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WhatsApp users have received an email from Google informing them of a big new change: their backups will no longer count against their Google Drive data allotment. WhatsApp first introduced these backups in 2015, enabling users to store a copy of their messages in the cloud. Over time, depending on how heavily the app is used, these backups can grow into multiple gigabytes, a substantial amount for Google users who only have the 15GB included for free with their account.

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The camera array for the Samsung Galaxy S10 is this afternoon's subject of leaks from South Korea. It's become apparent that Samsung's plan for the most expensive of its multi-Galaxy-S lineup for 2019 will be delivered with some rather obvious differentiating factors. The most expensive device, that is to say, will have an extra camera on its back.

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A highly requested feature, dark mode, is now available in Android Messages. As with the new YouTube dark mode, Android Messages users can eliminate the bright white background, instead switching to a darker interface that is easier on the eyes over longer periods of time. The new mode is available in Android Messages version 3.5, which brings the same Material Design that recently arrived on Google Phone and Google Contacts.

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Google announced today that Gmail's confidential mode has come to mobile devices. The feature launched on desktop earlier this year, and it allows senders to restrict things like forwarding, copying, and downloading the emails they send. Senders can also set emails to expire after a certain amount of time, and, in cases where extra security is necessary, lock a message with an SMS code.

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Over the last couple of weeks there's been a bit more than a normal amount of a rumbling about the Pixel 2 XL and it's apparent slowdown issue. Not all Pixel 2 XL units have the issue, but a significant number of them do find themselves the subject of this slowdown. Fortunate for those few users with this issue, one of their ranks happens to be a rather prolific Android journalist by the name of Artem Russakovskii of Android Police. Google's been to visit him personally to see what's up.

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There's a feature in Android 9 Pie called LOCKDOWN that'll change the way you handle your smartphone. It'll change the way you handle your smartphone after you've been put in a difficult situation, that is to say. What LOCKDOWN (I'll just call it lockdown from here on out) does is to turn on the ability to turn off most options and abilities from the lock screen of your smartphone - effectively locking out ALL parties other than yourself.

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There's an app out for all users right this minute from Microsoft called "Your Phone." This app allows the user to get photos snapped on a phone over to their PC with the greatest of ease. The fact that this app even has to exist should be fairly embarrassing for someone in the smartphone development process ... but so far nobody's stepped forward in shame.

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Android Go, the special configuration designed for entry-level smartphones, started life last year under the Android 8.1 Oreo release. With Android 9 Pie now out of the oven, it’s only fitting that it, too, should get a Go. But Google isn’t simply bumping up the numbers just have a Pie Go. It is also announcing the results of an even better diet program that makes Android 9 Pie Go even better for devices with as little as 8 GB of storage, maybe even less.

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Google's MVNO service Project Fi has made an announcement that has some subscribers upset: it'll be shutting down text forwarding next month. Subscribers have a little under a month to decide on a game plan, though Google says the service's call forwarding feature will remain. The feature is used by some for business or to maintain boundaries with acquaintances, among other things.

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Google is making a bit of noise about something that users may have presumed has actually been the case even when Wear OS by Google was known by a different name: Android Wear. The Android maker is now giving smartwatch app developers a heads up to tell them that starting next month, all new Wear OS apps are required to undergo a review process before being listed on the Google Play Store. This is to ensure the quality of apps that should really be a primary concern in the first place.

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Google is working on a personal fitness and health assistant, according to a new leak, and it's reportedly called Google Coach. The new personal assistant is allegedly being developed for wearable devices and will utilize what Google already knows about a user to proactively make recommendations, among other things. Google Coach isn't limited just to activities, according to the report, which also claims it'll monitor nutrition and suggest meals.

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When the Motorola P30 was leaked earlier this week, all I could see was the latest Android-laden iPhone X. Even though the Essential Phone PH-1 was the first major smartphone with a notch, Apple put one on their iPhone and sold an outrageous amount of units. Since then, several China-based companies have taken to cloning the iPhone X industrial design as best they could. When you're in a place where making a good, cheaper copy isn't looked down upon, it's rewarded, it makes good business sense to make said copy.

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