Google’s new Gemma model brings offline AI processing to the Pixel 10, enabling local text, image, and audio tasks while reducing reliance on the cloud.
T-Mobile canceled some longtime subscribers' free-line promotions as part of a forced migration to new rate plans, spurring complaints from customers yesterday. T-Mobile admitted the problem and blamed it on technical errors that it is trying to fix.
The forced plan changes were controversial to begin with, particularly as many longtime users are being hit with price hikes of $6 per line. The unexpected loss of free lines for some of those users could raise prices by a much higher amount if the change isn't reversed.
There is good news, though. T-Mobile told Ars today that it was a mistake and that the company is working to fix the problem. Of course, it's not always easy for telecom customers to get the proper resolution even after a company admits to an error publicly. But given T-Mobile's statement today, we hope the firm will fix the problem for all impacted customers with as little hassle as possible.
AST SpaceMobile shifted the timeline for reaching its target satellite constellation, moving the milestone from the end of 2026 into early 2027.
The delay was revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulatory filing tied to a $1 billion notes offering and follows a serious setback to one of its two main launch partners
The company stated based on its current expectations around launch availability, its campaign is now targeting approximately 45 BlueBird satellites in orbit by early 2027.
In May, the satellite player targeted approximately the same number of BlueBird satellites in orbit by the end of 2026 after previously projecting 45 to 60 of its next generation birds would launch this year.
In late 2024, AST SpaceMobile signed a multi-launch agreement with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. It previously relied on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets to launch its birds into orbit before attempting to branch out to the larger New Glenn models.
AST SpaceMobile previously predicted an orbital launch cadence of roughly every one to two months in 2026 through deals with multiple launch providers, but New Glenn is no longer an option for this year.
Its multi-provider strategy has been strained since April, when AST lost its BlueBird 7 satellite after a Blue Origin New Glenn launch failed to reach a sustainable orbit.
Analysts previously told Mobile World Live the setback was significant, since New Glenn had been AST’s best launch option for its oversized satellites, and rebuilding that capacity could take a year or more.
The loss of New Glenn as a near-term option appears to have factored into the newly disclosed timeline shift. In the filing, AST SpaceMobile said the timing of future BlueBird launches remains contingent on a number of factors, including completion of satellite assembly and testing, launch vehicle readiness, logistics, and other elements largely outside its control.
The updated timeline accompanied pricing details for AST SpaceMobile’s $1 billion offering of convertible senior notes due 2034, aimed at qualified institutional buyers, with an option for initial purchasers to acquire an additional $150 million.
Offering Net proceeds are expected to reach roughly $983.6 million, or $1.13 billion if the option is fully exercised, after fees and expenses. The company stated it intends to use the funds to pursue growth initiatives and secure additional access to orbit, “including potential partnerships or acquisitions aimed at further vertically integrating its launch capabilities”.
Tim Farrar, president of TMF Associates, said on X the filing “makes it pretty clear they now intend to buy/invest in a launch provider,” calling it a “fascinating pivot” from expectations AST would direct more capital toward spectrum. He questioned which rocket companies might be available at the right price.
“What launch provider is for sale that’s ready and able to launch 4,500kg satellites in the near term?”
Samsung's next flip phone might be tough to tell apart from last year's Galaxy Z Flip 7. As 9to5Google points out, leaked images and specs for the upcoming Galaxy Z Flip 8 shared by WinFuture are nearly identical to Samsung's current flip phone.
According to the leak, Samsung is not planning to upgrade the Z Flip 8 to one of Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors. Instead, it will have a Samsung Exynos 2600 chip, the successor to the previous-generation Exynos 2500 in the Z Flip 7. The only other notable upgrade is support for 45W wired charging.
Samsung is expected to officially announce the Z Flip 8, and the rest of its new lineup of foldable …
After an eight-year run, OnePlus announced today that it has exited the United States. It's bittersweet, as the brand has been on a comeback tour of sorts with its excellent OnePlus 15 and widely praised (though still too expensive) OnePlus Open.
The writing has been on the wall for a while now. T-Mobile stopped stocking OnePlus' flagship phones after 2022, instead deciding to only carry its low-end Nord devices, and Verizon's run with OnePlus only lasted two years, from 2020 through 2021. Even though it continued releasing flagships, OnePlus' US footprint has been fading. In January, Android Headlines even claimed that the brand was being …
WindTre prosegue lo spegnimento progressivo dell’ADSL. Dal 24 settembre 2026 partirà per un nuovo gruppo di clienti di rete fissa che utilizzano ancora vecchie linee in rame un quinto piano di migrazione verso la tecnologia FTTC, cioè Fiber to the Cabinet, la fibra ottica mista rame.
L’intervento sarà graduale e dovrebbe concludersi il 27 novembre 2026, i clienti coinvolti riceveranno una comunicazione personalizzata nel conto telefonico WindTre emesso a luglio. L’operatore evolve la rete e dismette i vecchi impianti in rame, accompagnando altri clienti ADSL verso tecnologie più recenti.
Il passaggio non richiederà l’accesso all’abitazione da parte di tecnici, con WindTre che invierà gratuitamente tramite corriere un router compatibile, da installare per usare subito la nuova linea. Il numero telefonico resterà invariato e anche il canone mensile dell’offerta non cambierà.
The OnePlus 15 was the company’s final US flagship. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge
OnePlus has confirmed what industry observers have long expected: it's quitting the US and European markets, and will no longer launch new products in either region. Parent company Oppo promises that it will honor existing support and warranty agreements, with devices transitioning to its ColorOS for future updates.
"Software updates and after-sale support will be guaranteed" in both the US and Europe, Oppo's senior PR manager in Europe, James Paterson, told The Verge in a call. The company wouldn't confirm any specifics on how it will honor its warranty and support agreements in the US, where it will now have no presence at all. In Europe, …
Bell Canada completed construction of its first sovereign direct-to-device (D2D) satellite ground station, a milestone in a strategy to offer connectivity beyond the reach of its traditional wireless network.
The facility in the province of Quebec connects with AST SpaceMobile satellites, with testing underway as the operator works to build the infrastructure required to provide D2D services.
Bell stated the companies completed integration testing covering “text messaging, broadband data connectivity”, and voice and video calls.
Video streaming, IoT and public alert tests are scheduled for the coming weeks.
The milestone builds on demonstrations Bell and AST SpaceMobile ran in 2025.
In addition to connecting customers in rural or remote locations, Bell stated the service is expected to support use cases including emergency response, environmental monitoring, resource development, energy production and transportation.
The company is continuing to build ground station infrastructure elsewhere in Canada, with additional sites under construction in the provinces of Ontario, Alberta, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Bell explained the facilities would provide nationwide D2D coverage while ensuring customer traffic runs through domestic infrastructure and data remains sovereign.
EVP and CTO Mark McDonald said the ground infrastructure “is designed to support a full suite of D2D capabilities including messaging, data connectivity, voice calling and video streaming”.
AST SpaceMobile CCO Chris Ivory pointed to Canada’s geography as a driver for the project, explaining the work with Bell would provide seamless connectivity “beyond the reach of traditional terrestrial networks”.
Ainda antes de anunciar a próxima geração de dobráveis, os conceitos de “smartphones do futuro” foram mostrados pela Samsung. Há modelos Z-Fold a ecrãs roláveis, já funcionais, entre os protótipos.
Widgets, widgets, widgets. Has there ever been an Android feature so full of promise that went unloved by Google for so very long?
Okay, so maybe there has been — erm, lots of times, actually. But even so, Android’s widgets system is a perfect example of an exceptional advantage that Google basically buried, abandoned, and left on the brink of extinction up until its overdue revival in 2021’s Android 12 update. (And that revival, by the way, happened for no apparent reason whatsoever. Just a totally random, unprompted change of heart after a decade of indifference. Riiiiiiiiight.)
Google may have given up on widgets for a while, but the good news is that (a) they’re back, baby — still now, more than ever, even in our overly AI-obsessed 2026 timeline — and (b) the Android developer community keeps chuggin’ along and coming up with ever-more creative new ways to embrace widgets beyond what Google itself sees fit to give us. That means no matter what Android version your favorite phone is running, you can step up your own Android widget game and give yourself some fresh and fruitful paths to make the most of your phone’s framework.
Here, my dear, are some fantastic beyond-the-basics ways to put your favorite Android widgets to use and change the way you get stuff done on your phone.
Android widget enhancement #1: The on-demand home screen pop-up
Widgets are a wonderful way to interact with all sorts of info without ever having to open up apps, but having too many widgets can quickly lead to a cluttered and overwhelming home screen.
Well, here’s a neat way to give yourself the benefit of a widget while still maintaining a neat and minimal space for working: An excellent app called Popup Widget lets you create an on-demand pop-up widget (get it?!) that looks like a regular ol’ icon on your home screen but then loads any widget you want when tapped.
See?
Any widget, anytime — with Popup Widget on Android.
JR Raphael, Foundry
You can even get really wild and set up a single icon that opens multiple widgets at the same time — like your inbox and your calendar together:
Popup Widget can even let you summon two widgets together with a single tap.
JR Raphael, Foundry
Not bad, right?
Popup Widget costs two bucks and doesn’t require any special permissions or manners of access. And it’s pretty simple and self-explanatory to set up: Once you install and open the app, it’ll walk you through adding in whatever pop-up widgets you want. You can choose the name and even the icon associated with each one along with its precise placement on your screen and how much the screen behind it should dim when it’s loaded.
The app will offer to add the shortcut directly onto your home screen for you then, or you can also find all of your Popup Widget creations by pressing and holding the main Popup Widget icon in your app drawer.
Alternatively, if you’re already using a custom Android launcher like Smart Launcher or Niagara, you can find similar options for summoning widgets on demand within their settings — no separate apps even required.
And that, my widget-loving wallaby, is but our first winning widget possibility.
Android widget enhancement #2: The on-demand universal pop-up
If you like the idea of having a widget on demand but would rather have it be available to summon from anywhere instead of just from your home screen, this next wacky widget option is just the thing for you.
It comes from a spectacular app called Edge Gestures, which works in conjunction with Popup Widget to take that same concept and make it universally accessible. (I told ya it was wacky!)
When you first install Edge Gestures, the app will prompt you to enable it as a system accessibility service and to grant it the ability to display over other apps. These permissions sound scary — and they should! — but in the case of this specific utility, they’re absolutely appropriate and necessary in order for it to operate. The former is the only way an app is able to create a custom system-wide gesture, which we need for this setup to work its magic, and the latter is how your widget is able to be shown on top of whatever else you’re doing.
(If you’re at all worried, note that Edge Gestures doesn’t request any other significant system permissions. Beyond that, it’s reputable, it’s been around for quite a long while, and it has a large number of overwhelmingly positive reviews.)
Where were we? Oh, right: Once you’re inside the Edge Gestures configuration area, you’ll be able to select exactly what gesture you want to use for pulling up your widget. I’d think carefully about finding something that won’t interfere with anything else, like the system-level Android gestures, and that’ll be convenient to access without being a command you’re likely to trigger by mistake.
So, for instance, you might make the gesture a simple swipe downward along the left side of your screen. To do that, you’d find the “Swipe down” option within the app’s “Left” tab, and you’d set it to “Popup Widget” — and then create or select whatever Popup Widget item you want. And remember: You can select one widget or multiple widgets, too.
Prepare yourself for some serious oohing and ahhing:
Your favorite widgets are never more than a swipe away with Edge Gestures on Android.
JR Raphael, Foundry
As you can see, this opens up a whole new world of mobile multitasking potential. I mean, really: How could you not love that?!
The final thing worth doing is going into all the other gesture options in that same configuration area and tapping “Clear” for each of ’em to get rid of Edge Gestures’ default actions. I’d also go into whichever side of the screen you aren’t using — left or right — and tap the toggle to turn the gestures for that side off entirely. That way, you won’t inadvertently activate any gestures that you don’t actually want or need.
Edge Gestures costs $2 to use.
Android widget enhancement #3: The physical key call
Next, here’s an interesting twist on that same on-demand Android widget idea: You can make any widget especially easy to access from anywhere without even having to mess around with any on-screen swiping by setting one of your phone’s physical keys as a trigger for the widget’s appearance.
I’ll give you a second to catch your breath and process the sheer splendor of that sorcery.
Back? Cool. So, the key to this feat (har har) is the combination of the aforementioned Popup Widget and a handy Android contraption called Key Mapper — which makes it easy to map your phone’s physical keys to all kinds of crazy custom actions.
In this case, we’ll set it up so that pressing and holding one of your volume keys causes whatever widget you want to be summoned, like so:
Yes, your volume key can cause a widget to appear (whoa!).
JR Raphael, Foundry
Pretty nifty, no?
I’ve got step-by-step instructions for making this happen in this separate guide.
Android widget enhancement #4: The floating bubble
If you like the notion of having a widget always available but aren’t so keen on the hidden gesture concept, an app called Overlays will let you create a small floating bubble that you can position anywhere on your screen and then tap to pull any widget up when you want it — just like with Android’s recently revived Bubbles multitasking system, only compatible with any Android device and version and with the simplicity of a widget instead of the complexity of an entire app.
Check it out:
Overlays puts a floating icon on your screen for easy ongoing widget access.
JR Raphael, Foundry
By default, Overlays gives you a bunch of its own little widgets to choose from, but the real power comes from adding in widgets from the Android apps you actually rely on. To do that, tap the “Triggers” tab at the bottom of the Overlays configuration area, then tap the red plus button in the lower-right corner of the screen. Select “Manual,” then type in whatever name you want for your widget and tap the icon to pick any icon you like.
Tap “Save,” then select “Widget” and find the widget you want from the list. At that point, you’ll see a preview of the widget. Move or resize it if you like, then hit the arrow in the upper-left corner of the screen to exit out of that interface. Last but not least, tap the name of your newly made widget on the screen that comes up next to change its status to “Always on.”
As soon as you head out of the app and back to your home screen, your fancy new widget should pop right up. All you’ve gotta do is tap the little downward-facing arrow in its corner to minimize it down to a bubble, which you can then press and hold to move anywhere your widget-worshipping heart desires.
Overlays can also create widgets that automatically appear based on context — so you could have something show up every time you connect to a certain Bluetooth device or Wi-Fi network, for instance. To explore those options, just follow the same steps from above but pick “Event” instead of “Manual” when you reach the “Triggers” tab configuration.
Overlays is free with an optional $4 in-app upgrade that removes some ads from the configuration tool and unlocks a handful of advanced features.
Android widget enhancement #5: The widget stack
Last but not least in our collection of wacky Android widget possibilities is one of my favorite widget wonders — and that’s the ability to stack multiple widgets and then swipe between ’em on your home screen without having ’em take up any extra space.
Check it out:
The space-saving simplicity of stacked widgets, as seen in Smart Launcher.
JR Raphael, Foundry
This enhancement presents a bit of a choose-your-own-adventure-style path:
First, if you’re using a reasonably recent Samsung Galaxy gizmo, the option is should already be present and available in your standard Samsung home screen setup. Just press and hold any open space on your home screen and then select the option to add a widget — then, once the widget is added, press and hold it and look for the “Create stack” command.
Those launchers replace your phone’s entire home screen environment and give you all sorts of interesting new possibilities for optimizing your interface and making it especially well-suited for you. And the stacked widget feature is just one small sliver of what they offer and how they’ll transform your Android experience.
The setup interface for a widget stack within Smart Launcher.
JR Raphael, Foundry
So there ya have it: five wacky, wild, wonderful ways to make widgets even more wow-inducing. Some days, you’ve just gotta love Android and the endless customization, control, and power it provides.
RED by SFR propose un forfait 100 Go à 9,99 €/mois sans engagement, avec assez de data pour le streaming, la navigation GPS et le partage de connexion.
Except for the second user/refurbished smartphone markets, AI means the days of cheap phones are over, with huge price pressures putting low-end vendors out of business.
Omdia data confirms that Apple and Samsung are undisputed kings of the hill, combining for 42% of the market even as smartphone sales overall have seen a 4% average decline.
The two companies increased market share by 4% (Apple) and 2% (Samsung) compared with 2Q25. Meanwhile, the situation is becoming much worse for smaller vendors as memory prices spiral, leaving their businesses under immense strain. Data from Counterpoint Research tells a similar story, indicating Apple growth against a background of market decline.
It’s important to put the impact of raised RAM costs into perspective. While Apple and Samsung make products at the kind of scale that enables them to cut better deals, smaller makers don’t have the same advantage, leaving them far more exposed to memory price driven pressures.
Memory prices are crushing the low end
And they really are exposed; not only are sales declining, but Omdia analyst Runar Bjorhovde notes that vendors at that end of the market are dealing with hugely destructive DRAM price hikes over just the past year — up to four or five times higher in some cases. That degree of increase is the kind of business-focused tsunami that drives people out of the market altogether and certainly leaves companies exposed to M&A activity.
Right now, memory and storage can account for more than 60% of the product cost, Bjorhovde said. And as costs continue to increase, what profitability that does exist in the low-cost, high competition lower end smartphone space is being utterly mauled. Omdia forecasts a 22% decline in the sub-$400 smartphone segment as a result.
“Samsung Electronics and Apple — the two market leaders — made huge market share gains…, whereas most players beyond went through steep volume declines,” Bjorhovde said.
From volume to value
Apple’s decision to expand its addressable market with the iPhone ‘e’ series just adds pressure, while Samsung’s enduring popularity helps make it difficult for smaller vendors to generate profit through market scale. “To adapt, vendors are shifting their strategies from volume to value by reoptimizing portfolios and adjusting retail pricing,” he said.
“Although memory and storage costs are the biggest challenges for vendors, they are far from the only challenge,” Bjorhovde said. “New semiconductor bottlenecks, such as within foundries, are adding further cost pressures.”
With the cost of manufacturing set to continue to rise, it’s generally accepted that we’ll see the average selling price of smartphones climb in the coming 12 months, with Apple set to lead the market toward higher cost builds with the new Pro and Ultra iPhones this September.
Apple’s decision to hold smartphone prices so far has added another price pressure to low-end vendors; the longer it holds its prices down, the longer and more painful will smaller vendors hang onto their own low-price structure to compete.
Future shock: AI hardware
A further wild card is in Apple’s recent lawsuit against OpenAI, which accuses the ChatGPT maker of “illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets” in its hardware plans. OpenAI is thought to be planning an AI-driven iPhone competitor.
We’ve heard speculation about these plans before, of course. But what seems to be emerging in the wake of Apple’s litigation are hints OpenAI intends to introduce its first AI hardware product at some point in 2027.
Assuming that schedule remains on track, OpenAI will likely impose further component pricing pressure across the whole industry. After all, Apple’s customer loyalty leads the industry, and Samsung has built something similar. So, the companies with the most to lose to OpenAI will be the same set of smaller vendors who are already struggling with component price-driven market complexity.
OpenAI products will demand the same memory, similar processors, manufacturing, and other components as other devices, prompting further pricing pressure. That’s likely to put some small vendors out of business entirely, even as standard smartphone prices increase.
Fragmentation will be next
Those outcomes won’t be universal, as the desire for sovereign data services and growing mistrust of US tech companies suggest OpenAI’s products might see limited adoption in most markets. But they could serve to accelerate divergence in smartphone purchasing patterns worldwide, while adding to market pressure.
T-Mobile is asking a New York court to rule that Broadcom was contractually obligated to continue supporting its VMware perpetual licenses.
In its complaint, T-Mobile said it has tens of thousands of virtual machines using VMware software across approximately 303,140 CPU cores. It also said that it was migrating off VMware but noted the time-consuming and technical challenges involved in migrating over 1,000 applications.
It filed its lawsuit, which was first reported by The Register today, in the Supreme Court of the State of New York in August 2025 (PDF).
Iliad deve ritirare i comunicati commerciali sulle offerte mobili TOP 170 Plus e TOP 250 Plus: lo ha deciso il Giurì della Pubblicità accogliendo la segnalazione di WindTre. Le pubblicità oggetto di esposto non risultano conformi al Codice di Autodisciplina, e in particolare agli articoli 2 (Comunicazione commerciale ingannevole), 15 (Comparazione) e 20 (Vendite speciali). La pronuncia 15/2026 del 23 giugno 20206 è stata pubblicata oggi sul sito IAP - Istituto dell'Autodisciplina Pubblicitaria.
Per iliad si tratta della seconda segnalazione in poche settimane: era andata bene nel "caso Megan Gale" con il Giurì che ha respinto il ricorso di Fastweb, finisce diversamente ora con l'ordine di interrompere ogni comunicazione commerciale diffusa tramite SMS, TV e radio relativa alle offerte sopra citate.
COSA É STATO CONTESTATO
WindTre ha contestato il messaggio winback che iliad ha inviato ad alcuni suoi ex clienti in cui si promuove TOP 170 Plus. Qui viene citata anche Megan Gale:
Voyager aux États-Unis, au Canada ou au Mexique pendant l’été implique souvent le même besoin : rester connecté sans se compliquer la vie. Entre la recherche d’itinéraires, les réservations de dernière minute, les messages aux proches et l’usage constant des applications de navigation, la...
À l’occasion du MWC Shanghai 2026, Orange met en avant une vision de la 5G pensée pour accompagner la montée en puissance des usages mobiles intensifs. Streaming en haute définition, jeux en ligne, visioconférences professionnelles ou partage de connexion permanent : les réseaux sont aujourd’hui...
Ultima chiamata per i clienti Kena che avrebbero dovuto effettuare il cambio SIM (gratuito) in uno dei negozi dell’operatore e non lo hanno ancora fatto. I clienti a “rischio” non dovrebbero esser molti, in questa fase. Da mesi infatti l’operatore del gruppo TIM ha avviato il passaggio dei clienti ancora legati alla piattaforma gestionale ex Noverca alla nuova di TIM.
Nella maggior parte dei casi non si è resa necessaria alcuna azione da parte dei clienti, il passaggio è stato indolore e visibile. In altri, invece, per questioni tecniche, non si è potuto procedere se non con la sostituzione della SIM, azione che richiede che il cliente si rechi in un punto vendita Kena per la sostituzione materiale della “scheda”. In questo bacino di utenti obbligati ad agire rientra prevalentemente chi ha usato la SIM in sistemi di allarme, dispositivi di IoT, dispositivi in genere differenti da smartphone e tablet. Il cambio è gratuito.
Kena, così, ha inviato l’ennesimo SMS ai clienti interessati spiegando che il tempo stringe, e che in mancanza di sostituzione SIM dovrà procedere alla disattivazione della linea. Il termine ultimo è il 15 luglio. Ecco il messaggio che l’operatore ha inviato agli interessati:
Few things are as delightfully divisive as Android’s dark mode.
Some phones now ship with Android’s darker-style interface activated by default. Most reasonably recent devices offer it as a swift ‘n’ simple toggle. And most people, in my experience, have amusingly strong preferences about which approach they prefer — the standard Android “light” mode, in which screens tend to be bright and with shades of white as a foundation, and the dark mode (a.k.a. “dark theme”), where black and dark gray dominate and everything is much more muted and muddy.
It really is a night and day difference, so to speak — but no matter where you fall on the light vs. dark preference spectrum, it’s well worth your while to noddle over two pertinent points:
Android’s dark mode doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing decision. With the right setup, you can use it as a dynamically activated sometimes switch that enables itself automatically based on different variables and gives you a darker, less glary motif when conditions call for it while leaving you with the lighter, brighter look the rest of the time.
Regardless of how often you’re using dark mode, a few easy adjustments will make it meaningfully more complete and effective as an end-to-end interface style for whatever you’re doing on your device.
It occurred to me recently that we’ve gone over several smart Android dark mode enhancements over the past weeks and months — and that, put together into a single power-pack bundle, these small-seeming items can add up to create a pretty dramatic difference in your Android-using experience, whether you’re a full-fledged dark mode convert or a more light-preferring vampire skeptic.
Here, specifically, are five easy ways to make Android’s dark mode meaningfully better for you.
Up first is a feature that arose as part of our Android 17 discussion and sparked the entire idea for this collection — and that’s the one-tap switch in the latest Android version that forces every app on your phone to follow your dark mode preference, whether the program technically supports such a setting or not.
In Android 17, finding and flipping that switch will make every app turn dark whenever the system-wide dark mode is active. It eliminates the irksome exceptions that’ve traditionally stayed stubbornly light (due to developer laziness) even when your dark theme is on.
If you’ve got Android 17 on your phone already, it couldn’t be much easier to make it happen. Just look in the Display section of your system settings, tap the words “Dark theme,” then change the setting that shows up next from “Standard” to “Expanded.”
Android’s new “Expanded” option lets you force apps into dark mode compliance, even if they aren’t designed to do it on their own.
JR Raphael, Foundry
No Android 17? No problem: On devices with reasonably recent pre-Android-17 system software, you can actually find a switch buried deep in some developer settings that’ll let you enable the exact same option without any waiting.
That first trick fixes the issue of certain apps not following your dark mode preference — but what about the web? Most of us spend a fair amount of time in our browsers these days, and most websites won’t follow a dark mode setting and adjust their interfaces accordingly.
They absotively can, though. With the flip of a single switch buried within your browser’s bowels, you can force every website into a darkened motif whenever your system-level dark mode is up and running.
See?
Viewing a website in Chrome normally, at left, and with dark-mode-associated web darkening, at right.
JR Raphael, Foundry
Here’s the secret:
Open up Chrome on whatever Android device you’re using. (And note that this will also work with any Chromium-based Chrome alternative, like Brave, Edge, or Vivaldi.)
Type chrome:flags into the address bar.
Type darken into the search box at the top of the screen that comes up next.
See the line labeled “Darken websites checkbox in themes setting”? Tap the “Default” box beneath it, and change its setting to “Enabled.”
Tap the blue “Relaunch” button at the bottom of the screen.
Now, when Chrome comes back a second or so later…
Tap the three-dot menu icon in its upper-right corner.
Tap “Settings” in the next menu.
Scroll down until you see “Appearance.” Tap it, then tap “Theme.”
Make sure the newly added box for “Apply dark theme to sites, when possible” — which we just magically made appear via our last little modification — is checked and active.
Chrome’s web-darkening option appears only after you’ve enabled an out-of-the-way flag.
JR Raphael, Foundry
And that’s it: From that moment onward, whenever your Android device is switched into its dark mode, any website you’re viewing within Chrome will automatically follow suit. Nothing more to it, and no further thought or action ever required on your part.
Not bad, eh?!
Android dark mode power-up #3: A dark mode schedule
Even as someone who isn’t into dark mode as a 24/7 sort of thing, I can definitely appreciate the presence of a dimmer, less glary look on my device in certain specific scenarios.
It’s incredibly easy to overlook or forget, but Google’s actually got a way to handle that for you. In fact, it’s been built into Android itself since 2020’s Android 11 release.
Just look in the Display section of your system settings and tap the line for either “Dark theme” or “Dark mode settings.” If you see a toggle alongside that line, make sure you’re tapping the actual words next to it — not the toggle itself.
Then look for the option to create a schedule.
An Android dark mode schedule, as seen in Google’s standard Android interface (at left) and in Samsung’s Android style (right).
JR Raphael, Foundry
You can create a time-based rule for when your device’s dark mode turns on and back off again, or — more intelligent yet — you can set it to automatically activate at sunset, wherever you are at any given moment, and then turn itself back off and switch you back over to light mode at sunrise.
Android dark mode power-up #4: Contextual dark mode
A dark mode schedule is pretty forkin’ sensible. But the reality is that even with a time-based setup or a sunset-driven activation approach, you’ll still be using your phone in bright rooms with dark mode active and vice-versa.
And if you want Android’s dark theme present only when you’re actually in a dark room — as makes the most sense in my mind — there’s an even more intelligent option.
It comes our way via a handy little free app called Adaptive Theme. That app does one thing and only thing only: It automatically adjusts your device’s dark mode setting based on the actual ambient light around you, using your phone’s sensors rather than an arbitrary time or a not-always-relevant sunset status as a guide. It makes so much sense, you’ll find yourself wondering why your phone didn’t just work that way from the get-go.
The app does unavoidably have a slightly complex one-time setup, which I outline step-by-step here. It’s perfectly safe to do, though, and it shouldn’t take you more than a couple minutes to pull off.
And once you’ve done that, your Android dark mode will just work for you — flipping on when the lighting around you is dim (to your exact specifications) and flipping back off when you’re in brighter surroundings.
Adaptive Theme lets you take total control of how and when Android’s dark mode activates based on your environment.
JR Raphael, Foundry
Yes, please — and thank you. Last but not least…
Android dark mode power-up #5: The wallpaper wizard
Superficial as it may seem, the one piece of the puzzle we haven’t yet addressed — that isn’t ordinarily affected by Android’s dark mode setting — is your home screen wallpaper.
By default, whatever wallpaper you set at the system level stays the same even as your interface moves between its dark and light states — and when you’re anglin’ for a dimmer, less glary look in dark environments, that can be pretty darn jarring.
An app called, rather aptly, Dark/Light Wallpaper Scheduler is the answer you never knew you needed. It’s pretty self-explanatory — you tell it which wallpaper you want when your phone is in dark mode and light mode, then it automatically switches ’em out for you based on that status — but I wrote about it in detail here, if you’re interested in reading more about how exactly it works and how you can make the most of it.
And with that, my fellow Android-appreciating animal, your dark mode power-pack is complete. Now, would someone please turn off the lights? I don’t know about you, but all this talk of darkness has me hankering for a nap.
Wake up to even more useful Android wisdom every Friday with my free Android Intelligence newsletter — one practical new trick to try each week, straight from me to ye.
Login
