The name Google is synonymous with online searches, but over the years the company has grown beyond search and now builds multiple consumer products, including software like Gmail, Chrome, Maps, Android, and hardware like the Pixel smartphones, Google Home, and Chromebooks. Its name can also be found on internet services such as Google Fi, Flights, Checkout, and Google Fiber. Here is all of the latest news about one of the most influential tech companies in the world.
I’ve been updating it for hours with bits from court documents, blog posts, email fact-checks, even a quick interview with Google Android boss Sameer Samat and Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney. I’m about done, but I still need to parse the new Games Level Up Program and Apps Experience Program...
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney made the announcement alongside the news of Google’s sweeping Android App Store changes. The game already returned to Google Play in the US in December.
“The parties expect to submit a revised proposal to the Court by March 4, 2026.” That’s today.
Judge Donato seemed extremely skeptical of the previous proposed settlement during the live courtroom proceedings, particularly because Epic and Google had quietly worked out a new $800 million business deal behind the scenes. We’re standing by for the “revised proposal” now.
The privacy and security-focused Android fork currently only has official support for Pixel devices, but that could be changing. Motorola announced on Monday at MWC that it has struck a long-term partnership with the GrapheneOS Foundation to “strengthen smartphone security and collaborate on future devices engineered with GrapheneOS compatibility.”
Part of Rahman’s new role includes “community engagement,” he says. He’s joining Android after spending 10 years reporting on the platform.
AI companies could stand together to draw red lines on military AI — why aren’t they?
South Korea has long restricted the export of mapping data over national security concerns leaving Google Maps, launched there in 2008, to flounder against local rivals Naver and Kakao. The Transport Ministry said the revision is being made in the interest of promoting tourism.
Google is testing the second Android 17 beta on compatible Pixel devices in line with its accelerated release timeline. The release notes say it adds desktop window-like app bubbles so users “can organize, move between, and move bubbles to and from anchored points on the screen,” although testers report they haven’t seen them working yet.
There are also cross-device app handoffs, which can work with a web app even if it isn’t installed on the second device.
In December, Google Translate started using Gemini AI to improve translations for colloquial phrases and idioms that might not make sense in other languages, and now the Translate app also offers alternative phrasings on iOS or Android.
Users can also ask the AI for more context with new “Understand” and “Ask” buttons.
The Galaxy Unpacked keynote ended less than an hour ago, and with it the announcements of the Galaxy S26, S26 Plus, and S26 Ultra. We watched the whole thing, but you don’t have to. Got twelve minutes?
Flow launched as a way to make AI-generated videos, but the company is bringing its experimental Whisk and ImageFX AI image generator tools into the app to let users “generate, edit and animate everything in one unified workspace.”
Blizzard apparently isn’t busy enough with Overwatch, announcing a mobile version of the game that “will begin select region testing soon.” Unlike mobile versions of games like Call of Duty, PUBG, or Fortnite, it’s not an attempt at an FPS and is being made by a separate team.
A gameplay preview trailer shows a similar feeling but slower-paced game capable of running on devices like an iPhone XS or Pixel 4a.
The notification was related to an incident at the BAFTAs on Sunday, as Variety reports. “We’ve removed the offensive notification,” Google spokesperson Brianna Duff said in a statement to The Verge, adding that the error didn’t involve AI, but rather that push notification systems intended to “accurately characterize” content from the web “accidentally” included the slur.
After launching on Amazon Fire TV in December, Instagram for TV is expanding to Google TV devices in the US starting Tuesday, as Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced in a post on Threads. The feature lets users view reels on their TV, arranged into “channels” for different topics and themes.
[Threads]
The likes of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Open Rights Group signed an open letter from the Keep Android Open project in opposition to developer registration, which opens next month and will be mandatory from September. The group’s Marc Prud’hommeaux explains why:
“We’ve been reaching out to Google for months to implore them to reverse course on this lockdown. The implications of their threatened action for competition and digital sovereignty are dire.”
