Ryan Haines / Android Authority Google recently announced changes to its Play Store policy, and the most divisive change is that it’s now barring third-party call recording apps from the Play Store. The move is set to come into effect from May 11, but doesn’t affect first-party call recording functionality. We posted a survey inside our news article last week, asking whether you support Google’s decision. Here’s how you voted in this poll.

TL;DR Oppo has announced the Breeno virtual assistant in China. The assistant will support multiple forms of interaction, as well as “system-wide capabilities.” It’s the latest entrant in an increasingly crowded assistant space. Virtual assistants have quickly become a popular way to add smarter functionality to devices, but it’s hard to argue that we need more rivals in the space. Nevertheless, Oppo has decided to join the fray with its new Breeno assistant.

TL;DR Google Lens is coming to the Chrome browser soon. You’ll be able to search and highlight text, images, and videos within a page. Search results from using Lens will open in the same tab so you don’t need to jump around. On your Android smartphone, Google Lens can be a powerful tool. You can use it with your camera’s viewfinder and identify real-world objects. You can use it to search for text within an image, and then even copy-and-paste that text into other apps.

TL;DR Google quietly revealed that Call Screen capabilities are coming to seven more countries. This will allow Pixel owners in those markets to suss out unwanted callers. One of the coolest Pixel features is Call Screen functionality, which uses Google Assistant and transcription to suss out spam and other unwanted callers. The feature has only been available in Canada, Japan, and the US, but it’s now coming to a host of new markets.

One of the best reasons to get a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is for downloading files. Using a VPN, you should be able to access files from networks and countries that would otherwise be blocked. For people who use torrent links to download files with protocols like BitTorrent, access to a VPN is really important. By its very nature, torrents require the use of a number of online servers, each of which shares a small part of a larger file.

People all around the globe are taking as many health precautions as possible to prevent the spread of COVID-19 during the world’s current coronavirus pandemic. Those who have already contracted the illness are encouraged to wear face masks to avoid further spreading the disease, but that comes with one inconvenient downside: they can no longer use their faces to unlock their mobile devices. While some have tried to develop creative ways to sidestep this issue, one security firm has uncovered an easy solution in the form of a simple trick.

David Imel / Android Authority TL;DR Verizon will sell the LG Wing for $1,000 when it launches on October 15. Pre-orders start October 1. It’s the first US carrier to commit to a release date for the rotating phone. You no longer have to wonder when you can get your hands on the LG Wing, although you may have to be picky about your choice of carrier. Verizon (disclaimer: this author also writes for Verizon-owned Engadget) has announced an October 15 release date for the LG Wing for a price of $1,000 up front, or $41.

Motorola just announced a wild modular smartphone project that hopes to change the way we buy and use mobile devices. Motorola’s initiative, called Project Ara, is very similar to Phonebloks, the modular smartphone concept launched in early September by Dutch designer Dave Hakkens. Motorola said it’d been working on Ara for over a year, and that it teamed up with Phonebloks to popularize the concept. Moto wants to create devices that are made of an endoskeleton, which is similar to the motherboard of a PC, and various specialized modules that users can install and replace themselves.

During the Verizon media event in which the new Droid models were introduced, Motorola officials mentioned for the first time ever the company’s own system-on-chip architecture, the eight-core X8 Mobile Computing System that will be found inside all the new Droids. The interesting thing is that the new SoC will have a regular chip for “regular” smartphone duties, but also dedicated new chips that will be in charge of specific features including language processing and contextual computing.

It’s not official, but it’s there. On the tech week website, tucked way at the bottom, is a new Motorola logo. We’ve seen variants of the Motorola logo before, but this one has a twist. This one may mean something. Gone is the bright red warning sign with the familiar “M” staring at you so menacingly. The Motorola logo, which had been around for as long as most can remember, is born again.