Android 16 is a mold-breaker and a schedule-shaker, while Samsung is stuck preaching patience is virtue in this week's top news

The Android world this week was in constant flux — from news about Google's next major Android release that could be here sooner than expected and Samsung's Android 15 update facing some major delays, to despicable YouTube ad practices taking center stage, there's a lot to unfold.

Even though the major Android 15 update isn't here yet, and we're not expecting it to be available on Pixel devices for another 10 days, we've already started hearing about Google's next Android 16 update.

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Android 16's codename could break Google's longstanding OS naming pattern

After Vanilla Ice Cream comes... Baklava?

We've known for a while now that Android 16 would offer a redesigned Quick Settings panel, paired with an all-new brightness slider with a percentage indicator. New leaks, however, suggest that Android 16 will also be breaking long-standing traditions in more than one way. First, it will reportedly be codenamed "Baklava," a layered pastry dessert. That doesn't break any traditions — inversely, it continues Google's long history of codenaming major OS releases with a dessert name. What it does break is the alphabetical order.

For reference, Android 10 was Quince Tart, Android 11 was Red Velvet Cake, 12 was Snow Cone, 13 was Tiramisu, 14 was Upside Down Cake, while the current Android 15 is Vanilla Ice Cream. If Google was to continue the alphabetical tradition, Android 16 should have been codenamed with a W-starting dessert, think Wafer, Waffle, or Walnut pie, but instead, the tech giant is going with Baklava.

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Android 16 is reportedly way ahead of schedule

A Q2, 2025 release might be on the cards

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Credible Google expert Mishaal Rahman suggests that Google's adoption of a trunk-based Android development model, which changed the way release builds are named, might be to blame. Interestingly, the model allows developers to work on a single, unified release branch, which is helping Android 16 break the second long-standing tradition.

The new model can help expedite release timelines, and as a result, Android 16 is expected to arrive way earlier than usual — in Q2 2025. If the faster release does materialize, it would be the earliest subsequent OS since 2012's Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Previous releases that fall in the Q2 timeframe include Android 1.5 Cupcake in April 2009 and Android 2.2 Froyo in May 2010.

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Samsung’s Android 15 update is arriving depressingly later than usual

At least One UI 7 Beta is coming by the end of the year

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While Google is galloping with Android 16, Samsung has confirmed that it is taking things slow. At its annual Samsung Developer Conference (SDC), to much dismay of fans, the tech giant announced that the release of its Android 15-based One UI 7 update will coincide with the launch of the Galaxy S25 early next year. For reference, Samsung's Android 14-based One UI 6 started rolling out in October last year, and the same goes for 2022's One UI 5. It is currently unclear if Samsung is facing development challenges or if it is just taking things slow to roll out a well-polished experience.

Major US carriers didn't have a great week

Especially Verizon

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Verizon's major Monday outage was finally fixed after 9 hours, compensation questions loom

Verizon MVNOs were affected too

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The US telecommunications landscape had a rocky week, and if you're a Verizon customer, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. To kick off a busy Monday, Verizon's network decided to call it quits, as it went down for roughly nine hours, leaving customers without mobile data, calling, or text messaging services.

Although US-wide, the outage was most reported in Chicago, Phoenix, Denver, Seattle, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Omaha, Minneapolis, and Las Vegas, as suggested by Downdetector. Verizon still hasn't disclosed the US-wide outage's cause, with users still struggling to get any compensation-related information from the carrier giant.

Source: Downdetector

Seguing from one carrier giant to another, T-Mobile just paid a hefty $15.75 million fine to the US Treasury, and it is investing the same amount in its internal cybersecurity to address foundational security flaws, to help convince the FCC that it is trying not to get hacked as often. As more consumers begin relying on their mobile devices for everyday essentials, carriers must take steps to make security and reliability of their networks (louder for Verizon at the back) paramount.

Although a big figure in common terms, $15.75 million is a measly 0.20 percent of the carrier giant's annual revenue in 2023, leaving many to question the effectiveness of such penalties.

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T-Mobile just got hit with a $15MM reminder from the FCC to not get hacked as often

The same amount has to be invested in cybersecurity

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You get ads, you get ads, everybody gets ads

And you can't skip 'em

How can it be a weekly news roundup without us bashing YouTube ads? But, before we head there, the streaming platform had an entirely different run-in earlier in the week that's worth talking about.

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YouTube loses access to several songs due to licensing dispute

Only impacting listeners in the US

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A brief outage caused by a licensing issue with SESAC temporarily resulted in some music being taken off the platform. This included music from the likes of Adele, Bob Dylan, Nirvana, Green Day, Kendrick Lamar, and many others. The issue was short-lived, with a licensing deal renewal taking place just two days later.

Source: YouTube

YouTube says that it will restore all content that was removed due to the issue over the next couple of days, so no, you don't need to jump ship to Spotify or Apple Music because of the short-lived issue just yet. Although a new pesky ad experiment might just push you off the edge.

The streaming giant has already been testing longer ad segments, some of which are often unskippable. It has also been spotted injecting server-side ads, which render ad-blockers redundant. Now, users are reporting that the streaming giant has begun outright hiding the Skip button on videos as part of its latest ploy to force ads down your throat.

It's worth noting that we weren't able to recreate the grating ad-delivery method (we're hoping it stays that way), and reports surrounding it aren't abundant, which might suggest that this is just another experiment up YouTube's sleeve.

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YouTube's latest ploy to force ads down your throat involves hiding the Skip button

Making ads truly unskippable

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From one streaming giant to another — If you hated Prime Video ads before, you won't like Amazon's latest announcement.

If you're a Prime subscriber, the true way to extract most of your subscription's value is not just by placing next-day delivery orders, but utilizing bundled services like Prime Video, Amazon Music, Prime Gaming, Amazon Photos, and more. One of those services, namely Prime Video, is set to get a little more annoying starting next year.

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Your Amazon Prime Video binge will soon get even more ads

At least you still get fast, free shipping. Oh, wait

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The e-commerce giant indicated that ads' "gentle entry" into Prime Video in January 2024 didn't cause a mass exodus — opening the platform to explore more ad formats as it kicks off the new year. This will include "interactive and shoppable" ads that the e-commerce giant shared in May earlier this year.

Meta's Ray Bans 2 pose a serious privacy breach threat

But it's blame the player, not the game in this situation

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Turns out Meta's smart glasses were actually holding back on their spying potential

You won't believe it until you see it

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Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses were in the news earlier this week, and not for a great reason. Although Meta wasn't directly responsible here (it felt weird typing that), its glasses' implementation in a new project conducted by two Harvard students does raise serious privacy concerns. The project, named I-XRAY, uses the Meta Ray Bans 2 for its discreet camera paired with public databases and software for reverse facial recognitions, LLM data extraction, home address lookup, and Social Security number lookup — essentially doxxing people in real life.

Here's how it works

• Smart glasses live stream your surroundings and people in it to Instagram.
• A computer model monitors the stream for faces.
• The program processes faces in real-time with a facial recognition model and finds online URLs containing their information, including their name, occupation, home addresses, phone numbers, age, details about relatives, and more.
• The program feeds the information back to you in real time.

The two students who worked on the project suggest that they have no intention of making the tool publicly available. However, considering that the information is now public, it won't be long until we see users trying to replicate the breach.

Google is simplifying location sharing, and expanding Lens' capabilities

To cap this week's top headlines off, we have two Google/Android-related updates worth noting. For starters, you might not need to rely on Google Maps to share your live location with others — the tech giant might be building the functionality into Android.

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Google Maps location sharing is almost ready to become a built-in Android feature

Location sharing settings are in for an overhaul

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The tech giant was spotted working on consolidating location sharing controls within Google Play Services — think of it like a centralized control hub for everything location-related — which should make it easier for users to manage their real-time location sharing across Google's apps, services, and with other users.

We're unsure when the change will be available for all. Until then, you should continue using Google Maps to begin sharing your location with others, with the existing Android Settings menu Settings → Location → Location services to stop sharing.

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Google's Circle to Search is getting ready to let you 'Search this video'

Contextual video search in development

Elsewhere, Google's poster child, Lens, is broadening its horizons with contextual video search support. The feature, which was first leaked earlier in the week, was made official by Google on Thursday.

As the feature's name suggests, it allows you to trigger Lens and take a video of a specific subject, asking questions with your voice about what you see on the screen. If you're in a public setting, you can type in your queries post-recording.

It's worth noting that the handy new tool currently lacks the ability to analyze pre-recorded videos from your device's gallery.