A lot of people have been noticing a small blue dot next to their text messages or contacts on their Android devices, and it's not some quirky design element. There's a reason why some of the contacts ...

Google has introduced new requirements for app developers, aimed to make sideloading apps on Android devices safer. Beginning September 2026, app developers distributing apps outside the Play Store ...

Android's open nature set it apart from the iPhone as the era of touchscreen smartphones began nearly two decades ago. Little by little, Google has traded some of that openness for security, and its ...

Everything could be easier around your home if you just had a smart speaker like this Amazon Echo Dot, and thanks to this deal from Amazon, you can pay less for it than you would normally have to. Who ...

One UI 8 may add an option to hide the location icon in the status bar when only system apps are accessing it. The icon would still appear when third-party apps access your location, alerting you to ...

Google has released its Password Manager as a standalone app on the Play Store, making it easier for Android users to access, edit, and create credentials. While functionally similar to the built-in ...

No, you're not seeing things: Your Android device sometimes displays a small green dot in the status bar. Likely nestled next to your battery icon, it comes and goes, but never seems to stick around.

If you're using one of the most common apps to manage text chats on an Android phone, you'll see a small blue dot appear next to certain conversations. In other cases, a different symbol, such as a ...

When the IBM PC was new, I served as the president of the San Francisco PC User Group for three years. That’s how I met PCMag’s editorial team, who brought me on board in 1986. In the years since that ...

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SMS, or Short Message Service, is the protocol that cellular phones use to send and receive text messages over a 2G, 3G, 4G, or 5G network. Unlike app-based messaging services, you don't need a data ...