Mishaal's Android News Feed

The OxygenOS 15 beta hints that the OnePlus 12 supports Android's Powered Off Finding feature, which lets devices be located via Find My Device even if they're powered off! OnePlus confirmed to me that it doesn't, though, but will the OnePlus 13?

If you rely on the Termux app on Android for anything and daily drive a OnePlus, OPPO, or Realme device, heads up: the OxygenOS 15/ColorOS 15 update seems to be killing off Termux processes, but only if you install the app from outside the Play Store. It seems this issue doesn't happen if you install Termux from the Play Store, as the Play Store version uses a hack that seemingly doesn't get detected and thus its processes don't get killed off. More details can be found in this Reddit thread. In addition, there seems to be an ongoing issue with running Linux packages via PRoot, with users seeing a message that says a "malicious app" attempted to damage their phone.

Looks like Google is tweaking the icons in the YouTube Shorts player on Android. The current icons (left) are fully filled in while only the outlines are filled in on the new icons (right). Thanks to David Df for the tip!

Google is testing a new placement for the Magic Compose button in Google Messages. In this test, the button is above the message box instead of within it or to the side of it. This placement makes a lot more sense and will hopefully reduce accidental presses! Thanks to Joe Lenington for the tip!

📁A lot of people don't know that Android has its own version of AirDrop called Quick Share ... Google wants to fix that by adding a new page for Quick Share in the Android setup wizard. Here's how and why that matters.

The raw power of the Snapdragon 8 Elite plus the significant improvements in x86 emulation tools like Winlator are yielding incredible results! A lot of PC games are playable on Android thanks to this combination of better hardware and software. According to early adopters of 8 Elite phones in China (via @cozy_OSS), games like Jedi: Fallen Order and Resident Evil 2/3/7 hit 50fps. The only problem right now is that setting up Winlator to play PC games is far from user friendly, but it looks like companies like GameSir are working on simpler solutions. Excited to see how this progresses!

You love to see it: OnePlus made a changelog that's actually useful! This is the official changelog from the OxygenOS 15 Open Beta update for the OnePlus 12. (The changelog is too big to post here directly, see click the link below to see it in full!) 🔗OxygenOS…

📺Google might skip Android TV 15 and go straight to Android 16 for TVs Google plans to move Android TV to a biyearly release schedule, according to my source. More details on what this means can be found over on Android Authority.

📺Google is lowering Android TV's hardware requirements: Is 1GB RAM enough? Also: Google TV now requires 2GB of RAM. More details can be found in this article on Android Authority.

🎵Google may finally add album art to Now Playing on Pixel phones For years, the Now Playing history page just showed a generic icon of a note for each recognized song, but that could finally change soon. More details + evidence can be found in this article.

🔗Quick Share for iOS and macOS might be in the works Google may bring its file sharing client to Apple devices so you can transfer files to and from iPhones and MacBooks More details can be found in this article.

Google has announced that the Android 15 QPR2 beta is right around the corner! This beta program will cover the Android 15 March 2025 Quarterly Platform Release. Beta 1 will kick off soon and will automatically roll out to those who are still enrolled in the Android Beta Program. If you want to receive the stable Android 15 QPR1 release, then you'll need to opt out of the program and wait for the update to roll out. If you don't want to wipe your data, then you'll also need to ignore the downgrade OTA and the Android 15 QPR2 Beta 1 update if it's offered. If you want to return to the stable release right now, you'll need to install the downgrade OTA which will wipe all data. As usual, if you want to find out what's new in the upcoming Android 15 QPR2 betas, the best way is to follow me😉 — By the way, there likely won't be an Android 15 QPR3 release. That's because Android 16 will release in Q2 of 2025. Android 15 QPR2 = 25Q1, major SDK version 35 Android 16 = 25Q2, major SDK version 36, minor SDK version 0 Android 16 QPR1 = 25Q3, major SDK version 36, minor SDK version 0 Android 16 QPR2 (name TBD) = 25Q4, major SDK version 36, minor SDK version 1