Despite some recent headlines, iPhones remain safer than Androids given Apple’s tighter restrictions and control of its ecosystem. But Google is catching up — and Samsung is moving even faster to narrow the gap. Now, a new Android upgrade for 2025 could make Androids more like iPhones than ever before — but there’s a twist.

Google spent $250 million to acuire engineers from HTC Vive for Android XR, echoing moves it made with HTC for the Pixel in 2017.

Credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central The Galaxy S25 is yet another product from the Korean tech giant that has access to some features from Google that other phones don't yet have. It's not the first time this has happened;

Google says the new multimodal Gemini feature is available to all Gemini users on the web, Android and iOS. Google does have a paid AI subscription tier and Samsung has teased charging for Galaxy AI at the end of this year. For now, though, these AI updates are free and accessible to most smartphone users.

Google Messages is rolling out a minor tweak for its redesigned read receipts that should make the checkmarks easier to see at a glance.

Live Updates are dynamic notifications that live on your lockscreen, but they’re limited to ride shares, food orders, and navigation for now.

Duplicate notifications can be annoying, so here's how to use the feature to disable duplicate notifications on Google Pixel.

The search giant has recently updated how Google Maps is shown on the screen when navigation is not enabled on Android Auto

Google is officially launching a new Android security feature for Pixel devices with Android 15 to prevent phone thieves from accessing your digital accounts. The feature, called Identity Check, requires biometric authentication to access some account and device settings when you’re not at a trusted location (such as your home or your workplace).

Google is preparing to roll out a new shortcut for launching Google Wallet, and it could arrive in this year's Android 16 update.

If you browse the Google Play Store on a desktop browser, you'll notice an "Install on Windows" button scattered around the website. This feature is seldom advertised, but it is part of Google's initiative to bring Android games to your Windows computer.

The next phase of AI evolution seems to be focused around agents: AI bots that can not only chat to you and draw pictures, but also carry out tasks on your behalf. Now, Perplexity has launched an AI-powered Perplexity Assistant for Android.