New features are usually fun — but sometimes, they can break your workflow, mess with your muscle memory, or just be downright confusing. Google Photos rolled out one such change this week, and this happened as Motorola launched a new slate of gadgets, Google celebrated some birthdays, and Gemini eyed several new homes. If you’ve been too busy to stay on top of Android news lately, we’ll get you caught up on the week in mobile below.
Last Week’s Roundup
Google Photos gets pushy about editing
We had seen it in the works, but now, a new pre-sharing menu is rolling out widely to Google Photos users. When you select a single image to share (videos and batches of photos are unaffected), Google Photos now takes you to a “quick edit” screen. This lets you do precisely two things: Enhance the image or crop it.
As handy as that might be in many use-cases, it gets in the way if you’ve already edited the image you’re trying to share. Luckily, Google included a way to disable this pre-sharing menu — except it’s not visible to all users yet. It looks like there’s an early-rollout bug where the settings button to disable quick editing doesn’t appear, but at least the touch target is still there for affected users.
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Google is pushing Gemini into every corner of life
We already knew Google was killing Assistant by the end of the year, with the aim of replacing it with Gemini on most surfaces. But now we know which surfaces thanks to some details CEO Sundar Pichai spilled in the company’s Q1 2025 earnings call.
According to Pichai, Gemini will land on Android Auto, Android tablets, and various headphones and earbuds “later this year.” We already knew the AI was coming to Wear OS watches, Nest smart speakers, and Android Automotive, so with the latest confirmation, it appears that Gemini’s coming to virtually every device that supports the Google Assistant.
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Motorola goes heavy on the quantity, but we’re not sure about the quallty
On Thursday, Motorola announced three new Razr models and a pair of wearables that are all headed to store shelves in the US soon. There’s a new entrant into the Razr lineup this year: The premium Razr Ultra joins the base model Razr and the middling Razr+, with the new model costing a whopping $1,200.
We’re not so sure about Motorola’s AI-first approach with these phones, but the hardware was fairly impressive in our hands-on session. On the wearables side, the new Moto Buds Loop are the company’s first open earbuds — an interesting design by itself, but then Motorola went and slapped a bunch of Swarovski crystals on one colorway. Finally, the Moto Watch Fit answers a question nobody was asking: What if Motorola made the Apple Watch?
Google admits your Pixel 7a shouldn’t be lying on a spicy pillow
In a support page published this week, Google acknowledged that the batteries in some Pixel 7a units have been swelling, resulting in reduced capacity and a potential fire hazard. This comes after the phone three generations before it was issued an update that crippled some users’ battery life in response to similar problems with the Pixel 4a’s power cell.
Google says there are three problems to look out for if you own a Pixel 7a: Swelling, separating back glass, and the battery draining significantly faster than usual. If yours is exhibiting one of these traits, you can fill out a form on Google’s website and the company will likely give you a free battery replacement.
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Google Fi and YouTube celebrate decades of connecting users
The first video was uploaded to YouTube 20 years ago this week. To celebrate, Google highlighted 20 new features and changes for the platform, though most of these were things we had spotted previously. One fairly major change was tipped, though: A new UI for player controls is coming to desktop and TVs. We’re also getting custom multiviews for YouTube TV that finally don’t have to be sports-related.
A decade after “Me at the zoo” was uploaded, Google’s MVNO was founded. So this week, Google Fi celebrated its 10th birthday by launching a new unlimited plan. This one ditches international calling and hotspot tethering in exchange for a cheaper price, so if those features don’t interest you, paying $35 instead of $50 for cell service might.
