Welcome to episode 45 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, we talk about the Chromecast bug, Google Play Games on PC, and the latest Gemini models.

Subscribe

• YouTube Podcasts
• Pocket Casts
• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts
• Overcast

After a redesign of the Weight stats page in November, Fitbit is now updating Water logging on Android.

With Android 16 Beta 3, Google is now more specific about how “Limit to 80%” will fully charge your Pixel to “every one to two weeks.”

We are now ready to gather up all of Friday’s most notable deals from the Google Play store. Alongside the Android game and app deals you’ll find below, we are also still tracking one of the best prices ever on Galaxy Watch Ultra at $230 off, this Galaxy Watch 7 FREE band promotion, and some additional offers we spotted this morning – you can save a giant $440 on Samsung’s new maxed out 1TB Galaxy S25 Ultra today and we have a new all-time low on Acer’s upgraded 2025 Touchscreen Chromebook Plus 515. As for the apps, another notable batch of titles are up for grabs today including highlights like Mystic Pillars, Dragon Sinker, Nerd Survivors, Cosmic Express, Afterplace, and more. Jump the fold for a closer look. 

Just over a year after its launch and various feature parity updates, Gemini is set to replace Google Assistant on Android phones later in 2025. This follows yesterday’s model updates and bringing Deep Research to all users.

Today’s best Android gear and accessory deals are now ready to go. Joining the ongoing and particularly notable $230 discount on Galaxy Watch Ultra and the FREE brand promotion on Galaxy Watch 7, we also now have the return of $440 in cash savings on the 1TB Galaxy S25 Ultra smartphone. From there we move over to a new all-time low on Acer’s upgraded 2025 Touchscreen Chromebook Plus 515 at $180 off and the now live official Bose Spring sale with up to $100 off QuietComfort headphones and $330 off home theater gear. All of that and more awaits below in today’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break.

If you’re content with what Google offers in Gemini, you might leave the AI assistant as your default option when it comes to long-pressing the power button. However, the digital assistant that you conjure with a button press or swipe up from the corner can be changed, and a new update to the ChatGPT beta means it’s now a default option.

On Windows and MacOS, Google Chrome’s bread and butter is extensions. They round out the user experience, and each user finds a different arsenal of add-ons useful. That feature never made it to Android, but it looks like Microsoft Edge has added extensions in its latest mobile build.

One of the downsides of RCS messaging for a while was a lack of support for end-to-end encryption but, now, the GSMA has announced that the latest update to RCS will add the long-awaited security layer, and both Google and Apple will support it.

Following the announcement at the start of this month, Google today has more widely rolled out the big Find My Device update that adds location sharing with “People.”

According to a reliable leaker, Google’s upcoming Pixel 9a will include a free Google TV Streamer, at least in some markets.

Your Thursday afternoon collection of the best Android game deals and freebies are now up for grabs courtesy of the Google Play store, and we have a sizable collection of top-tier titles today. Firstly, make sure you scope out one of the best straight up deals on Galaxy Watch Ultra at $230 off as well as today’s offer on the 44mm Galaxy Watch 7 with a FREE $70 extra band and this offer on Chipolo’s Google Find My Device wallet card tracker. As for the apps, highlights include titles like Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance, Kingdom Rush Vengeance, Iron Marines 2, Dune: Imperium, Inked, and more. Head below for a closer look. 

Google is preparing support for “summarized” notifications in Android 16, as revealed by code in the third beta update.

Android 16 is recycling the same Easter egg from Android 15, which is also the same one from Android 14. But with its latest release, Google has added a new “autopilot” mode to the space-themed Easter egg which integrates with Android 16’s Live Update feature.

Android 16 Beta 3 has officially launched, and the new OS brings a couple of small changes that might normally go unnoticed. One minor but apparently important change is a new “close” app option that appears when the app icon in Android 16’s recent menu is tapped.

With work dating back to October 2022, Google Pixel devices now have a “Battery health” stats page with Android 16 Beta 3.

Beta 3 of Android 16 is now available as Google’s next major OS update proceeds through the development process.

Android 16 Beta 3 is rolling out to Pixel devices today with the Platform Stability milestone that finalizes app-facing behaviors and internal/external APIs to let developers update their applications.

Google is now rolling out a fix to the Chromecast (2nd gen) and Chromecast Audio that resolves the “Untrusted” Casting outage/issue.

From just beyond its deathbed, the Chromecast with Google TV finally picked up its promised Android 14 update this week, and it seems that there are a handful of issues for those still using the streaming dongle.