With the official release of the Pixel 9 series, the Android Police news team can hand the reins to the testing and how-to teams for the majority of our coverage going forward. Here in the newsroom, our attention now turns to the upcoming Android 15 release and the Galaxy S25 rumors ahead of an early 2025 announcement. Forward, never backward, and so on.

But this week wasn’t all about hardware – Gemini AI has also had a lot to do over the past seven days. And the availability of older Google phones has been a rollercoaster ride. So buckle up as we recap one of the busiest weeks of the year in Android news.

Summary of last week

Google sure looks a little evil in this week’s top Android headlines

Illegal monopolies, backroom deals and more advertising

Pixel 9 hardware becomes official

Google’s Pixel 9 flagships were unveiled with a brand new design, selfie cam autofocus across the board, and a new product in the lineup (but sadly, no Android 15). There’s a new 45W power adapter sold separately, but the phones themselves still only accept up to 27W of power, meaning they won’t charge any faster than the Pixel 8 with that. Except for the Pixel 9 Pro XL – that’s the only model Google has equipped with 37W charging, so the only one with the fastest charging speeds.

The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold was introduced as the successor to the Pixel Fold, bringing a larger screen and longer software support for the same price. The Pixel Buds Pro 2 made their debut with even more AI intelligence and the first-ever Google Tensor-branded audio chip. And the Pixel Watch 3 arrived with a new, larger model in tow that has an industry-first loss of pulse detection feature that could truly be a lifesaver.

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Google’s Pixel 9 flagships go official with a new model that suffers from shrinkflation

Pixel 9, 9 Pro and a more expensive 9 Pro XL are here

The rumor season for the Galaxy S25 begins

If you’re more interested in what Samsung has to offer than Google’s hardware, the next four or five months are for you. With the launch of the Pixel 9 in the rearview mirror, Galaxy S25 rumor season has now officially begun, and it’s here a little early, in part because Google moved up its announcement date.

The first Galaxy S25 leak we saw this week covered the design of the Ultra model: the unique Ice Universe shared a mockup of the phone’s screen and bezels, and the most noticeable difference is rounded corners that, while not quite iPhone-level, still drastically change the look. And according to the latest rumors, that’s not the only shake-up – Samsung is reportedly considering changing the model names for the larger Galaxy S variants, with the S25+ potentially being renamed the S25 Pro and the S25 Ultra possibly being renamed the S25 Note.

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Samsung could change the model names of its Galaxy S25

Is it time for a Note-orious comeback?

Older Google products are kept artificially alive

Last week’s announcement Google TV Streamer marked the end of the Chromecast era, with Google shifting its focus from the popular smart TV dongle to its new set-top box. While the streamer ships with Android 14, Chromecasts are still stuck on Android 13. But at least we learned that Google hasn’t given up on Chromecasts yet and seems ready to bring Android 14 to the device at some point.

Meanwhile, immediately after the Made By Google event, we noticed that Pixel 7 models and the original Pixel Fold were no longer available on the Google Store. Since then, Google has said it plans to continue selling Pixel Folds in the future as stock becomes available, but there has been surprisingly little word on the Pixel 7.

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Google says it hasn’t given up on the original Pixel Fold

The foldable device will soon be available in stores again

Gemini takes a big step forward

Gemini’s AI capabilities were used as a framework for Google’s sales pitch for the Pixel 9 – first, the company touted its AI platform and recent growth, then Google showed how the Pixel 9 fits into that platform. In doing so, the company announced some major improvements to its AI chatbot, such as the fact that it can now run some Google Assistant routines and that Gemini-powered AI summaries are available globally in Google Search.

And Google seems serious about these features, bringing them to market while the hype is still high. Case in point: Gemini Live was announced on Tuesday and included in a teaser for Project Astra during the keynote. It was already on phones by Thursday. But not everything is coming immediately – at the end of the keynote, Google announced a feature called “Research with Gemini” that will hopefully finally make the tool a “true AI assistant,” but this is not expected until “in the coming months.”

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Gemini Live is available on mobile phones just a few days after the unveiling

A Google One AI Premium plan is required

Android 15 is still on the way

Late Tuesday after the event, Google quietly released Android 15 Beta 4.2. There wasn’t much to see – just bug fixes, really – but that alone is newsworthy. As we heard in a rumor ahead of the Pixel 9 event, Google’s new phones not Traditionally, it comes with the new OS version. But the same rumor had Android 15 scheduled for a stable launch in September, and since only minor bug fixes appear in the changelog, everything seems to still be on schedule.

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Google releases Android 15 Beta 4.2 with further bug fixes

The company is not finished fixing bugs yet