Google is working on a new developer option in Android that will swap out your device's Linux kernel with one that uses a 16K page size. Compiling the kernel to use 16K pages could provide a significant performance improvement but also break many apps.

A page is a fixed-length contiguous block of virtual memory. Android currently uses a 4K page size, while iOS and macOS use a 16K page size. Some workloads benefit significantly by using a larger page size, like kernel compilation.

But although ARM64 Linux binaries are compatible with 4K, 16K, and 64K pages by default, many native apps and Android OS components that assume a 4K page size might just break. (These comments by a lead Asahi Linux developer go into a lot more detail about the potential challenges.)

This is why Google is incrementally experimenting with 16K page size support in Android. They've been working on compiling the kernel with a 16K page size and fixing various issues since last October, but late last week, a Googler submitted a series of patches to AOSP (that have not yet been merged) that add a "developer option for booting with 16K pages."

If/when these patches are merged, a new "enable 16K pages" toggle will be added under Settings > System > Developer Options. When you toggle this option, Android will warn you that "some applications may not be compatible with this mode." Android will then call update_engine - the system OTA service - to swap the kernel to a 16K compatible one.

I have no idea if/when this developer option will land, nor whether Google will actually go through with changing to a 16K page size compatible kernel. If they do, it won't be for a while and the transition will be slow given how much might break.

Google is announcing that Assistant will soon no longer support smartwatches running Wear OS 2. You'll need to upgrade to a newer watch that runs Wear OS 3 (and that supports Google Assistant).

I just got this notification on my TicWatch Pro 3 - anyone else also get this?

(The time on the notification says 2:36AM, but I didn't check my watch's notifications until now.)

Update: Assistant is already disabled for me. The Assistant icon no longer appears for me when I swipe to the left page. RIP.

TIL that some OEMs just ... didn't implement Android 13's per-app language feature, which lets users set a different language for each app!

OnePlus didn't add it in OxygenOS 13 (and I presume neither did OPPO in ColorOS 13) nor did Xiaomi in MIUI 14.

It's always hard to tell when a certain feature Google adds to Android is going to be available across all devices. I do my best to find out by looking at whether the feature is Pixel exclusive first (Google introduces some features they never explicitly say are Pixel only) then whether there's going to be a CDD/GMS requirement regarding it.

As far as I can tell, per-app language settings isn't mentioned anywhere in the CDD/GMS reqs, but I'm pretty sure most OEMs implemented it. I know Samsung, ASUS, and Nothing have, for example.

As for why OnePlus/OPPO and Xiaomi didn't implement this feature, I can only guess. Perhaps they encountered some issue they couldn't resolve or maybe they felt it wasn't worth supporting (it's in AOSP though so it's there by default).

In the case of OnePlus and I presume OPPO as well, at least they plan on adding this feature in their Android 14 update! Frequent OnePlus tipster @OneNormalUsername discovered that the closed beta of OxygenOS 14 has the per-app language feature. (Credits for the screenshot of per-app language settings in OxygenOS 14 go to Aamir Siddiqui.)

In the case of Xiaomi, I asked frequent tipster @kacskrz about it, but they said they aren't sure if the feature is coming in Android 14-based builds of MIUI. However, the per-app language settings are still there and can be launched manually through an activity launcher.

As an alternative, you can use the "Language Selector" app which uses the Shizuku library to gain shell user privileges to access the locale manager CLI.

Watch Unlock may not be exclusive to the Pixel Watch! It may also be available on Samsung's Galaxy Watch 6 and earlier Galaxy Watch models!

Watch Unlock is an upcoming feature that will make it easier to unlock your phone when regular biometric authentication fails, like when your fingers are wet or face isn't recognized. When your watch is unlocked, on your wrist, and within reach of your phone, your watch will automatically unlock your phone when you swipe up on the lock screen.

Earlier today, 9to5Google spotted the listing for the Pixel Watch 2 on the Google Play Console's device catalog. The listing suggests the smartwatch will have Qualcomm's Snapdragon W5 chip, as previously rumored, as well as 2GB of RAM and run Android 13-based Wear OS 4.

But the listing also reveals that the Pixel Watch 2 will support "Active Unlock", the internal name for the Android 13 API that powers the upcoming Watch Unlock feature. It specifically declares the com.google.android.clockwork.active_unlock feature.

Using this as a filter in the Play Console, I discovered that the Galaxy Watch 6 series also declares the Active Unlock feature!

However, the earlier Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 5 series do not at this time. These watches will also likely support Active Unlock, however, once they upgrade to One UI Watch 5 based on Android 13, which should be rolling out soon. (In the Play Console, the Watch 4/5 series are both still listed as running Android 11, hence the updated software build has not yet been submitted to the console's database.)

Here's a first look at the setup process for Android's Find My Device network!

1) You'll get a notification asking you to "add this device to the Find My Device network"

2) You'll see an intro screen explaining how Find My Device can use the network "of over a billion Android devices" to store your devices' recent locations to help you locate your offline devices and accessories. Android devices in the network detect nearby items using Bluetooth.

By default, the network is used to locate devices in "high-traffic areas" only, which means location info sent by your device is only used "if others on the network also detect the item."

Device locations are encrypted using the lock screen of your Android devices and can only be seen by you and those you share your devices with in Find My Device.

3) You'll see a page asking you to enter the lock screen for another device that's already added to the network. In this case, I was asked to enter the PIN of my Pixel 6a whereas I was trying to opt in on my Pixel 7 Pro.

4) You're all set at this step, but you can go to settings to change how your device is located.

I don't have screenshots of the Find My Device network settings themselves, but @nailsad_eleos shared them earlier, so I also attached that to this post.

The Find My Device network hasn't rolled out yet, so it's possible this setup process could change before it does.

I'm most curious to see whether Find My Device network will remain opt-in or whether it'll be opt-out when it launches. If it's opt-in and requires the user accepting/seeing this notification, then I can imagine many people won't enable it.

However, if Google adds/mandates a toggle to be added to the setup wizards of Android devices that says something like "find your Android device when it's offline", and this toggle opts the device into the Find My Device network, then I can see this feature getting turned on a lot more. I believe that's how Apple does it as well.