Latest news with #DhruvBhutani
Android Authority
4 days ago
- Android Authority
Apple could be coming for your Nest Hub with the HomePad
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority TL;DR A leak suggests Apple's long-rumored 'HomePod with a display' will launch this year as the 'HomePad.' Per previous leaks, the HomePad smart home hub could feature a touchscreen, camera, rechargeable battery, and Apple Intelligence support. This new device could offer a touch-friendly smart home hub interface and challenge existing ecosystems like Google Home. Over the past several months, we've seen plenty of exasperated smart home owners frustrated by how their once-functional Google Home-centered smart home appears to be getting dumber and dumber over time. Simple commands break at random, leaving users annoyed and disappointed. Many are keen to jump ship, but the alternatives aren't too great either. This could change in the coming months, as a new leak has reiterated Apple's intention to compete in the smart home space. Analyst Jeff Pu has shared an expected Apple Product Timeline note with investors (h/t Jukanlosreve on X). For 2025, the analyst expects Apple to release the Apple Watch Series 11 and the Apple Watch Ultra 3. No AirPods release is expected for this year, but a 'HomePad 6-inch' is noted in the Other category. Apple has long been rumored to be working on a 'HomePod with a display,' but this seems to be the first time we're hearing a marketing moniker associated with the product. Apple has neither confirmed the product's existence nor its name, but calling it the HomePad makes a lot of sense — it's a mix between the iPad and the HomePod, and the 'Home' moniker firmly places it as a smart display rather than an iPad variant. The naming here also indicates that the device will have a 6-inch display, though some leaks in the past have suggested a 7-inch display. Either way, this could be smaller than the iPad mini's 8.3-inch display. Previous leaks have suggested that this 'HomePod with a display,' aka the 'HomePad,' will launch in Q3 2025. Apple is rumored to be working on a specialized interface for smart home functions. Other features expected on the device include a camera, a rechargeable battery, and support for Apple Intelligence. Jeff Pu's leak also mentions that we could see the Apple Watch Series 12, AirPods Pro 3, and the Vision Pro 2 in 2026. For 2027 and beyond, Apple's plans are said to include an Apple Watch with blood monitoring, a cheaper Vision Air, and smart glasses. Sam Smart / Android Authority Apple's entry into the smart display segment will hopefully bring more options to exasperated Google Home users. While switching a smart home across ecosystems is a monumental task, it's not impossible, especially for people who are frustrated enough. Apple's HomePod only gave users the option of using Siri for voice commands and then defaulting to their iPhones or iPads to control their smart home, so this upcoming HomePod device will add another touch-friendly interaction medium for smart homes, one that is intended to excel at the job. Even if users don't jump at the option, the product will undoubtedly add competition in the smart speaker space, forcing the current players to pick up the slack. Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.
Android Authority
6 days ago
- Android Authority
I took my e-book library back from Amazon with this self-hosted app
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority If you've ever bought an e-book from Amazon, you already know you don't really own it. Sure, it's in your Kindle library and you can read it in the app. But try moving it to another device or archiving it somewhere else, and you'll quickly run into walls. In fact, Amazon has been doubling down on its attempts to curtail access to the books you've bought from the Kindle store. Between DRM, proprietary file formats, and a complete lack of export tools, you are stuck playing by Amazon's rules. And if they ever decide you have violated some clause buried in the terms of service, your entire library could disappear. It's a worrisome position to be in, especially for someone like me who has amassed a library of thousands of eBooks. Amazon sells you access, not ownership, and that access can vanish overnight. I didn't think much of this when I first got a Kindle. But as the years passed and my reading habits changed, the friction built up. Not only was I switching between my Kindle and Boox e-reader, I was also downloading more DRM-free EPUBs, PDFs, and research papers. I wanted a single, flexible way to manage all of it. Calibre was the obvious suggestion and my go-to for years. But let's be real. Calibre looks and feels like an app from the early 2000s. The interface is too clunky, the web UI feels like an afterthought, and even simple tasks take too many clicks. I just wanted something that looked modern and didn't skip out on features. And especially something that was built from the ground up for multiple users. That's when I stumbled onto BookLore. A self-hosted library that just works Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority BookLore is a self-hosted ebook library built with simplicity in mind. There's no bloated desktop client, no outdated UI, and here's my favorite part — it is entirely self-hosted. You own your data and the server it lives on. If you've been following my writing recently, you'll have realised this is a very important factor for me. Now, if you are used to self-hosting apps, you know that between permissions and dependencies, installation can become an ordeal. Not so with BookLore. I followed the instructions on the app's GitHub page and had it up and running on my Synology NAS within minutes using Docker. The onboarding process is straightforward and starts with creating a user, spinning a library, and you're good to go. Between the modern, customixable design and excellent metadata support, BookLore is a massive step up from Calibre. Once loaded up, the first thing that struck me was the stunning design. BookLore actually looks and feels like a modern web app. The dashboard is clean, fast, and immediately usable. You can browse your library by author or title, filter by tags, and search through metadata without waiting for anything to load. It picked up my EPUBs and PDFs with zero issues, displayed the correct covers, and gave me intuitive tools to rename, tag, or sort my collection. This alone made it feel better than the vast majority of ebook tools I have used before. Unlike Calibre and its outdated way of handling metadata that involves plugins and manually refreshing the files, BookLore comes ready to go out of the box. As soon as I dropped EPUBs into the books folder, the app auto-populated the files and started pulling in up-to-date metadata. That was incredible. BookLore also respects metadata in a way that makes sense. It pulls from Amazon, Goodreads, and Google Books, and if it cannot find something, it lets you fix it quickly without jumping through a maze of forms. I had a folder full of half-labeled EPUBs — stuff I had downloaded over the years and forgotten about, and BookLore organized them in minutes. Even books with messy filenames got matched to proper titles, authors, and cover art. When it could not find the right match, I didn't mind filling in the gaps because the UI made it painless. Powerful filtering and tagging Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority BookLore's real power is in its search and filter system. Not only can you maintain multiple libraries, but you can also create shelves with custom groupings that act like smart tags. You can set up shelves for genres, themes, authors, reading challenges, or any system that fits how you read. I made one for books I want to finish this year, another for work-related research, and one just for travel reads. What really impressed me was how you can combine filters using conditional logic. You can search for books tagged with 'science' and 'non-fiction' but not 'read,' and BookLore instantly gives you a precise list. Or, mix 'horror' and 'folk' or 'gothic' and dial down the recommendations. It sounds like a small thing, but this kind of flexibility makes it so much easier to stay organized, and find your next favorite book. You are not locked into rigid folders or clunky lists. You build your own system and change it whenever you want. BookLore's conditional logic makes it incredibly easy to discover your next favorite read. Most self-hosted tools are designed for solo users. BookLore is not. It includes a full user management system and OIDC-based authentication, so everyone in the household can have their own account and their own library if needed. You do not have to share a single login or worry about mixing up collections. Each user can manage their books, their shelves, and their tags without affecting anyone else. There's even a way to share books via email. This is an excellent value add for Kindle users. It's been a while since I've had to plug my Kindle in to the computer. I've got my Kindle email address added to Booklore and all it takes is one tap to shoot the book I want to read straight to my Kindle. Reading experience and file access Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority While management is at heart of BookLore, it allows you to read books too. But make no mistake, BookLore is not trying to reinvent how you read books. It does not come with a fancy web-based reader, and that's a good thing. It focuses on being the best possible library manager, not a reading app. That said, it does support tracking reading progress. I've not found much use for that yet. With BookLore and OPDS, it's like running your own private ebook store — minus the restrictions. But where BookLore really shines for readers is with OPDS support. OPDS, or Open Publication Distribution System, lets you browse your self-hosted collection from the best e-book reader apps like Moon+ Reader, and even KOReader. That means I can pull up my entire library on my phone or tablet, download what I want, and start reading without ever touching a file manager. It feels like having your own private ebook store. This is how an ebook library should feel Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority I did not expect to enjoy organizing my books this much. But here I am, cleaning up old EPUBs, setting up filters, and tagging everything like it is a collectible archive. BookLore turned a fragmented, frustrating mess into something fun and functional. It made me feel like I was actually in control of my reading life again. And best of all, it makes it easy for friends or family members to tap into my eBook library. If you are tired of clunky apps, locked-down systems, and the feeling that your ebooks live at the mercy of someone else's business model, give BookLore a try. It might just make you discover your next favorite read and fall in love with your library all over again.
Android Authority
12-06-2025
- Android Authority
It's been 84 years, but my dream of 'MagSafe' on a Pixel is almost here
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority I am an Android and a Pixel fan who has been heralding MagSafe as the coolest and most useful smartphone accessory improvement since sliced bread — or USB-C to stay within the metaphor. So when Qi2 was announced with a hint of MagSafe backwards compatibility, I was in nerd heaven. Finally — finally! — I'd be able to dip into a large ecosystem of accessories and use them on my Pixel phones. But Qi2's announcement came and went, and the weeks, months, and years passed us by without any Android phone adding support for the standard. Then came the HMD Skyline, the first phone with built-in Qi2 charging and magnet compatibility, which made little impact besides claiming the title of 'first to market.' Google released its Pixel 9 series with good ol' first-gen Qi, letting 2024 roll into 2025 with me still twiddling my thumbs waiting for Qi2's big 'Finally!' moment. Early 2025 didn't change much. I thought the Samsung Galaxy S25 series would take us over the hump and herald the age of Qi2, and while the phones are Qi2-ready, they don't have the built-in magnet compatibility that I really want. Instead, you have to buy a magnetic case, which solves the issue without really solving it (I'll get to the 'why' later). Similarly, the OnePlus 13 uses a magnetic case to trigger its proprietary AIRVOOC wireless charging ecosystem, and the OPPO Find X8 series followed with the same strategy. It's easy to lose hope in this context. I was starting to think that 2025 is done for, and that I'd have to wait for 2026 to see Qi2's big moment on Android come to fruition. But lo and behold, Google, the brand less likely to innovate on hardware specs, is potentially preparing an unexpected surprise: Qi2 on the Pixel 10. And if that turns out to be true, you'll find me doing the Shia LaBeouf clapping meme in real life for a few minutes. Here's why. Google adopting Qi2 puts pressure on everyone to adopt Qi2 Rita El Khoury / Android Authority Android brands have been fighting over small margins on spec sheets for years now, and no one wants to be left behind. If OnePlus upgrades to the latest processor, Samsung will follow, and if Xiaomi speeds up its charging, OPPO will go faster. It took ages to get the first under-display fingerprint scanner, but now almost all Android phones have them; the same happened with higher adaptive refresh rates on displays, periscope cameras, and so on. It only takes one small snowball to create an avalanche, but waiting for the snowball is the hardest part. We're now seeing this shift with silicon-carbon batteries, and I hope that we'll soon see it for Qi2. If Google, the face of Android and the brand with some of the most significant PR exposure (especially in the US market), really added full Qi2 compatibility and created an ecosystem of magnet-friendly 'Pixelsnap' accessories, then it will definitely spearhead the online conversation around Qi2, magnets, and 'MagSafe on Android.' Reviews, YouTube videos, podcasts, ads — everything will mention Pixelsnap, and the onus will be on everyone else to follow. That should pressure every other brand to include Qi2 in their upcoming flagship, even speeding up their plans if Qi2 wasn't part of them already. What was once a 'nice to have' feature in the spec sheet would become a real bullet point under the cons if it's missing. And no brand wants extra cons and reasons for people not to buy its phones. What we're potentially looking at with the Pixel 10 is the snowball that starts the avalanche, and I'm all here for it. Built-in magnet compatibility makes all the difference for Qi2 Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority I'm clumsy and I'm the first one to put a case on all my phones, so why am I so staunchly against the idea of Qi2-ready phones with magnet compatibility brought in by cases? Well, it's a matter of perception in my opinion. When the metallic array used by magnets is not built into the phone, Qi2 becomes an extra: It's not taken seriously by accessory makers who believe (rightfully so) that not all users will be interested in magnetic accessories because they likely don't know that their phones are compatible. We've seen this with the Galaxy S25 series, where the majority of S25 case makers opted for non-magnetic cases and only offered one or two magnetic options. Meanwhile, most MagSafe accessories are still being made for and marketed at iPhone users, even if they're also compatible with the Galaxy S25 and its Qi2-ready certification. You and I, the geeks who understand the tech, will know that we can buy a MagSafe charger or stand and use it with a magnetic case on our Galaxy S25 Ultra, but not everyone will. And I think that's harmful both to the accessory ecosystem and Android's perception amongst users. When magnetism is an integral part of the phone, it can't be ignored by case and accessory makers. When magnet compatibility is built into the phone, it's an integral part of it. Ads will mention it, buyers will be aware of it, and the feature becomes a given, not an extra. Case makers will make sure most of their models offer it to replicate the phone's setup, and you and I, we'll have a larger choice in terms of compatible case colors and pricing. Plus, this opens up a whole world for accessory makers to adopt their accessories for Android, make special ones for different phones, or include compatible Android phones in their product images and marketing. Basically, look at the early years of MagSafe on the iPhone and copy-paste that to Android, though perhaps on a smaller scale. (It's a well-known fact that iPhone buyers pay more for accessories than Android owners, so accessory companies cater to them more.) That is without mentioning, obviously, the small proportion of users who prefer to carry their phone case-less and could only benefit from the full Qi2 featureset if the magnetic setup was built-in. Qi2-ready is like slapping a metallic ring on a phone and calling that MagSafe. It's not the same. This is why I think the simple Qi2-ready certification isn't enough. It's basically the same thing as slapping a cheap metallic ring on a phone and calling that MagSafe; it's not the same. And why magnets? Well, because they align a Qi2 wireless charger to charge up in the most efficient way possible, and also because the simplicity of snap-on and snap-off to add an accessory to your phone is unparalleled. No plugging, no clipping, no clamping, no holding; just magnets. Wallets, tripods and stands, PopSockets, external camera lights, microphones, and an entire ecosystem of unified magnet-compatible accessories exist out there, and that specific MagSafe- and Qi2-compatible metallic array opens the door for it. I want that for my Pixel phones, and I want it for all Android phones. Bring on the magnets, I say, or to quote Jesse Pinkman… Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
Android Authority
12-06-2025
- Android Authority
After three days with iOS 26, I'm amazed by Apple's Liquid Glass redesign, but I have concerns
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority The biggest buzz at WWDC 2025 was around Apple's spanking new Liquid Glass interface. From a unified year-based naming scheme for its platforms to what might be the most extensive visual overhaul to iOS in years, iOS 26 marks a significant shift in Apple's software approach. But is there substance beneath the divisive shiny sheen? I dove into the developer betas to give it a try. Let me preface this by saying this first beta is very buggy, and I wouldn't recommend installing it on your primary phone. Still, if you're eager to explore it, just go to the 'Software Update' section under Settings and select 'Beta Updates.' That's all it takes. Since last year, Apple has dramatically simplified the beta sign-up process. Regardless, I'd highly recommend waiting for next month's public beta before installing the update. With that said, here are some of the most significant additions to iOS 26. Liquid Glass: The most dramatic design overhaul since iOS 7 Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority Apple's biggest change this year is the introduction of a new design language called Liquid Glass. If you're a design enthusiast or have experience in web design, you're likely familiar with glassmorphism. Liquid Glass builds on that aesthetic and makes extensive use of transparency and floating elements. More importantly, this redesign spans every Apple platform from the iPhone to the iPad, Mac, Watch, TV, and even Vision Pro. It's Apple's first real attempt to unify the visual language across its entire ecosystem. Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority In practice, Liquid Glass means layers of translucent color, soft reflections, and depth that shift as you interact with your device. It's playful, dramatic, and distinctly Apple — for better or worse. The Home Screen shows this off best. App icons appear like digital glass, glinting based on the background. You'll notice bubble-like UI elements across the Photos app, the Fitness App, and even the Camera. On the Lock Screen and in Control Center, most flat backgrounds are now translucent layers. It's a subtle but impactful shift that makes everything feel like it's floating rather than just sitting on top of your wallpaper. Readability suffers under all that transparency — especially in Control Center. In day-to-day use, not everything works perfectly yet. Transparency can hurt readability, especially in Control Center when it overlaps busy apps like the music player. The Lock Screen has similar issues. Some animations also feel inconsistent. The interface tweaks continue on to the browser, where you now get a near-full-screen view of the webpage with glass-inspired elements that pop out. Similar to the rest of the interface, there is ample reason to be concerned about readability (especially for those with accessibility needs), and your experience is entirely dependent on the background. Still, this is early beta territory, and Apple typically refines this by the time of public release. Despite the mixed public consensus, I quite like the general direction that Apple is taking here. The interface looks futuristic to a fault, like something straight out of an Apple TV science fiction show, and I'm personally here for it. But even at this early stage, it is clear that a lot of pain points need to be addressed before the public rollout this September. The new camera experience Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority The Camera app, too, has received a major, and much-needed, overhaul. In fact, this is the first time in years that Apple has rethought the camera UI from the ground up. While the basics remain the same, Apple has refined the layout to provide quicker access to controls. The refreshed interface makes it easy to swipe between modes like photos, videos, portrait, and more with a single swipe along the bottom edge. This feels intuitive and much more useful when composing shots. Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority Similarly, a subtle but welcome touch is how Apple now surfaces adjustments. In some ways, the Camera app has finally gained the 'Pro' mode users have been waiting for. Features such as switching between different recording settings, LOG video, and camera resolution are infinitely more straightforward to access. While it's nowhere close to the level of Pro mode features in the best Android camera phones or dedicated third-party camera apps, it's a good compromise for casual enthusiasts who desire more control without sacrificing simplicity. A side effect of these changes is that the overwhelming amount of animations and floating elements makes the interface feel slower than it is, with everything taking just half a second too long. I can't say for sure if Apple will allow for toned-down animations, but as it stands, the floaty feeling of the UI wears you down pretty quickly. Apple Intelligence everywhere It's fair to say that Apple's initial AI push has been somewhat underwhelming. When Apple Intelligence was announced last year, well behind the competition, it distinguished itself with a strong promise of privacy. A year later, a large portion of last year's promised features are still unavailable, making it difficult to take Apple's 2025 claims entirely seriously. Regardless, among the newly announced features is deeper integration with the entire suite of on-device communication apps. Moreover, this year, Apple is opening up access to its on-device LLM to third-party developers. That is bound to open up some very interesting and innovative use cases. In Messages, FaceTime, and the Phone app, Live Translation now enables real-time language translation of both text and audio. It functions within message threads and during calls, providing quick responses without requiring you to leave the app. I couldn't find a way to activate the feature in the beta. Apple Intelligence still lags in effectiveness despite the interesting platter of system-wide integrations. Similarly, Visual Intelligence now understands what's on your screen and can surface related results, links, or suggestions. For instance, if someone sends you a product image, you can ask the on-device intelligence to show you similar items from the web or pull up information about it without ever leaving the thread. Think of it as Apple's take on 'Circle to Search' but leveraging the power of Apple's on-device LLM and ChatGPT. This is one of iOS 26's more exciting features, but once again, it is not yet available in the developer beta. Genmoji and Image Playground are also part of this AI layer. You can now combine emoji, photos, and descriptive phrases to generate custom stickers and images. While these tools feel like fun party tricks for now, their true power lies in deep system-wide integration. The feature works exactly as you'd imagine and lets you combine existing emojis, photos and text-based prompts to create custom emojis. The results are pretty good, as you can see in the screenshot above. It's not really something I'd use very often, but better on-device image and emoji generation is effectively table stakes, so an improved experience is very welcome. Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority The other feature that I found exciting was deeper integration of AI into Apple's on-device scripting service. Apple Intelligence is now available to the Shortcuts app, enabling you to create smarter automations. This means you can integrate Apple's on-device LLM or even ChatGPT into a shortcut and use it to parse data before passing it on to another app. I can envision use cases like instantly splitting a tab or summarizing any on-screen content, such as an Instagram post. In fact, it took me minutes to get a shortcut up and running to automatically create a note based on a shared Instagram post after passing it through the on-device LLM. That's very cool. A smarter battery dashboard Talking about everyday use features, Apple has finally overhauled the Battery section in Settings. The new interface replaces the 24-hour and 10-day views with a more digestible weekly breakdown. It then compares your average battery consumption to your daily usage, highlighting which apps are consuming power and why. Tapping into any given day reveals a split between active screen time and idle background use. It's very similar to the battery insights available to Android users and is a welcome addition. Dig deeper, and you'll also find a new Adaptive Power Mode. Unlike the static Low Power Mode, Adaptive adjusts in real time based on how aggressively you're using your phone. It can dim the screen or scale back background tasks without requiring user input. You still get the manual 80% charge limiter and battery health metrics, but the focus here is on smarter defaults. Settings, Keyboard, Messages, and other subtle improvements In addition to the big hits, numerous smaller quality-of-life improvements are sprinkled throughout the OS. The keyboard feels chunkier and more precise, with better haptic feedback. There's a new preview app that lets you perform a wide range of file-based functions, including previewing files, of course. The Settings app has undergone minor restructuring. While not a radical shift, the app feels cleaner and faster to navigate with its revamped font sizing and kerning. In Messages, you can now set custom backgrounds per conversation, adding a bit more personality to threads. Apple has also added a polls feature for group chats, something that arguably should have existed years ago. The Phone app has also received some attention. It now unifies the Recents, Favorites, and Voicemails tabs into a single, streamlined interface. The most significant addition is Call Screening. It screens unknown callers by gathering context and offering options to respond or dismiss them without ever answering. Hold Assist is another helpful tool. If you're stuck in a call queue with customer support, your iPhone can now wait on hold for you and alert you when a human finally joins the line. iOS 26 also introduces a dedicated Apple Games app. It acts as a central hub for all things gaming on your device, effectively serving as a lightweight but genuinely useful Game Center replacement. The app pulls in your installed games, offers personalized recommendations, and allows you to see what your friends are playing. Achievements, leaderboards, and Game Center invites are now neatly tucked into this space. Apple is clearly trying to make iOS gaming feel more like a platform and less like a series of one-off downloads, but it remains to be seen if there's significant adoption. So, is iOS 26 worth the hype? Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority It's hard to say definitively at this early stage. There's no doubt that Liquid Glass gives iOS a bold new face, and updated Apple Intelligence features feel like the beginning of something genuinely useful. But right now, it's mostly potential. iOS 26 is playful, dramatic, and distinctly Apple — for better or worse. Many features are buggy or half-baked, and even improvements like those in the camera app require further polish. To be fair, this is a developer beta. I'll reserve judgment until the final release rolls out later this year, but what is undeniable is that this is the most ambitious update Apple has shipped in years.
Android Authority
11-06-2025
- Android Authority
iOS 26 proves that Android still has a software update problem
Joe Maring / Android Authority This week's iOS 26 announcement sure was an odd one, wasn't it? Between the controversial Liquid Glass redesign and the big name jump from iOS 18 to iOS 26, this year's iPhone update is already proving to be one of the most peculiar we've seen in a while. Overall reactions to iOS 26 have been a mixed bag so far, and with an update this drastic, that's to be expected. But even though not everything about Apple's big software update is a winner, there's one aspect about it that's still very obviously better than what we have on Android today. It's a tale as old as time, but it remains pertinent even in 2025. I'm talking about software updates. Are you happy with the state of Android updates in 2025? 0 votes Yes NaN % No NaN % iOS 26 is a reminder of Apple's update supremacy Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority Ever since people have engaged in Android vs. iOS debates, software updates are guaranteed to be an argument for anyone defending iOS — and rightfully so. Although Android has made significant progress on this front in recent years, Apple has been better at it for longer and continues to demonstrate why it's the best at updates all these years later. Take iOS 26 as the most recent example. The software is currently available in a developer beta and will be available as a public beta in July. Apple is targeting the fall for the full release of iOS 26, likely sometime in September. Ryan Haines / Android Authority This is a good timeline, but what's notable about it is how many iPhones are getting the update, and — perhaps more importantly — the pace at which they'll all be updated. iOS 26 is obviously coming to newer iPhones, like the iPhone 16 and iPhone 15 series, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. iPhones as old as the iPhone 11 series and newer (plus the 2nd generation iPhone SE and newer) are all supported. For context, the iPhone 11 series will be six years old come this September. Every iPhone — from the iPhone 16 down to the iPhone 11 — will get iOS 26 simultaneously. Impressive? Absolutely. Even more impressive is that, like all iOS updates, every iPhone model will get iOS 26 at the same time. Unlike most Android OEMs, Apple doesn't drag out its software updates in waves, with newer models receiving the update first and older ones following suit a few weeks later. Once iOS 26 launches, every iPhone — from the iPhone 16 down to the iPhone 11 — gets the new software simultaneously. This has been one of Apple's greatest strengths for years, and as improved as Android may be compared to a few years ago, it still can't match the well-oiled machine that is an iOS rollout. Android updates are still complicated and messy Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority How so? Yesterday's release of Android 16 is a perfect contrast to iOS 26. As of June 10, the stable version of Android 16 is now available for all Google Pixel phones ranging from the Pixel 6 series up to the Pixel 9 family. On the surface, and for Pixel owners, that's great. But it doesn't take long to see how the world of Android updates still lags behind iOS. Although Google's seven-year update policy has been a great addition since the company introduced it with the Pixel 6 series, older Pixels are still missing out on new software in a way older iPhones are not. Where iOS 26 is compatible with iPhones that are six years old, Android 16 is only supported for Pixels that will be four years old this fall. This discrepancy will work itself out in a couple of years, but Apple's longer commitment to long-term updates is still being felt today. Your six-year-old iPhone will get the newest iOS update while your six-year-old Pixel won't get the newest Android update, and while that may not be the end of the world, it still doesn't feel good. Joe Maring / Android Authority Furthermore, this is to say nothing about the timing of Android 16's release for other, non-Pixel Android phones. Google's handsets have the update today, but what about phones from Samsung, Nothing, OnePlus, Motorola, and others? As is always the case with Android updates, we'll be waiting a few more weeks (and, in some cases, months) before Samsung and other companies start releasing Android 16 for their devices. And from there, manufacturers further prolong things by sending out Android OS upgrades in waves. Samsung's Galaxy S25 series will be among the first Samsung phones to receive Android 16/One UI 8, but you can expect to wait longer for the update to arrive on older models. An unsolvable problem? Joe Maring / Android Authority Of course, some of these issues are a natural side effect of Android's open-source nature. Whereas Apple is the only company creating iPhones and releasing updates for them, multiple brands are creating Android phones with customized software. It's unreasonable to think we'll ever get to a point where an update like Android 16 is magically available for every compatible Android phone on the planet at the same time. iOS 26 is a reminder that there's still ample work to be done. But that's not to say there isn't room for improvement. When Samsung's Android 16 update is ready, there's no reason the company shouldn't be able to ship it to all of its supported phones at once, rather than dragging it out in waves. The timeliness and stability of Android updates also have ample room for improvement (I'm looking at you, One UI 7), and Google's latest strategy of withholding its most significant updates in Android 16 for its Android 16 QPR1 update coming later this year is bizarre. We've come a long way with Android updates, but iOS 26 is a reminder that there's still ample work to be done — and I hope Google, Samsung, and every other Android OEM are paying attention.
