Three new iOS 15 features that we love, and three changes that we’re still waiting for

iOS 15, Apple’s upcoming update to its widely used mobile operating system, was unveiled in early June during the opening WWDC21 keynote. This update comes packed with both notable and tiny changes across the OS. However, it left some of us disappointed due to missing features we’d been hoping for. For what is a full version bump, iOS 15 is a small upgrade, relatively speaking. While it includes new features that make life slightly easier and more organized, it’s been considered underwhelming by some avid users.

Below are three features we really love about this upcoming version of iOS. They’re followed by three we’re disappointed Apple hasn’t added yet.

The Yays

FaceTime

iOS 15 brings powerful additions to what used to be a simple and limited video calling app. This version allows scheduling and sharing FaceTime meeting links. They can be accessed from a web browser on almost any device, including Windows computers and Android phones. It’s an unprecedented move by Apple – the company notoriously known for its walled garden approach – but it was inevitable in the era of COVID, remote work, and calls. While FaceTime isn’t as feature-rich as Zoom and Google Meet, it can now make its privacy-focused approach to video conferencing available to a bigger audience. There’s an argument to be had on how well implemented Android and Windows support is, but we’re taking this one step at a time.

This facelift to FaceTime also comes with a Portrait Mode video effect for iPhones with the TrueDepth Camera (i.e. the ones with FaceID). That’s in addition to microphone mode controls (Standard, Voice Isolation, and Wide Spectrum) that make joining calls in noisy environments more doable. Note these camera and microphone effects can be used system-wide and implemented by third-party app developers.

Smart keyboard suggestions for FaceTime links are another small but handy addition to the app. Assuming you’re using Apple’s keyboard, you can type “video call” in any messaging app – or in a text field in any other app, but the feature makes more sense when chatting with people – and the keyboard will suggest a FaceTime link to insert straight into your message. This allows you to effortlessly invite someone you’re texting to a FaceTime call, without having to open the FaceTime app and create a link manually.

Another significant addition to FaceTime is SharePlay, which allows users to enjoy music, TV, and other content together. They can control each other’s Apple Music queues, watch Apple TV+ originals, or share what’s displayed on their phones’ screens. It also has an API that developers of third-party apps can implement to support the feature. While SharePlay will not be available in iOS 15 right on launch, we still expect to see it arrive in the coming weeks.

Safari

Apple’s native browser becomes more useful than ever in iOS 15 thanks to the introduction of third-party extension support. While Safari on iOS still hasn’t fully caught up with that of macOS (lack of website notifications support, for example), it’s one step closer to achieving that goal.

iOS 15 also redesigns Safari, introducing a Start Page with customizable, relevant content and wallpaper support. It moves the top website address bar to the bottom as well, making it more accessible for one-handed use. A welcome pull-to-refresh gesture has been added, and the top and bottom safe areas of the iPhone screen adapt to the colors of visited websites and switch colors accordingly.

Tab Groups make organizing and separating your work and personal lives easier than before. With dedicated groups for whatever topic/category, we can add as many relevant tabs to a group to make switching from a workspace to another a fast, effortless process.

Weather

The Weather app on iOS finally gets some love from Apple with iOS 15. It gets a modern icon and user interface, as well as new air quality measurements from BreezoMeter in supported regions. It’s still not available on iPad or Mac, due to reasons best known to Apple.

The redesign also adds new background animations to match almost every possible weather condition, regardless of the time of the day/night, in addition to a refreshed widget.

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The Nays

Music app needs some tweaks

It’s 2021. Users will literally be able to control each other’s queues remotely with SharePlay this fall, yet for some unknown reason, Apple still hasn’t implemented an equivalent to Spotify Connect that would let us control music playback from any device signed in to the same Apple ID.

Additionally, the obstructive pop-up, whenever a song/playlist is added/removed to the library/queue, needs to go. But considering it took Apple over a decade to remove the similar volume pop-up, I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see this behavior changing anytime soon. It would also be nice to have lyrics available for offline viewing when downloading a song; it’s an insignificant text file that wouldn’t have any effect on devices’ storage.

Let us choose more default apps

Having a choice only when it comes to setting default email and web browsing apps is nowhere near enough or satisfactory. With antitrust lawsuits hitting the company, it was expected Apple would expand default app support to music and maps, but that’s nowhere to be found. Users can now teach Siri which music app they prefer, but that still doesn’t make it a default one.

Mail and Messages need more competitive features

Compared to similar apps and rivals, Mail and Messages lack a lot of features. Starting with Mail, many options available on the web version of iCloud Mail are nowhere to be found on iOS, such as vacation auto-replies, aliases, and more. Plus, the iOS app feels and looks too simplified when compared to the Gmail app and its functionalities. 

As for Messages, it needs to catch up with IM apps. Despite some welcome changes in iOS 15 (photo collages and “Shared with you” sections), the app is still nowhere as feature-rich as popular instant messaging apps such as Telegram and WhatsApp. The indexing of old messages is broken, loading older content takes ages, and searching through them is a pain.

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Despite not being a major update, iOS 15 still brings noticeable changes that make iOS more useful — custom Focus modes, live text selection, redesigned notifications and their summaries, etc. We can only hope Apple adds some (or, wishful thinking, all?) of the features on our wishlist with iOS 16 next year.

iOS 15 is currently available in beta for both developers and public testers, and is expected to be released publicly this fall, in mid to late September after the new iPhones announcement event. iOS 15 will run on all devices that currently support iOS 14 (that’s a whopping 7 year software support for the iPhone 6S, so far).

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ZTE Axon 30 Hands-on: An under-display camera that stays out of sight, out of mind

Pop-up cameras and notches are more or less a thing of the past, and the hole-punch camera has taken their place. While it’s nowhere near as aesthetically pleasing as a purely bezel-less experience, they have been the best option for anyone looking for a minimal bezel in a smartphone for the past year. However, the ZTE Axon 20 last year offered one of the first under-display cameras in a smartphone on the market, although it was somewhat underwhelming. Now its successor is here, and it’s a much bigger improvement than I had hoped for.

The ZTE Axon 30 isn’t the most flagship of smartphones — you’ll want to go to the ZTE Axon 30 Ultra for that — but the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 that powers this particular device is certainly good enough. Think of it as a souped-up version of the Snapdragon 865 that powered flagships last year; it’s more than good enough.

About this hands-on: ZTE sent us the Axon 30 for review on the 16th of August. ZTE had no input regarding the content of this article.

ZTE Axon 30: Specifications

Specification	ZTE Axon 30
Dimensions and Weight	170.2 x 77.8 x 7.8 mm 189g
Display	6.9-inch OLED FHD+ 1080 x 2460 120Hz refresh rate 360Hz touch sampling rate 10-bit color depth 100% DCI-P3 coverage
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 1x ARM Cortex-A77 @ 3.2GHz 3x ARM Cortex-A77 @ 2.4GHz 4x ARM Cortex-A55 @ 1.8GHz  Adreno 650 GPU
RAM and Storage	8GB RAM + 128GB UFS 3.1 storage
Battery & Charging	4,200mAh battery 65W fast charging support
Rear Camera	Primary: 64MP Quad Pixel f/1.79 Secondary: 8MP ultra-wide Tertiary: 5MP macro Quaternary: 2MP depth
Front Camera	16MP f/2.0, 2.24µm Under-display camera
Ports	USB Type-C port
Connectivity	5G NFC Bluetooth 5.1 WiFi 802.11.b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz)
Security	In-display fingerprint reader
Software	Android 11 with MyOS 11

The ZTE Axon 30’s display is much improved

The notchless experience of the ZTE Axon 30 is one of my favorite parts of this smartphone, and it’s something I haven’t really got to experience in a long time. It’s only 1080p which is a little bit disappointing (but fine on pretty much any display of this size), and it makes up for that by being a 120Hz AMOLED panel that still looks pretty good even on the large 6.7 inch display. It provides a nice viewing experience as is, and watching Netflix and YouTube on the ZTE Axon 30 is a nearly-unrivaled experience purely for the lack of a hole punch or notch. Very few devices on the market actually have under-display cameras, and the Xiaomi Mix 4 and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 are two of the only ones that exist.

The notchless experience of the ZTE Axon 30 is one of my favorite parts of this smartphone

The notchless display experience on the ZTE Axon 30 is much improved over the Axon 20. If you remember, the status bar on the Axon 20 was always set to black by default. However, on the Axon 30, it’s clear ZTE is a lot more confident in its design. The notchless display is enabled by default, so the matrix over where the front-facing camera goes is slightly visible, but only if you’re looking for it. It’s hard to see, especially when the screen is bright, unlike on the Axon 20 where the pixel density of the display over the camera was much lower to allow for more light to come through.

The display is reminiscent of pop-up camera devices like the OnePlus 7 Pro, which had one of my favorite displays on a smartphone ever. I’m a big fan of a completely unimpeded content experience, even if the hole-punch camera is easy to forget about at times.

The front-facing camera itself is lackluster…

Here’s the problem with front-facing cameras — they have to look through the glass screen to take a photo of you, which includes looking through part of the display too. The ZTE Axon 30’s front-facing camera is quite blurry and has a “bloom” effect like on the Axon 20. If I’m honest, it feels like the same camera as on the Axon 20. The quality seems more or less the same, and the biggest improvement is how the camera is hidden in general usage. Even when compared to the Xiaomi Mix 4, the difference is just night and day.

All of the photos below are compressed, but the overall quality of the photos is still easy to make out.

The ZTE Axon 30 blooms a lot, and really struggles with additional light sources. “Bloom” in photographs refers to the halo-like effect which is visible around light sources in photos and is a problem in particular on under-display cameras. In the above photos, light sources appear as a bright halo with defects that surround it, and that’s par for the course when it comes to these types of cameras.

This is very much a phone with a selfie camera for people that don't like to take selfies

What’s more, the photos themselves look smoothened out without any sharp detail, making the photos unappealing to look at. This is very much a phone with a selfie camera for people that don’t like to take selfies, although I can understand the appeal of that for some people. I would never use this phone camera for taking selfies with friends and family, but I can see it being used for video calls and the like. If photo quality is your prerogative, then I would certainly look elsewhere. If you really don’t care about the selfie camera, then this isn’t honestly a bad option for an all-screen display in 2021.

When compared against other under-display cameras, it’s clear the Mix 4’s selfie camera is above and beyond what the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Axon 30 produces. However, the Axon 30 is, in my opinion, above what the Galaxy Z Fold 3 can do, but Samsung’s latest foldable obviously has the advantage of being able to use the outer-primary camera as a selfie camera if you really want to.

But the back camera is excellent

The primary sensor on the back has really impressed me, and I’ve enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. It’s definitely a flagship-grade camera and one you can’t really be disappointed with. It’s clear ZTE understands photography, and the improvements even in the Axon 30’s selfie camera over last year’s Axon 20 shows the company is serious about improving.

The photos below are compressed, but give you an idea of the dynamic range and color output that the Axon 30 is capable of.

MyOS 11 looks exactly like Android 12, even though it is based on Android 11

ZTE’s custom Android variant isn’t all that bad, and that’s thanks to MyOS 11 looking more or less exactly like Android 12’s most recent betas do. It’s a pretty clear influence, and I’ve been enjoying using it a lot more than I thought I actually would. It has a lot of useful features and looks nice, although it’s worth mentioning ZTE isn’t known for great support windows. Software updates may be scant at times, but if you’re okay with that then there are no other real complaints I have here.

The Axon 30 performs just as well as pretty much any other reasonably powerful device released in 2021. It’s certainly nowhere near as over-the-top as some Android variants other OEMs make, and it’s an improvement over ZTE’s older MyOS that the Axon 20 launched with which I already quite liked. The phone’s performance is also exactly in line with what to expect from the Snapdragon 870 — it’s a step above the 865+ from last year, but not by a noticeable amount. It’s certainly good enough though for basically anyone.

The Axon 30 performs just as well as pretty much any other reasonably powerful device released in 2021

Finally, the company also packs a 65W charger in the box, charging the phone from 0% to full in about 40 minutes.

The ZTE Axon 30 is still a niche smartphone

The Axon 30’s selfie camera is very out of sight, out of mind, but it’s still nowhere near the capabilities of regular front-facing cameras. It does the job for video calls and quick pictures, but I’d never rely on it for taking snapshots of anything “important”. It’s a means to an end in order to have a completely bezelless, no-hole-punch experience, and it achieves that quite well as a result. If you value a selfie camera, then I can’t stress enough how much this phone is not for you.

ZTE Axon 30

The ZTE Axon 30 is a pretty great option if you don't care about selfie quality too much, especially if you want an all-screen smartphone experience.

Features:

Pros: Cons:

See at ZTE

However, if you don’t care about the selfie camera, then there’s no reason to not get the Axon 30. The area over the camera is no longer an eyesore and blends into the rest of the display, and it’s good enough for the occasional video call if required. The primary camera is excellent, the performance thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 is also stellar, and a starting price of €499 places this device in a pretty competitive space.

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Have an old JioFi and Jio STB sitting around? Here’s how to unlock these devices to get more use out of them

Carrier-subsidized devices sound like a great deal on paper. If you’re planning to stick with the carrier anyway, it’s often a no-brainer to jump onto a new device that they offer. But one of the bigger inconveniences that power users have always faced with carrier-subsidized devices is that there is always some or the other restriction. These restrictions are often arbitrary and unrelated to the actual capabilities of the device, so there are a fair few people who are interested in removing the network lock and doing things like getting rid of the carrier-customized software altogether to utilize the full capabilities of the device. When it comes to India’s telecom sector, though, people mostly use smartphones off-contract, which is why we don’t really see any carrier-locking here. Having said that, the landscape is slowly changing because of Reliance Jio.

Being India’s leading telecom service provider, Jio offers a plethora of subsidized hardware solutions in order to persuade the users to dip their toes into the company’s ecosystem. However, as you can speculate, a majority of them are tied to Jio’s network. From the JioFi range of portable cellular hotspots to the Android-powered Jio set-top box (commonly referred to as the Jio STB) that you can get with its fiber-to-the-home broadband service, the carrier strictly follows a walled garden approach, as there’s no official way to unlock them and subsequently mod the firmware.

Luckily, thanks to the efforts of some XDA forum members, you can now break free from these barriers. If you already have hands on one of the aforementioned devices and want to use a different SIM on the JioFi or enable Android debugging access on the Jio set-top box for easier app sideloading, then you’ll be happy to know that the modding community has managed to circumvent the arbitrary limitations on select hardware variants. The details of the unlocking process can be found below:

• How to unlock the JioFi for all networks
• How to enable ADB access and sideload apps on the Jio STB

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How to unlock JioFi for all networks

Having your SIM locked on a mobile hotspot device really hinders the notion of mobility itself. In the case of JioFi, you can pop out the existing Jio SIM and insert a different data SIM from another carrier, but the stock firmware won’t let you connect to anything other than its parent carrier network. For those of you who are beholden to Jio, fear not as XDA Senior Member abhimortal6 managed to come up with a modded firmware to network-unlock the third generation JioFi devices so that you can use any SIM without restrictions.

Successfully reverse engineered @reliancejio’s JioFi 3(JMR540).
Unlocked SIM tested with Vi so far all network should work. Gained shell and adb access. Modified /rootfs for permanent changes. I’ve to say Foxconn designed a good device took whole day to modify the firmware pic.twitter.com/Nlp1mx5wDa

— Abhijeet Tripathi (@ab_hi_j) May 20, 2021

You can install the carrier unlocked firmware on your JioFi 3 (model number JMR 540 and JMR 541, originally made by Foxconn) using the method provided in detail in the forum post linked below. After a successful firmware flash, the web dashboard will allow you to change the APN settings and connect to a non-Jio network.

Unlocking the JioFi 3 for all networks

Notably, you can’t use the modded firmware package on newer generations of the JioFi. If you have a spare JioFi device that’s not supported by this method, you can get in touch with the modder through our forums and help him reverse engineer the recent models.

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How to enable ADB access and sideload apps on the Jio STB

The Jio set top box ships with a highly customized version of Android 9 Pie that doesn’t even feature the Google Play Store. The carrier removed the regular package installer from the firmware and locked down Android debugging access by hiding the standard Android Settings app under the custom skin. We all know what Jio means by this – the company doesn’t want people to reuse the device as a standard Android TV box, which is an arbitrary restriction as the device is fairly capable.

XDA Member RealEngineer has discovered a nifty trick to modify the system partition of the Jio STB (model number C200 and D200) by exploiting the Amlogic SoC’s flashing protocol. After replacing the system partition with the ported Mi Box Android TV 9.0 firmware by XDA Senior Member aidanmacgregor, one can permanently enable ADB access and restore the stock firmware back. If successful, users would have an unshackled Android set-top box. If unsuccessful, people would end up with a dead STB. Luckily for us, the former scenario played out, and the result of this can be found in the following thread.

Enable ADB and sideload apps on the Jio set-top box

Jio STB running sideloaded apps (h/t XDA Member vipin786)

Keep in mind that once you unlock your device using this method, you have to block the official OTA client. Taking a new system update may possibly revert back all the changes, or even brick your device in the worst-case scenario. Also, note that Jio may break this method in the future by blocking the Amlogic flashing path, but we hope to see another exploit popping up then.

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Are you excited about what these developments will bring? Let us know what you hope to do with an unlocked device in the comments below.

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This is the OnePlus Buds Z2, an upcoming pair of affordable wireless earbuds

OnePlus hopped on the true wireless earbuds bandwagon last year with the launch of the OnePlus Buds. The company then went on to launch the OnePlus Buds Z, which offered longer battery life, fast charging support, and better water resistance for a much lower price. It looks like OnePlus is gearing up to launch a direct successor to the Buds Z, or a more affordable version of the Buds Pro, and a new leak has shed more light on the upcoming product called the OnePlus Buds Z2.

91Mobiles and OnLeaks have released high-quality renders of the OnePlus Buds Z2, giving us our first look at OnePlus’s upcoming earbuds. The renders are based on real-life images, and we’re told they represent the final design. As you can see in the images attached below, the OnePlus Buds Z2 looks quite similar to last year’s model, featuring cylindrical stems and a shiny, flat back panel.

We can also see that the OnePlus Buds Z2 have smaller silicone ear tips, so they should be more comfortable to wear for longer periods. In addition, the OnePlus Buds Z2 also seem to have a wear-detection sensor, which was missing from the Buds Z. The earbuds come in a pill-shaped charging case identical to that of their predecessor. The case has a USB Type-C port and a green LED.

Technical specifications of the OnePlus Buds Z2 remain unknown for now. However, an earlier leak from reliable tipster Max Jambor suggested that OnePlus was working on a pair of affordable earbuds with Active Noise Cancellation. It’s possible the product Max J. was referring to is the same OnePlus Buds Z2 in this leak, though we don’t know for sure.

As for the launch date, 91Mobiles believes OnePlus will launch the new earbuds sometime in October. This is in line with the launch timeframe of last year’s Buds Z. The rumored OnePlus 9R T, meanwhile, is also expected to launch in October, so it’s possible the OnePlus Buds Z2 will arrive alongside it.

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This Week in Gaming: Everything shown at the PlayStation Showcase

While there were other things that happened this week, Sony’s PlayStation Showcase contained all the news that was fit to print, honestly. In 40 minutes, we got a glimpse of some juicy first-party titles coming to the PlayStation 5 in both the near and distant future. Here are the highlights.

God of War Ragnarok and the KotOR remake bookend the show

The first and last things we saw during the PlayStation Showcase were reveals of games we had heard were coming but had not yet seen. The first trailer shown was a teaser for the remake of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, long-rumored to be in the works at Aspyr and now officially confirmed. The trailer didn’t show very much except Darth Revan, along with a voice-over from Bastila describing them as “the greatest Sith in generations.” The game will be exclusive to the PS5 at launch, at least on consoles.

The last trailer we saw was the long-awaited God of War Ragnarok, the next installment in the story of Kratos and Atreus set in the world of ancient Norse myth. Kratos is, for once, actually discouraging someone from making trouble with the gods, as their latest nemesis is a vengeful Thor. He and Atreus must track down Tyr, the Norse god of war, to learn more about Ragnarok and whether Atreus is destined to set it off. We also got an extended look at the gameplay, which looks similar to that of the previous game, as well as several beautiful new realms. It was glorious to see the return of Kratos and Atreus, and I can’t wait to see them sometime next year.

Insomniac is making both Wolverine and Spider-Man 2

Someone check on Insomniac’s shoulders, because they have got to be aching from carrying the PS5-exclusive game library. They made Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, the PS5’s two best exclusives so far (sorry, Demon’s Souls, but I said it). Now they’re apparently making two more Marvel titles. The first shown at the PlayStation Showcase was Marvel’s Wolverine, which gave us a very brief glimpse of the titular mutant unsheathing his claws. This game is supposedly very early in development and probably won’t be out for years, but it’s a fun tease.

The second game shown is Spider-Man 2, which had a few surprises in store for us. The PlayStation Showcase reveal trailer implied that both Peter Parker and Miles Morales will be playable, and there may even be co-op. We also got a reveal of one of our villains and the mysterious appearance of the other. The latter might be Kraven the Hunter, as that’s who appears to be narrating the trailer. The big villain revealed is none other than Venom, who will be voiced by Tony Todd, the Candyman himself. Spider-Man 2 is set for a release sometime in 2023.

We got a ton of release dates…

Several of the game trailers shown at the PlayStation Showcase were of games we already knew about, but that doesn’t mean they were devoid of information. Several of the trailers provided release dates we hadn’t known about previously. For example, we found out that Gran Turismo 7 will release on March 4 and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands on March 25, so at least that’s March covered. We also found out that the PS5 versions of Grand Theft Auto V and GTA Online have been delayed to March, so that’s another game we’ll be getting around that time.

A game with a slightly closer release date is Alan Wake Remastered, another game long-rumored to be in development that was confirmed shortly before the PlayStation Showcase. We got our first look at the game at the event, and the release date is October 5. We got a clan-centric trailer for the upcoming battle royale game Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt, along with the confirmation that it will launch on PS5 sometime later this year.

…And everything else

The rest of the event was a mishmash of everything. We got a trailer each for Guardians of the Galaxy and Deathloop, with no new information but a little more story color. Similarly, the new trailer for Rainbow Six Extraction gave us a glimpse of the characters and gameplay. The biggest of these trailers was for Forspoken, the third-person action-adventure game that’s been slightly shrouded in mystery since it was revealed. We finally got to properly meet protagonist Frey, a human from our world who is not pleased to be dragged into Athia.

There were a few other trailers for games we’ve not yet seen — or, at least in the case of Ghostwire Tokyo, haven’t seen for a while. The trailer didn’t give us a release date, but at least it hasn’t been abandoned. We also got a trailer for a cartoonish adventure called Tchia, and a Korean action game called Project Eve, both of which look great. Last but not least, we learned that two Uncharted games will be coming to PC and PS5 via the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves bundle, which includes A Thief’s End and Lost Legacy.

September’s Free Games Via Subscription Services

PlayStation Now:

• Tekken 7
• Killing Floor 2
• Final Fantasy VII
• Windbound
• Pathfinder: Kingmaker – Definitive Edition
• Moonlighter

Games released this week:

Tales of Arise

The latest in the Tales series, Arise is an RPG about two worlds locked in conflict and two people who want to change the future.

Available on Xbox Series X/S

Available on PlayStation 5

Life is Strange: True Colors

The new Life is Strange follows Alex, who has the mysterious power to see emotions as colors, as she attempts to uncover the truth behind her brother's death.

Available on PlayStation 5

Available on Xbox Series X/S

WarioWare: Get It Together!

The new WarioWare is as Wario-ish as ever, the irreverent and off-the-wall brother to Mario Party.

Available on Nintendo Switch

• Sonic Colors Ultimate: Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC (via Epic Games)
• Lost in Random: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC (via Steam), PC (via Origin)
• NBA 2K22: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC (via Steam)

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If your phone’s alarm clock didn’t go off recently, the Google Clock app could be to blame

Update 2 (09/10/2021 @ 07:05 PM ET): Google says updates to the Clock and Spotify app have rolled out with a fix for this issue. Click here for more information. The article, as published on September 3, 2021, is preserved below.

Previous updates

Update 1 (09/05/2021 @ 03:36 PM ET): A Google support member has confirmed that a fix will roll out soon addressing the missed alarms bug in the Google Clock app. Click here for more information.

If you happened to miss an appointment recently because your phone’s alarm didn’t go off, the Google Clock app could be to blame. Several one-star reviews on the app’s Play Store listing suggest that a bug is causing many users to miss pre-set alarms.

Along with the one-star reviews, a thread on Reddit (via Android Authority) includes numerous reports of scheduled alarms not pushing notifications, playing sounds, or going off at all. The reviews date back to late March, with some even highlighting a similar issue with the app’s timer feature. This leads us to believe that the underlying bug was a part of the Google Clock v6.4 update that rolled out in March this year.

A report from PiunikaWeb on the matter further reveals that the app seems to skip the alarm notification when you enable DND mode. It further reveals that Google is aware of the issue and is currently working on a fix. A comment on the IssueTracker states: “We’ve shared this with our product and engineering teams and will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available.”

It’s worth noting that a vast majority of the reports come from Pixel users, as the Google Clock app is pre-installed on Pixel devices. However, the issue is not limited to Pixel phones. We’ve also seen reports from users with phones from other manufacturers, like OnePlus, OPPO, and more.

Since alarms are an essential part of most of our daily routines, we’d recommend downloading a third-party clock/alarm app till Google rolls out a fix. The Google Play Store is home to several great Google Clock replacements, like Alarmy, Early Bird Alarm Clock, Sleep as Android, and AlarmMon, that you can try out. These apps offer a couple of handy additional features that might even prompt you to drop the Google Clock app altogether.

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Update 1: Google Clock update coming soon

A Google support member has confirmed on Reddit that a fix will roll out soon for this bug. If you rely on the Google Clock app for your alarms, it’s recommended you change the alarm sound to a selection within device sound, as it’s believed the app’s Spotify integration is causing this issue for many.

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Update 2: Fix rolling out

According to a member of the Pixel support team, the latest updates to the Google Clock and Spotify apps resolve the missed alarm bug. The latest version of the Clock app available on Google Play is 6.41, though you can also sideload the 7.0 update if you want to see the app’s Material You redesign. The latest version of Spotify isn’t listed on Google Play, but the store listing does confirm that an update rolled out earlier this week.

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Google Translate is testing a big Material You redesign

Update 1 (09/10/2021 @ 06:55 PM ET): More screenshots have emerged of the upcoming Material You redesign of Google Translate. Click here for more information. The article, as published on August 2, 2021, is preserved below.

Google Translate is one of the most useful Google apps, allowing you to seamlessly translate text, bilingual conversations, webpages, and more between so many languages. Although the app has continued to gain new tricks such as letting you transcribe real-time speech, it hasn’t seen a major UI refresh in a long while. But that might be changing soon as Google appears to be working on a big redesign for the Android app.

An APK teardown can often predict features that may arrive in a future update of an application, but it is possible that any of the features we mention here may not make it in a future release. This is because these features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by the developers in a future build.

Google Translate 6.21 rolled out over the weekend, and it contains a new Activity titled “NewTranslateActivity” that, when launched, brings up an entirely new UI for the app. It’s still a work in progress at this point as when launching the activity directly, lots of things aren’t functional, including the “camera” button, “more” button, star button in the top left, and the account button in the top right. But this nonetheless gives us a sneak peek at the new design that Google is working on regardless.

As you can see in the screenshots below, the new UI puts a clear emphasis on one-handed usability, with the camera, mic, and language switcher buttons all now appearing at the bottom for easier access. The new UI also gets rid of the hamburger menu that currently gives access to Phrasebook, Saved transcripts, Offline translation, and Settings. It appears these options would reside under the “More” tab located in the bottom left corner.

Interestingly, the Manifest entry for this new Activity suggests this redesign is tied to the Pixel 6 series, Google’s upcoming smartphone lineup rumored to launch in October. The label for the Activity refers to a string named “app_name_p21”, where “p21” likely refers to the 2021 Pixel phones. The actual value for the “app_name_p21” string is “P21 Translate”, so it seems this new design may launch on the Pixel 6 running Android 12. The Manifest entry also suggests this design is the “Material You” redesign for the Translate app, with the style labeled as “Translate_MaterialNext” — Material Next is the internal code-name for Material You.

The new UI being exclusive to Pixel phones wouldn’t all be that surprising, as we have seen Google done that on multiple occasions. In any case, the new UI hasn’t rolled out to any existing Pixel phone. We’ll continue to dig into the APK for more info and let you know if we find anything worth sharing.

Google Translate (Free, Google Play) →

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Update 1: More screenshots

The folks over at 9to5Google have shared some additional screenshots of the in-development Material You redesign for Google Translate. The new screenshots show off what the Conversation and instant camera translation views look like. The most notable changes to the current design of these two features are the bigger buttons and pill-shaped bubbles that inherit their color from the system.

Another screenshot shows off the new language picker, which is largely unchanged save for a repositioned header. The new text translation page has also been slightly tweaked since we last saw it in Google Translate 6.21, with a card at the bottom other translations and a FAB to translate something else.

Image credits: 9to5Google

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