Taking a look back at this week’s news and headlines across the Android world, including Galaxy Unpacked news, Samsung’s AI-powered ecosystem, Gemini arrives for WearOS, OnePlus’ five new products, Android’s Canary in the mine, and Niagara introduces theme support.
Android Circuit is here to remind you of a few of the many discussions around Android in the last seven days. You can also read my weekly digest of Apple news here on Forbes.
Galaxy Unpacked’s New Devices And New Approaches
This week’s Galaxy Unpacked event from Samsung saw the launch of three new foldables (the Z Fold7, Z Flip7 and Z Flip7 FE), and two new smartwatches (the Galaxy Watch8 and Watch8 Class). But the updates that will have the most significant impact will be the increased use of AI and its role in offering ‘ambient intelligence’, with your connected Samsung devices working together to find little improvements and offer nudges through the day:
“At Galaxy Unpacked 2025 on July 9, Samsung Electronics unveiled its latest Galaxy Z series devices and wearables — pushing the boundaries of foldable design and connected wellness experiences. These innovations mark the next step in the company’s mission to deliver meaningful, user-centered technology, with Galaxy AI and digital health emerging as key pillars of the journey ahead.”
(Samsung Newsroom).
How The Galaxy Can Make A World Of Difference
Health is a major focus in Samsung’s current approach. It’s an area where there has been significant consumer interest and the new devices are working alongside consumers to help them in their lives:
““Take medical trends on a global level,” [Samsung Senior Director Annika] Bizon added. “We talked about sleep and what sleep means. Well, actually, it’s not about how many hours you sleep or how many steps you take. You know those things are very in tune to you, so AI is helping us marry that to what actual behaviors are going on… “That’s why our aim and objective is to ensure that we’ll bring you meaningful innovation that will chop and change and enable you to do what you want to do and hit your passion points as well.””
(Forbes).
Gemini For Wear OS
Gemini’s move into the Anroid wearables scene was trailed in May at Google’s I/O Developer conference. Those changes—including voice transcription, memory, workspace, and media interaction—should be with consumers in the next few weeks:
“Gemini is rolling out “over the coming weeks” to Wear OS 4+ on the Pixel Watch, Samsung, OnePlus, OPPO, Xiaomi, and other wearables. With Wear OS 6, Gemini will “include support with your watch brand’s own apps, so you can keep using the apps you use everyday.””
(9to5Google).
Five For Europe From OnePlus
OnePlus introduced five new products to the European market this week; the OnePlus Buds, OnePlus Watch 3, the OnePlus Pad Lite. the OnePlus Nord CE 5 and the class-leading OnePlus Nord 5. The latter is part of OnePlus’s mid-range brand that looks to balance price against performance. Forbes’ Prakhar Khanna takes a closer look at the Nord 5:
“The new Nord phone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset, which is a generation-old Snapdragon 8s-series SoC. The Poco F7 is in a similar price bracket and sports the latest Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 prowess. The Nord 5, however, offers a more intuitive user experience. It is paired with up to 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage.”
(Forbes).
The Canary In The Android Mine
Google has revamped how it offers early access and developer builds to the public. With the introduction of the “Canary” channel, those interested in upcoming versions of Android have the opportunity to become involved with pre-release versions:
“The Canary channel is intended for developers that want to explore and test with the earliest pre-release Android APIs and potential behavior changes. Builds from the Canary channel will have passed our automated tests as well as experienced a short test cycle with internal users. You should expect bugs and breaking changes. These bleeding-edge builds will not be the best choice for someone to use as their primary or only device.”
(Android Developer Blog).
And Finally….
Popular ‘one-handed’ launcher Niagara has released a major update, focused on theme support. While the app has allowed different layouts, wallpapers and fonts, these have all required editing manual. With theme collections now in place, it’s a simple matter to try out something new:
“You are sharing so many incredible home screen setups in our communities.. but building a setup from scratch isn’t easy. With so many elements to customize like wallpapers, icons, colors, fonts and widgets, it can quickly get overwhelming. That’s why we created the new Theme Collection. It launches with a dozen themes and we’re planning to add more regularly.”
(Niagara on Medium).
Android Circuit rounds up the news from the Android world every weekend here on Forbes. Don’t forget to follow me so you don’t miss any coverage in the future, and of course, read the sister column in Apple Loop! Last week’s Android Circuit can be found here, and if you have any news and links you’d like to see featured in Android Circuit, get in touch!
