looking, use a hydroponic basket that snaps onto the top of the bucket

How to make a mosquito bucket of doom

First, gather your supplies: 

There’s an area of my yard where we often have a bucket or two around, and those buckets tend to fill up with rain. Obviously I dump them when I notice, but every now and then I’ve seen mosquito larvae in one of those buckets. Gross. So that’s where I decided to set up my first bucket of doom. 

I’ve seen the larvae even when there wasn’t any obvious source of nutrients in the bucket, but the instructions from university websites usually mention adding some hay, straw, or other organic matter. I asked my daughter to gather up some dry leaves from the corners of the yard and driveway. Then we filled the bucket partway with water, before adding the magic ingredient. Here are the steps so you can follow along: 

  1. Add plant matter (hay, straw, leaves) to the bucket. 

  2. Add water to the bucket, making a nice little pond for the mosquitoes.

  3. Drop in ¼ of a mosquito dunk, or the amount indicated on the package.

In case you were wondering how big these things are.
Credit: Beth Skwarecki

How to maintain your bucket of doom throughout the summer

My package said a quarter of a doughnut-shaped dunk is appropriate for controlling mosquitoes in one square foot of surface area, so we used a quarter dunk for our bucket. (Some photos online show people using a full dunk per bucket; that’s probably overkill.) You will need to add a new dunk monthly

I got my dunks for a little under $20 for a pack of 20, so let’s say I’m paying 25 cents per month to reduce the mosquito population. Add the cost of the bucket ($4.99 if you don’t already have one sitting around at home) and that’s less than $7 for a summer’s worth of mosquito protection. 

Make more than one bucket if you have a big yard or just want to cover your bases in multiple locations (maybe one in the backyard, one by your front porch). And remember, you still need to dump out all of your non-poisoned standing water. The bucket of doom works best when it’s the mosquitoes’ only option. 

People who use these buckets tend to report that they noticed far fewer mosquitoes in the months that followed, and I have definitely found that to be true. Mosquitoes take a few weeks to go through their life cycle, so don’t expect results instantly—but if you maintain your bucket and take care to eliminate other sources of standing water, you should notice there aren’t as many mosquitoes around this year as usual. 

Five Services That Will Remove Your Personal Information From Data Broker Sites

We’re living in a post-privacy world. Every time you leave the house you’re probably on camera. Every time you turn on your television, your viewing habits are being logged. And using the internet in any way is basically just spraying a firehose of your personal information at data brokers—companies that compile your personal information and sell it to marketing companies, people search sites, and anyone else who wants to use it to sell you something.

The phrase “data brokers” might conjure up a bunch of shady companies located in countries with loose privacy laws, but some of the biggest are actually familiar companies like Experian, LexisNexis, and Equifax. The data they gather can include your name, address, birthday, phone numbers, income, known associates (like your family members), and everything you do on social media platforms. Anyone with that info can use it to blast you with endless advertisements and spam emails and texts—and if bad actors get ahold of it in a data leak, they can use it maliciously to steal your identity.

If you want to beef up your online privacy and help protect yourself from spam and scams, one of the main things you need to do is get your personal data out of the data brokers’ servers. You can opt out manually (a tedious, never-ending game of whack-a-mole), or you can pay a service to do it for you.

You can try to opt-out manually

Typically you can choose to opt-out from data brokers and other sites that collect your data, but doing so involves a lot of work. You’ll have to go to each and every individual data broker’s website and look for their opt-out pages, which are typically deeply buried to discourage you. You’ll also need to stem the flow of information headed to them by adjusting the settings on your devices, removing unused apps, clearing your browser history and cache, setting it to forget cookies, and using Google “results about you” tool to remove search results containing your personal information. You might even start using a virtual private network (VPN) to remain as hidden as possible.

You’ll need to stay vigilant, however, and repeat this process on a regular basis, as even once deleted, your information will trickle back out over time.

The good news is, if you don’t want to make your privacy a full-time job, you can pay a service to do it for you. While most data removal services won’t be any more effective than manual efforts, they will do the boring work for you, saving you a ton of time.

The best online data removal services

There are a number of data removal services that can handle clearing your information from data brokers. Here are five of the most useful:

Optery

Optery has a free version that makes manually removing your data from broker sites a little bit easier, but the paid version covers a pretty comprehensive list of brokers, is AI-assisted, and offers removal verification. In one study, it was found to have a successful removal rate of 68%, which is just a hair under the 70% removal rate you can expect if you do it manually. It will continue with automated removals as long as you pay for the service.

Cost: $3.99 per month or $39 annually.

EasyOptOuts

With a second-best removal rate of 65%, EasyOptOuts is a relatively effective data removal tool that costs a lot less money than Optery, which is only slightly more effective. EasyOptOuts doesn’t have many fancy bells and whistles, but it slogs through all the online sites that collect your data and requests removal pretty reliably. It will even request removal from sites it can’t crawl, just to be safe. Considering how affordable it is, it’s a worthwhile choice.

Cost: $19.99 annually

IDX

IDX is an effective data removal service that has the most flexible platform in terms of services. It offers three tiers: Identity (mainly just monitoring, with no removal services), Privacy (probably the best choice if data removal is your priority), and Complete (which includes lots of other tools, like a credit locker).

Cost: $8.96/month (Identity), $11.66/month (Privacy), $32.90/month (Complete), with family plans also available

Kanary

Kanary also offers a free version that’s relatively limited and doesn’t help you with manual removal of your data—it just reports where your data has been located—but you can use it without a credit card, so you can test the service out before deciding whether to pay for it to actually remove your data from those sites. On the other hand, its app is only available for Apple devices, with a waitlist for Android phones and tablets. Some reviews have noted that Kanary’s net is a bit too wide, flagging your social media accounts for cleanup, which you probably don’t want it to do.

Cost: $12 per month or $105 annually (family plans are also available)

Permission Slip

Launched by Consumer Reports, Permission Slip is a free data removal service app. Some folks have raised privacy concerns about it due to its fairly complex user agreement, but for zero dollars it can definitely automate a lot of the work required to delete your private data from broker sites, and so it’s worth considering.

Cost: Free (donations appreciated)

Do you need one of these services?

Whether one of these services is a good deal for you depends on how much spare time you can donate to clearing up your data footprint, and how annoyed you are that faceless corporations know so much about you. You could always start with Permission Slip as a free option to see if it makes a difference, then evaluate a paid option later. But whether you do it yourself or pay someone to handle it, removing your personal data from data brokers is always a good idea, given data breaches have become a near everyday occurrence.

Why I’m Excited About Poshmark and Facebook Marketplace Joining Forces

Last week, Poshmark announced that it’s in the early stages of a partnership with Facebook Marketplace that could significantly increase the reach of sellers’ listings. As a diehard user of both digital resale platforms, I found this news particularly exciting, so I reached out to Poshmark for more information. Here’s what you need to know about the fledgling venture and what it may mean for you—whether you buy, sell, or both on either marketplace.

The major Poshmark and Facebook Marketplace news

The partnership is in the testing stage: Right now, only a few Poshmark sellers will see their listings crossposted to Facebook Marketplace. If and when it expands, sellers can expect to see their Poshmark listings appear on Facebook Marketplace. Essentially, any item listed on Poshmark will automatically be shown to potential buyers on Facebook Marketplace—and any resulting purchase or transaction will take place through Poshmark’s established platform, even if they don’t have a Poshmark account.

“Shoppers can seamlessly purchase Poshmark items through the Facebook app, regardless of whether or not they have the Poshmark app installed,” the rep tells me. “Clicking ‘Check out now with Poshmark’ will direct the shopper to our guest checkout webpage, embedded within the Facebook app.”

Why this collaboration seems useful

I use Poshmark every day to sell my clothes, but I also browse Facebook Marketplace pretty frequently to source home decor. I’m a seasoned resale seller and shopper, but never really considered looking for clothing or accessories on Facebook. As the rep pointed out to me, though, Facebook does have an “expansive audience”: Over three billion people use the app. Of course, not all of them are using Marketplace. But if even a few extra eyeballs land on my listings, that increases my chance of making a sale.

Why it’s useful for sellers

Per the rep, “This collaboration is about making Poshmark closets more accessible.” I know from my own experience that though there are people who browse a variety of marketplaces, there are pretty distinct populations on each app. Putting my listings on multiple platforms increases the chance that they’ll be seen by someone who might not have seen them if I’d kept to one app.

With this new integration, the chances are higher that your listings will be seen by brand-new prospective buyers.

Why it’s useful for buyers

If you’re not a Poshmark user but you (like, apparently, most people) use Facebook Marketplace, you’ll now be able to access listings for the kinds of things Poshmark is best known for offering. That mean you can browse for clothing, accessories, and shoes, in addition to broader categories like electronics and decor—alongside the local goods offered on Facebook Marketplace. It makes the buying experience that much easier.

Things to keep in mind

You should know that the Facebook Marketplace experiment isn’t fully replicating the Poshmark experience. Poshmark is full of unique ways to buy and sell that aren’t being translated over to Facebook at this time, including live shows where everyday people can auction off goods on a QVC-style stream and Posh Parties, which are landing pages featuring specific categories of listings.

Another reason Poshmark is great is that buyers can “bundle” multiple listings from a seller’s storefront (known as a closet). If you like three things someone has for sale in their closet, you can put them in a bundle so the seller only has to ship one package. This saves you a lot on shipping, but most of the time, sellers will give you bundle at a discount, too, saving you even more.

That’s not happening with the Facebook Marketplace cross-listing, at least not right now.

What I’d like to see

If the beta test is successful, I hope to see this rolled out on a larger scale. It would be cool if bundling became possible via Facebook Marketplace; simulcasts of live show streams would also be ideal. Poshmark’s live shows are popular and innovative (I watch them all the time and have been playing around with the idea of hosting one), and I’d like to see them broaden their reach to Meta’s substantial audience.

Resale is poised to see a massive increase in the post-tariff economic landscape. With the threat of everything becoming more expensive, buying used is becoming an attractive option for more people, placing platforms like Poshmark and Facebook Marketplace at the forefront of the boom. Whether you’re an established seller or buyer or new to all of this, this joint venture may very well help you navigate what’s to come a little more easily.

Eight New Features Coming in the June 2025 Pixel Drop

Google is rolling out the finished, stable version of Android 16 today, while also releasing a new Pixel Drop for June 2025. These drops bring exclusive features to Pixel phones and tablets, on top of the general Android codebase that’s available to every Android phone manufacturer, including Samsung, Nothing, Sony, and Motorola.

This time around there are several new features to talk about. These should show up automatically on all currently supported Pixel phones and tablets in the coming days—so right back to the Pixel 6—but you can also check manually via System > Software updates in Settings on your device.

1. Pixel VIPs

Your Pixel VIPs are the most important contacts on your device, and now they get their own special widget as a spin-off from the Contacts app. This widget lets you see recent messages and calls from these people across messaging apps, including WhatsApp, as well as more details about them (including their birthdays and notable anniversaries).

You can now make some of your contacts VIPs.
Credit: Google

These special VIPs get extra permission to bypass the Do Not Disturb mode on your Pixel, which should make sure you don’t miss anything important when notifications are muted. If you’re currently sharing your location with these Very Important contacts, these details appear in the widget too, but all this information is kept locally on your device.

2. Custom stickers in Gboard

Stickers made with generative AI are coming to the default Pixel keyboard, Gboard, with the latest Pixel Drop. With the help of Pixel Studio, you can create stickers of anything you like: An excited jelly avocado, a sad starfish wearing sunglasses, and sparkly blue sneakers are the examples Google gives. And yes, it does sound a lot like Genmoji on the iPhone.

Get creative with your stickers in Gboard.
Credit: Google

As you might have gathered from the mention of Pixel Studio, this will only work if you have a phone from the Pixel 9 series, as your device needs a certain amount of AI power to produce graphics without contacting the cloud. If you’ve got a compatible device, the new feature will be available via a button above any text input box when Gboard is enabled.

3. Expressive Captions

If you use Live Captions on your Android device, you’ll know it can be a useful way of getting live subtitles on screen for video and audio content, even if they weren’t included in the original file or stream. Expressive Captions adds more feeling to this feature, so you’ll see labels like “whispering” or “yawning” alongside the actual words themselves.

Expressive Captions in action.
Credit: Google

If words are stretched out—like “gooooooooal!”—that should show up too. This feature isn’t completely new, because it was announced last month for Android 15 devices: As far as I can make out from Google’s announcement, it seems the Pixel Drop may be introducing more of these expressions, or possibly making them more widely available.

4. New accessibility features

The new Pixel Drop includes several smaller new features worth mentioning, including improved support for hearing aids with LE audio features: You can now access presets and volume controls from inside a dedicated panel on your phone, as long as it’s a Pixel 9 or newer handset running Android 16 (rolling out at the same time as this update).

Then there are improvements to the Magnifier app (exclusive to Pixel phones), which now incorporates live search. You can type what you’re looking for (like something on a menu), then move your phone camera around, with matches highlighted in real time and accompanied by a little vibration. You no longer need to take a photo first and then search.

5. Battery health indicator

If you own a Google Pixel 8a or newer, this latest Pixel Drop brings with it a new battery health indicator screen, which we were first made aware of in April. It shows details of the battery’s remaining capacity, based on charging and usage patterns, and the feature should help you get more use out of your battery (and show you when it needs replacing).

6. Improve your photography skills

There’s a neat little feature arriving in the default Camera app for Pixel phones and tablets: If you tap the new question mark icon that appears in the corner of the Camera screen, you get a visual guide to what each camera mode does, plus some instructions on how to use it. The idea is to “help you get the most out of your Pixel Camera,” Google says.

We’re still waiting for the latest AI features in Google Photos.
Credit: Google

7. AI edits in Google Photos

In its June 2025 Pixel Drop announcement, Google has again mentioned the enhanced AI editing tools coming to Google Photos that it also announced last month—for Android and iOS devices. This upgrade is still coming soon, and apparently won’t be a Pixel exclusive, but it’s worth flagging that Google has again mentioned it in its latest blog post.

8. Expanded feature availability

Finally, a couple of notes on availability: The Pixel satellite SOS feature that lets you get help when you’re beyond wifi and cellular range is expanding to Australia, while the Pixel-exclusive Recorder app is adding French and German to the list of languages it can work with when it comes to transcribing and summarizing audio conversations.

Android 16 Is Now Officially Available on These Devices

After months of beta testing and following an extensive preview ahead of Google I/O 2025, Android 16 is now complete and is rolling out to devices. As usual, Pixel phones and tablets are going to be first in line for the software update, with handsets from other manufacturers following later (Samsung’s One UI 8 upgrade, based on Android 16, is already in testing).

As per Google’s documentation, every Pixel phone and tablet since the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro are eligible for Android 16. Those phones were introduced in 2021, so if you’ve got either of those handsets or something newer, you’re good to go.

Perhaps the biggest update in Android 16 is the revamped Material 3 Expressive design language, which Google has already previewed. It’s designed to encourage more engagement and to create more emotional pull, as well as being more intuitive and easier to use. However, this Android 16 release only “lays the foundation” for the revamp: Google says the redesign will roll out gradually across the course of the year.

The Android 16 redesign isn’t included in this first stable release.
Credit: Google

Notifications are getting some improvements. Android 16 introduces Live Updates, which are similar to the Live Activities already available on iOS. Essentially, it gives real time updates more prominence on the home screen and the lock screen, so you won’t have to keep opening an app for sports scores or to see where your Uber is.

Samsung has already implemented something like this with the Now Bar in One UI 7, and it should improve the experience for apps like Google Maps and food delivery apps. The feature will launch with “compatible ride-share and food delivery apps,” Google says, with more integrations to follow.

Live Updates give more prominence to important notifications.
Credit: Google

Another notification tweak: Similar alerts will be grouped together automatically, to avoid “information overload.” One of the examples Google shows is a security camera: Rather than every notification appearing separately every time motion is detected, you’ll get them all together in one grouped package.

Android 16 is also bringing with it improved support for hearing aids, with the option to switch to your phone’s mic for audio input when you’re on a call—which should mean better results in noisy environments. Also, native control for hearing devices will be appearing in Android 16, providing access to settings such as volume levels.

There’s a big security upgrade as well, which we’ve already seen in the Android 16 beta. It builds on the existing Advanced Protection mode, which is described as “Google’s strongest security for mobile devices yet” in official communications: Previously available for Google accounts on the web, it’s now specific to mobile devices, too, with Android 16, which means you can manage these protections from your phone or tablet.

Advanced Protection is now available on phones and tablets.
Credit: Google

There are multiple different elements to Advanced Protection, including preventing USB connections while your phone is locked, stopping automatic connections for unsecured wifi networks, and real time warning for scam calls. All of this can be configured through the Advanced Protection menu in Settings.

Android 16 is also bringing with it an improved desktop mode, along the lines of Samsung DeX. Google says it’s actually worked with Samsung to improve window support on Android tablets, so you now have more control over how your apps are positioned in devices with larger screens.

Android 16 works better on bigger screens.
Credit: Google

It sounds like the bigger updates for this feature are still to come: Custom keyboard shortcuts, an improved taskbar, and support for external displays (for the full DeX experience) are all arriving “later this year,” so you’ll have to wait a little longer to use this new desktop mode to its fullest.

As usual, there are numerous new features behind the scenes for developers too: They cover easier access to camera settings like night mode and color temperature, better support for adaptive layouts that work on any screen size, and even improved consistency for progress bars. Look out for improvements to your Android apps, and wider support for the new Material 3 Expressive redesign, as time goes on.

Android 16 also includes a wealth of more minor tweaks and improvements that you might not notice for a while (or might never see at all). If you have a Pixel phone or tablet, you should get the update automatically in the coming days, but you can also check for it manually: From Settings, choose System and Software updates.