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vendredi 31 juillet 2020

Xiaomi Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition Review: The Hottest New Thin and Light Notebook – Literally

Xiaomi, traditionally known for its smartphone, first entered the laptop segment in China all the way back in 2016. Ever since then, I’ve seen countless posts from Xiaomi fans in India either asking the company to launch its laptop lineup in the country or asking their peers if it’s safe to import the laptops from China. Earlier this year in June, Xiaomi finally gave in to all the fan requests and launched the Mi Notebook 14 and Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition in India.

The Mi Notebook 14 lineup consists of two models — the entry-level Xiaomi Mi Notebook 14 and the slightly more premium Xiaomi Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition. I recently had a chance to experience the top-of-the-line Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition and, having used two exceptional Xiaomi notebooks in the past, I instantly jumped on the opportunity. I’ve been using the Intel Core i7-10510U variant of the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition as my daily driver for the last month, and here are my thoughts on the hot new thin-and-light notebook.

Note: Xiaomi India sent us a Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition for the purpose of this review. However, the company did not have any input on the content of this review. This review is written after over a month of use.

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition: Specifications

Xiaomi offers the Mi Notebook Horizon Edition in two SKUs. There’s the Intel Core i5-10210U powered base variant and the Intel Core i7-10510U powered top-end variant. As mentioned earlier, I’ve been using the Intel Core i7 variant, and here are its complete specifications:

Specification Xiaomi Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition
Dimensions & Weight
  • 321.3mm x 206.8mm
  • 1.35kg
Display
  • 14-inch FHD (1920×1080)
  • Matte-finish
  • 16:9
  • 250nits
Processor
  • Intel Core i7-10510U @1.8GHz
GPU
  • NVIDIA MX350 (2GB GDDR5)
RAM & Storage
  • 8GB DDR4 @2666MHz
  • 512GB M.2 NVMe SSD
Battery & Charging
  • 46Wh
  • 65W fast charging
I/O
  • 2x USB 3.1 Type-A
  • 1x USB 2.0 Type-A
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • 1x HDMI 1.4b
  • 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo jack
Connectivity
  • Wi-Fi 802.11ac 2×2
  • Bluetooth 5.0
OS
  • Windows 10 Home Edition
Other Features
  • Microsoft Office 365, 30-day trial
  • Mi Smart Share
  • Mi Blaze Unlock

Design and Build Quality

Now that we’ve got the specifications out of the way, let’s take a look at one of the most striking features of the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition — its design. The notebook features a minimal MacBook Pro-like design with a magnesium-aluminum alloy chassis and no visible branding on the outside. It features a healthy selection of I/O ports on either side, a large air intake grille at the bottom, and an exhaust grille on the left edge. The laptop measures just 17.15mm thick and weighs just 1.35kg, making it extremely portable.

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition

The Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition features a large center-mounted hinge that, combined with the excellent weight distribution, lets you easily open the notebook with just a single finger. Once you have the notebook open, you’re greeted with an impressive 14-inch display with just 3mm bezels on three sides and a 91% screen-to-body ratio, a compact keyboard with no number pad, and a substantially sized trackpad right underneath it. The minimal branding theme continues on the inside, with the notebook just featuring the Mi logo smack dab in the middle of the bottom bezel and Intel Core i7 branding on the right edge of the palm rest.

For a thin-and-light notebook, the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition offers a decent port selection. The notebook features two USB 3.1 Type-A ports, a USB 2.0 Type-A port, a USB Type-C port, an HDMI 1.4b port, and a 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo jack. Sadly though, the notebook doesn’t include an SD card reader. The USB Type-C port on the notebook can be used for data transfer and charging, however, Xiaomi doesn’t include a Type-C charger in the box. Instead, the notebook utilizes a barrel-style charger with a 65W adapter. This is particularly disappointing because Xiaomi does make a 65W USB PD fast charger for laptops and could’ve included one in the box.

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition

The lack of a built-in webcam is another major disappointment, especially when so many of us have shifted to work-from-home, but Xiaomi does at least include an external webcam in the box that can get the job done in an emergency. However, if you’re someone who cares about not looking like a pixelated mess, then the included webcam will be disappointing.

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition

Regardless, the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition doesn’t fail to impress on the design front. When compared to other thin-and-light notebooks in this price range, Xiaomi’s notebook offers a cleaner and more minimal design, better build quality, a healthy I/O selection, and a great display with slim bezels. Xiaomi hasn’t gone over the top with its branding, and that’s another thing I appreciate about this notebook.

Display

The Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition, unlike the regular Mi Notebook 14, features a 14-inch FHD matte display with 3mm bezels on the top and sides and a 91% screen-to-body ratio. Thanks to the slim bezels, Xiaomi has managed to fit the 14-inch display in a chassis that’s the same size as a 13.3-inch notebook. This not only makes the notebook a lot more portable but also gives it a premium appeal. The display has a matte finish to avoid any unnecessary screen glare and improve outdoor visibility, and it has a peak brightness of 250 nits which makes it fairly usable in direct sunlight.

Xiaomi Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition

On the downside, the matte finish means that the display doesn’t look as vibrant as its glossy counterparts, and those of you who are planning to use the notebook for any kind of photo or video work won’t find it as appealing as some of the other options out there. Furthermore, the display doesn’t offer the best color accuracy, and there’s a noticeable color shift while you’re looking at it from an angle, making it a poor choice for any kind of content creation. However, the display is more than satisfactory for content consumption and you shouldn’t face any issues with it in day-to-day use.

Keyboard & Trackpad

I’ve been using the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition as my work laptop for the last few weeks, and in that time, I’ve developed a love-hate relationship with the keyboard and trackpad. The notebook features a compact chiclet-style keyboard with 1.3mm key travel and no number pad. Coming from a full-sized mechanical keyboard, typing on the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition felt surprisingly inoffensive. The key travel was decent, the feedback was satisfactory, and the key spacing was good enough for me to get used to typing on the Mi Notebook in just a couple of hours. Similarly, the trackpad was also quite usable, even though it doesn’t include support for Windows Precision drivers. Tracking was responsive, multi-touch gestures worked just fine, and the click action offered good feedback.

However, there are some major downsides to the input devices on the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition which might be deal-breakers for some of you. Since the keyboard is quite compact and I have fairly large hands, I wasn’t able to achieve my usual typing speed on the notebook. With my wrists resting on the palm rest, I faced issues reaching the bottom two rows on the keyboard and, even though I tried for a week, I had to switch back to my keyboard for the remainder of my testing. The keys also felt a bit cheap and the stabilization on the large keys, especially the spacebar, was a bit concerning. On top of that, the lack of backlighting was a deal-breaker for me. Palm rejection on the trackpad was also poor and resulted in the cursor moving almost every time I hit a key near the spacebar.

Do note that since most of the aforementioned issues have a direct correlation with the size of my hands, most users shouldn’t face these problems in day-to-day use.

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition

Audio

The Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition packs in two 2W bottom-firing speaker units that sound unimpressive. Tinny would be the best word to describe the audio profile as there’s absolutely no bass whatsoever. On top of that, the speaker placement results in a muffled sound if you don’t place the laptop on a flat surface.

Xiaomi Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition

The speakers also don’t get loud enough at max volume, and you’ll have to use a Bluetooth speaker or headphones if you plan to use the notebook as your primary content consumption device. Xiaomi has included DTS audio processing on the notebook for better audio performance but, in my experience, finetuning the audio from the DTS app barely made a difference. Audio performance from the 3.5mm headphone jack was satisfactory, though.

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition: Performance

Now, coming to the meat of the matter, the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition’s performance. As mentioned earlier, my review unit is powered by an Intel Core i7-10510U processor, coupled with an NVIDIA MX350 GPU, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of M.2 NVMe storage. The notebook performed admirably for my daily use case, which mostly comprises of browsing the web, watching videos, a lot of typing, and a bit of photo editing. Thanks to the NVMe drive, the notebook booted up almost instantly, and everything from opening apps to transferring files felt snappy. If you have a similar use case, then the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition is a great notebook.

However, if you’re planning to do anything more intensive, then you should probably consider other options. This is due to the fact that the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition suffers from some major thermal issues (more on that later) and, as a result, it throttles under load. To give you an idea of how the notebook performs under load, I ran a couple of synthetic benchmarks and tried playing a few eSports titles on the notebook, and here’s what I observed.

Synthetic benchmarks

The Xiaomi Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition doesn’t fare well in synthetic benchmarks when compared with other similarly spec’d notebooks. In Geekbench 5, the notebook manages a paltry 946 in the single-core score and 2,994 in the multi-core score. In comparison, the ASUS VivoBook S14, which packs the same processor, manages to eek out a single-core score of 1,296 and a multi-core score of 3,808. In PCMark 10, Xiaomi’s notebook managed a combined score of 4,302, which is comparable to other Intel Core i7-10510U powered notebooks.

In Cinebench R20, the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition managed 875 points, which is significantly lower than the average of 1,468 delivered by the same processor. In 3DMark, the notebook delivered a combined score of 13,350 in the Night Raid benchmark and 11,148 in the Sky Diver benchmark. Since the NVIDIA MX350 is relatively new to the Indian market, I wasn’t able to compare the score with other notebooks featuring the same GPU.

Gaming

Despite Xiaomi’s claims regarding the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition’s gaming performance, I wouldn’t recommend the device to even the most casual of gamers. Based on Xiaomi’s claims during the launch event, I planned on trying a ton of eSports and AAA titles on the notebook. However, after trying out only two eSports titles on the notebook, namely League of Legends and Counter Strike: Global Offensive, I can safely conclude that this notebook is not meant for gaming.

Xiaomi Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition

While the notebook managed to deliver promising framerates (around the 100fps mark at 720p) when I first fired up each game, the fps dropped significantly just 15 minutes into the game. The fps drop was a direct result of the laptop thermal throttling, as the notebook got incredibly hot within 15 minutes of getting into a match. The keyboard deck reached an uncomfortable 60 degrees around the center and top left corner, while the CPU temperature crossed 90 degrees. As a result, I had to conclude my gaming test as I didn’t want to damage something internally by continuing the tests for a prolonged duration.

Thermal performance

The Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition has a simple thermal solution that is decent for day-to-day productivity tasks. With my daily use case, the notebook stayed cool and the fan stayed silent for the most part. However, as mentioned earlier, the thermal solution isn’t as effective for anything more intensive. While using Photoshop, the fan ramped up immediately and the base felt warm to the touch within a few minutes. I noticed no thermal throttling while working on a single image in Photoshop, but as soon as I opened multiple files each with a couple of layers, the notebook started stuttering.

Xiaomi Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition: Battery Life

Powering the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition is a 46Wh battery which includes fast charging support that can charge up the laptop from 0-50% in just 30 minutes. While Xiaomi claims up to 10 hours of battery life on a single charge, in my testing I found the laptop consistently lasted around 7 hours on the battery saver power setting and the screen set at 50% brightness. Even though the notebook’s battery life doesn’t match up to Xiaomi’s claims, 7 hours on a single charge is pretty great for a Windows notebook in this price range. The battery life drops to about 5 hours on the best performance power setting and the brightness set to 100%. All the measurements were taken while using the notebook primarily for web browsing, writing articles, and some light photo editing. Of course, the battery won’t last as long in case you do anything more performance-intensive.

Should you buy the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition?

The Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition is a well-designed notebook that offers decent performance for basic productivity tasks and content consumption. Thanks to its exceptional battery life and compact form factor, the notebook can also prove to be a great travel companion. But if you’re planning on doing anything even remotely performance-intensive, then the notebook isn’t for you. Along with that, there are a few other issues that you might want to consider before going ahead with the purchase.

The Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition features soldered RAM, so you can’t upgrade past the included 8GB capacity, and Xiaomi doesn’t offer a 16GB variant yet. The keyboard isn’t backlit and might feel a bit cramped for some users. Its audio performance is mediocre, it doesn’t include an SD card reader, and there’s no built-in webcam.

For a starting price of ₹54,999 for the Intel Core i5-10210U and SATA SSD variant, the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Editions isn’t the best option out there. Xiaomi’s design-first approach does make the notebook a lot more appealing on paper than it actually is and, for those of you who care more about performance than design or aesthetics, the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition is not a great choice.

Buy the Xiaomi Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition: Amazon ||| Mi.com

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Google Pixel 5a shows up in AOSP alongside Pixel 4a 5G/Pixel 5

It was only yesterday when Google started to tease an August 3 launch of what’s expected to be the Pixel 4a. Now, thanks to a comment by a Googler on the Android Open Source Project, we’re already getting references for what’s to come well beyond next week. The upcoming 2020 Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 make another appearance, but there’s also a mention of next year’s Pixel 5a as well.

A comment made in an AOSP code change first spotted by 9to5Google references the Pixel 4a, Pixel 4a 5G, Pixel 5, and Pixel 5a. The first one is of little surprise to us since it’s been leaked so extensively, while the next two are also unsurprising since this appearance marks the third time we’ve seen their names. However, this is the first time we’re hearing of the Pixel 5a, and it’s before the Pixel 4a has even launched.

 

It ultimately shouldn’t come as a surprise that Google is already setting its sights on what’s to come next year. Companies typically have product roadmaps planned years in advance, and with the success of the mid-range Pixel line, a more affordable Pixel 5a was inevitable.

Based on the comment and the code in context, the Pixel 5a will likely launch with Android 11 rather than next fall’s Android 12. Furthermore, it seems that the Pixel 4a 5G won’t launch alongside the Pixel 4a next week, since the comment mentions it as having a first API level of 30, which means it’ll run the not-yet-stable Android 11 release out-of-the-box. More juicy information, such as what hardware the Pixel 5a will run on, isn’t available just yet.

One last thing that’s mentioned in the comment is that Google is preparing to drop support for the Pixel 2. The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL were announced back in 2017 with Android 8.0 Oreo. Both devices will receive official updates to Android 11, but Android 11 will be the final OS upgrade for both devices. Google promises 3 years of Android OS and security patch updates for each Pixel device, so this news isn’t surprising. Hopefully, future Pixel phones will have longer-lasting support periods as Google continues its work on modularizing Android.


Featured image: The Google Pixel 4

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Here’s how Google is bringing Windows apps to Chromebooks

Earlier this year, Google revealed that high-end, enterprise Chromebooks will get support for running full Windows apps. In a new interview with The Verge, Google has finally provided more details for how everything will work.

According to Cyrus Mistry, group product manager for Chrome OS, Parallels will boot a full copy of Windows so you can run the operating system side-by-side with Chrome OS. Chrome OS can also redirect supported Windows file types to the Parallels Desktop instance to make things a bit more seamless. In the future, however, Mistry says users won’t have to run the whole Windows desktop, but rather just the apps you need.

Windows app on Chromebooks via Parallels Desktop

Windows apps running on Chrome OS thanks to Parallels Desktop. Source: Google. Via: The Verge.

The feature is expected to take advantage of Parallels’ Coherence feature. On the Mac, the mode allows users to run Windows apps as if they’re native applications made for Apple’s ecosystem. “We worked with Parallels because they really have done this before,” Mistry explained. “They understand the concept of running an entirely separate OS within another OS. They’ve done it with Mac and they’ve done it with Linux.” Mistry said Google did investigate a Windows dual boot option for Chromebooks but ultimately decided against it because of security concerns related to the boot process. Parallels offers “the best of both worlds,” Mistry said, and it provides users with a seamless experience that they can quickly hop in and out of.

No pricing or launch date has been revealed, but Google said Parallels Desktop will be available to businesses later this year. A page has been set up for interested parties to get in touch with Google. According to The Verge, resellers can bundle Parallels Desktop with enterprise Chromebooks while IT admins can enable access to Parallels for Chromebooks enrolled in Chrome Enterprise Upgrade (PDF warning). Interested parties will also need relatively modern Chromebooks to run Parallels Desktop, although Mistry didn’t reveal exact spec requirements. Instead, he said users will need “power usage” Chromebooks. Expect that to mean needing a Chromebook with an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor and at least 8GB of RAM.

Google is hoping that adding support for Windows apps will attract new customers while growing its enterprise ambitions. With commercial Chromebooks up 155% in unit sales year-over-year, the arrival of support for Windows apps comes at an opportune time.


Featured image: Samsung Galaxy Chromebook

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Google and Apple announce new privacy and functional improvements to their COVID-19 contact tracing API

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of our habits have changed drastically. Social distancing is now the norm because of the sheer amount of asymptomatic people carrying the virus. Knowing who has tested positive and who came into contact with those persons is essential to containing the spread of the virus, and that’s why Google and Apple teamed up to create a COVID-19 contact tracing API called Exposure Notification. This API is meant for use in contact tracing applications from public health agencies, and it supports both iOS and Android. Today, Google and Apple announced a few improvements to the API.

One of the improvements gives public health agencies more flexibility in determining the level of risk associated with an exposure event. Another improvement is support for interoperability between countries for the app to work on a more global scale. With better Bluetooth calibration on hundreds of devices (the Exposure Notification API uses Bluetooth LE in order to ping nearby devices), contact tracing will be less prone to false positives.

Google and Apple are also addressing privacy concerns that have been raised by users and developers. You can now easily turn off the notifications with a toggle and, if the feature is turned on, you will also get a periodic reminder that it’s on. On Android 11, users will no longer have to enable Location Services in order for the Exposure Notification API to work. The reason the API requires location access to be enabled is that Bluetooth scanning can be used to infer a device’s location. Google tied Bluetooth (and WiFi) scanning to location services to warn users of this fact, but this has scared some users into thinking that all contact tracing apps are actively tracking their location.

Here’s a summary of Google and Apple’s improvements to the Exposure Notification API, per Google’s blog post on the matter:

Improvements to the Exposure Notification API

  • When an exposure is detected, public health authorities now have more flexibility in determining the level of risk associated with that exposure based on technical information from the API.
  • Bluetooth calibration values for hundreds of devices have been updated to improve the detection of nearby devices.
  • The API now supports interoperability between countries, following feedback from governments that have launched Exposure Notification apps.
  • To help public health authorities build apps more efficiently, we’ve added reliability improvements for apps and developer debug tools.
  • We’ve improved clarity, transparency and control for users. For example, the Exposure Notifications settings on Android now include a simple on/off toggle at the top of the page. In addition, users will also see a periodic reminder if ENS is turned on.

Public health authorities have used this API, jointly developed by Google and Apple, in 16 countries, including those in North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. More areas are planning apps using the API, with 20 U.S. states and territories (accounting for over 45% of the U.S. population) exploring its usage. We are tracking the apps that use the Exposure Notification API in a separate article, in case you’re interested. Using contact tracing to contain the spread of COVID-19 is essential in establishing a return to normalcy, but we’re still a long way off from that goal.

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Netflix is rolling out playback speed controls on Android

Ever wish you could speed up or slow down video playback on Netflix? On Android, now you can.

Netflix is rolling out the ability to watch videos at 0.5x, 0.75x, 1.25x, or 1.5x speeds on Android. Now you can binge-watch your favorite shows faster than ever. Playback speed controls are available on Android for both streamed and downloaded content and will be tested on iOS and browsers in the future. This feature will not be tested on built-in TV apps, though.

Playback speed controls were apparently something Netflix users have requested for years, according to Netflix’s Keela Robison, Vice President of product innovation. “Tests show that consumers value the flexibility [playback speed controls] provides whether it’s rewatching their favorite scene or slowing things down because they’re watching with subtitles or have hearing difficulties,” Robison said. The National Association of the Deaf and the National Federation of the Blind applauded Netflix for introducing this feature, with both organizations adding that playback speed controls can help those with auditory and/or visual difficulties.

While the new playback speed controls might be a boon for users, some in Hollywood are apparently unhappy with the new feature. As The Verge points out, when Netflix previously confirmed they were testing this feature last year, directors Brad Bird and Judd Apatow spoke out against it. Apatow in particular said that “distributors don’t get to change the way the content is presented.” These creators argue that playback speed controls disrupt how they intend viewers to consume their content. Many creators currently rail against motion smoothing features on home televisions for largely the same reason.

Netflix said it is aware of the concerns from Hollywood creators and has worked to quell their anger. For one, Netflix said it will correct the pitch in audio at faster and slower playback speeds, so content doesn’t sound warped. The company also purposely limited the available playback speeds and requires users to manually change the playback speed for every video they watch.

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Huawei to Revolutionize Commerce with New Live E-commerce Platform

As the world changes, people are changing the way they shop. New solutions are needed to present new and effective ways for consumers to interact with online stores. This is where Huawei’s Live E-commerce service comes in. The new e-commerce solution is designed to help merchants boost their traffic while lowering costs. Live streaming brings new opportunities driven by e-commerce transformation. Online retailers will be able to easily implement this solution, which is based on Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) to enhance live commerce capabilities.

Live E-commerce to be Officially Announce on Huawei Developer Day

To announce the launch of Live E-commerce, Huawei will be using their Huawei Developer Day #HDD event which is streamed online. This event will have the primary focus of showing online retailers, businesses, and developers how they can use HMS to profit off of the constantly-evolving online retail landscape. This event will demonstrate how Huawei is making live commerce easier, faster, and more immersive than ever. The key to this is the combination of the HMS compatibility kits. These allow developers to create a single e-commerce solution. The combination of Live E-commerce and HMS gives Huawei the technological advantage over other platforms in this field. Online retailers will now be able to produce a truly intelligent live commerce experience. HMS Core kits provide e-commerce platforms with easier control, more efficient operation, and more immersive scenario-based live stream experience.


Huawei Developer Day

The Huawei Developer Webinar | Connect LIVEs with E-commerce
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE EVENT LIVE

August 6th, 2020


The HDD event is totally free for developers to attend. It is hosted online in the form of livestreams that features speakers from partnering companies like LiveMe, Kumu and others. Developers that attend the event will have the opportunity to learn about the different ways that Huawei can help them increase their traffic. Using the powerful tools designed for online platforms, you’ll learn how to create a richer and more advanced live streaming experience. Huawei’s innovative technology enhances e-commerce capabilities, assisting vendors, and developers to realize business gains.


With more consumers and vendors converting to live commerce streaming to sell and buy products, e-commerce is continuing its rapid growth and represent an increasingly large section of the global retail industry. A key priority for Huawei is supporting the expanding number of developers around the world in this field, which is why our next HDD is dedicated entirely to e-commerce and online retailers. HDD is an invaluable opportunity for developers and retailers of all sizes and sectors to get a head start on competitors and learn how our new and enhanced HMS-based solution can greatly enhance their live commerce capabilities.

Peter Gauden - Head of WEU EcoSystem Marketing at Huawei Consumer Business Group

The HDD event will be very beneficial to anyone looking to learn about the increasingly interactive market of online retail. The livestreamed event will be one hour long and will feature interaction from the audience, in the form of live comments. This event is part of Huawei’s commitment to creating a better experience for developers, which includes an all-scenario smart ecosystem.

All of this is part of the support and resources that Huawei dedicates to developers that use HMS and host their apps on the AppGallery. Huawei’s fully open Chip-Device-Cloud capabilities enable the best app experience while promoting innovation. If you are a developer and want to learn how to succeed in this market, make sure you tune-in to the Huawei Developers Day event on August 6th, 2020.

This post is sponsored and written in part by HUAWEI. Our sponsors help us pay for the many costs associated with running XDA, including server costs, full time developers, news writers, and much more. While you might see sponsored content (which will always be labeled as such) alongside Portal content, the Portal team is in no way responsible for these posts. Sponsored content, advertising and XDA Depot are managed by a separate team entirely. XDA will never compromise its journalistic integrity by accepting money to write favorably about a company, or alter our opinions or views in any way. Our opinion cannot be bought.

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YouTube to axe community contributions for closed captions and subtitles

Google on Friday announced YouTube’s Community Contributions feature, which allows viewers to add closed captioning and subtitles to videos, will be discontinued on September 28, 2020. The company cites two reasons behind the discontinuation of the feature: It’s not being widely used and is a regular source of spam and abuse.

According to Google, community contributions were featured in “less than 0.001% of channels” in the past month, covering than 0.2% of watch time. Creators are, for the most part, relying on alternative captioning tools for their videos.

As The Verge points out, deaf and hard-of-hearing creators will be most affected by the feature’s removal. Several “VTubers”, or Virtual YouTubers, will also be affected, as well as content creators with significant foreign language audiences. Some content creators have already voiced their concerns, pleading with Google to create a better community contributions system rather than axing it entirely.

It’s a fine line to walk for Google. Captions and subtitles are crucial for accessibility—not just to reach deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers, but to reach viewers who speak different languages. While the community contributions feature is being canceled, captions and subtitles will still be available in YouTube videos. Creators can continue to manually add captions, while YouTube has technology that automatically adds captions to every video. The automatically generated captions are generally not as accurate as user-contributed captions, but they can be improved over time as Google continues to train its speech recognition and language translation technologies.

Even though Google said YouTube’s Community Contributions feature is rarely used, the company acknowledged the difficulty this decision might cause for some creators. As a consolation, Google said it would cover the cost of a 6-month subscription to Amara.org, a service that captions, subtitles, and translates videos.

If you currently have contributions saved as drafts, they’ll be available to publish until September 28. All contributions that have already been published will remain, and creators can manage them as they see fit.

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Google and Pure Digital almost partnered for Flip Video camera

Back before Google acquired (and then sold) Motorola, and back before Google had developed its first Pixel-branded smartphone, the search giant nearly released a Flip Video camera in partnership with Pure Digital at the dawn of the YouTube era.

According to internal emails obtained by the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust sub-committee (via The Verge), Google Video product manager Peter Chane attempted to convince colleagues to partner with Pure Digital, the owner of Flip Video, for a consumer video camera.

In a 2006 email, Chane highlights the popularity of Pure Digital and argues how important personal video cameras would be for a community-driven site such as Google Video. The emails laid out Chane’s argument and his urgency to get a deal done before Yahoo and YouTube did something similar. At the time, YouTube was still a competitor to Google Video.

We already know that Google never made a deal to release a Google-branded Flip Video camera, but there were conversations about the possibility. What ultimately happened was, at the suggestion of Google Video director Jennifer Feikin, Google opted to pursue an acquisition of YouTube instead, and the rest is history.

“I think perhaps a better route to take would be quickly figure out the strategy of how to work with both types of content in the ideal ways, and then to acquire YouTube,” Feikin said in an email.

Feikin said she admired YouTube’s UI and active community. By acquiring YouTube, Google could then use its considerable resources to scale the service and bring it to a wider audience. Some colleagues were apparently skeptical about acquiring YouTube, but Google ultimately made a deal all the way back in 2006.

Today, Google is one of the most popular websites on the internet, while Pure Digital and its Flip Video cameras are no more, thanks in part to the rise of smartphones. In hindsight, it was good business sense from Google, but it still would have been interesting to see a Google-branded Flip Video camera.

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Learn Linux Inside Out With 110 Hours of Training for Just $69

We often don’t realize it, but Linux plays a huge part in daily life. Every time you search with Google and check Facebook, your device is working with Linux servers. Using an Android phone? That is based on Linux, too. If you would like to know this system better, the Complete 2020 Learn Linux Bundle can help. This huge learning library offers 12 courses and 110 hours of training for only $69 at the XDA Developers Depot.

As you may have gathered by now, Linux is a very powerful and versatile platform. For this reason, expert developers are always in demand, earning up to $111,000 a year according to Payscale. In addition, Linux skills are valuable in many other technical careers.

This bundle provides a comprehensive education in Linux. Through hands-on tutorials, you learn how to power almost any project using the open-source operating system.

You start by learning how to navigate the graphical user interface, before diving into the shell. Once you have some command-line skills under your belt, you discover how to deploy Linux in the cloud, set up enterprise systems, and run Linux servers.

The bundle also provides extensive training on networking and cybersecurity, including full prep for the CompTIA Linux+ exam.

You would normally expect to pay over $3,500 for these courses, but you can get them now for only $69 with this deal.

 
The Complete 2020 Learn Linux Bundle – $69

See Deal

Prices subject to change 

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Motorola One Zoom and Moto G8 Plus get Android 10 soak test updates in Brazil

Different smartphone OEMs go by their own schedule when it comes to Android updates. Motorola, for example, prefers to conduct limited invitation-based public beta testing (commonly referred to as “soak testing”) before the actual release of a major Android version update through the stable channel. The final beta firmware is often mature enough to be considered as the stable build, which means the soak testing phase is a pretty good indicator of the arrival of the stable update. Now, the Motorola One Zoom (also known as the Motorola One Pro) and the Moto G8 Plus have started receiving such soak test builds of Android 10.

Motorola One Zoom XDA Forums || Moto G8 Plus XDA Forums

Motorola One Zoom

Despite the “One” tag, the Motorola One Zoom (codename “parker”) is not a part of the Android One initiative. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 675-powered phone was announced at IFA 2019 with Android Pie onboard. The Android 10 soak test for this device is currently running in Brazil, where the company has pushed several beta builds so far. The version number of the latest soak test build is QPH30.29-Q3-28-13 and it comes with the July 2020 security patches.

motorola_one_zoom_android_10_soak_test_builds motorola_one_zoom_android_10_soak_test_patch

Moto G8 Plus

The Moto G8 Plus (codename “doha”) packs in the Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 SoC along with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The phone runs a close-to-stock version of Android Pie out of the box, while the soak testing of Android 10 is underway in Brazil. Those enrolled their device to Motorola’s Feedback Network (MFN) have received multiple beta builds as of yet, with the latest one featuring July 2020 security patches.

moto_g8_plus_android_10_soak_test_build_patch

Thanks to Reddit user u/karanpatils for the screenshot!

It is worth noting that the soak test beta builds sometimes contain critical bugs. Therefore, we would recommend you to stay away from sideloading these beta builds on your daily driver. Once all the known issues are being ironed out, Motorola will push the stable update to all users, including the beta testers.

The post Motorola One Zoom and Moto G8 Plus get Android 10 soak test updates in Brazil appeared first on xda-developers.



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Samsung rolls out the August 2020 security update to the Galaxy Note 10 series

Just a day ago, Samsung started rolling out an update for the Exynos variants of the Galaxy S10 series in some regions. The update included August 2020 security patches for the Galaxy S10, Galaxy S10+, and Galaxy S10e, along with a new bootloader (v8) for the devices. Even though the update is yet to make its way to most Galaxy S10 users, Samsung has now started rolling out a similar update for the Exynos-powered Galaxy Note 10 devices.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10 XDA Forums || Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ XDA Forums

The latest update for the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 series (software version N975FXXS6CTGA/N975FOXM6CTGA) measures in at 168.86MB and it includes the August 2020 security patches. Much like the OTA update for the Galaxy S10 series, the update also brings a new bootloader (v6) for the Galaxy Note 10 series, which means that end-users will no longer be able to downgrade to older builds once they install this update.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10 series August 2020 security patches

Thanks to XDA Senior Member jaylence for the screenshot

As with all previous updates from Samsung, the latest OTA update is currently rolling out to a few users and it’s expected to reach all Galaxy Note 10 series devices in the coming days. In case you don’t wish to wait for the OTA update, you can use a community developed tool called Frija to download the updated firmware for your device from Samsung’s repository. The required parameters can be found in the screenshot below.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Frija firmware

Thanks to XDA Senior Member henklbr for the screenshot

Once you have downloaded the decrypted firmware package created by Frija, you can flash it on your device using Odin. You can follow the instructions given in this post if you aren’t familiar with upgrading your Samsung device’s firmware with Odin. Do note that the aforementioned update is only for the international Exynos 9825-powered Galaxy Note 10 devices and it isn’t compatible with the Snapdragon 855-powered variants of the Galaxy Note 10 series.

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Honor 9A, Honor 9S launched in India with AppGallery, alongside Honor MagicBook 15

Honor is launching two smartphones in the Indian market, focusing on the entry-level segments in one of the most competitive markets in the world. The Honor 9A was released earlier this year in China, and the device made its way to the European markets later. Similarly, the Honor 9S and MagicBook 15 have also made their way to global markets, and are now finally making their way to India.

Honor 9A and Honor 9S

Specification Honor 9A Honor 9S
Dimensions & Weight
  • 146.5 x 70.94 x 8.35 mm
  • 144g
Display
  • 6.3″ HD+ display
  • 5.45″ HD+ display
SoC
  • MediaTek Helio P22 MT6762R
  • MediaTek Helio P22 MT6762R
RAM & Storage
  • 3GB + 64GB
  • Expandable via microSD
  • 2GB + 32GB
  • Expandable via microSD
Battery & Charging
  • 5000mAh battery
  • Reverse wired charging
  • 3020mAh battery
Rear Camera
  • 13MP
  • 5MP
  • 2MP
  • 8MP, f/2.0
Front Camera
  • 8MP
  • 5MP, f/2.2
Other Features
  • Rear fingerprint sensor
  • MicroUSB port
  • 3.5mm headphone jack
  • MicroUSB port
  • 3.5mm headphone jack
Android Version Android 10 with Magic UI 3.1 Android 10 with Magic UI 3.1

The Honor 9A and Honor 9A are decidedly entry-level devices, so people used to flagships may not find them impressive by themselves. However, Honor’s use of the aging MediaTek Helio P22 on both the phones does not incite confidence as the phones will face very stiff competition from phones from Xiaomi, Realme, and Samsung. Further, both of these devices do not come with GMS and Google Play Store, and instead, adopt Huawei’s AppGallery and HMS Core.

HONOR 9A

Honor 9A

The Honor 9A will be available in Midnight Black and Phantom Blue color variants, starting from August 6, 2020, on Amazon.in. The phone will cost ₹9,999, but users can get it for ₹8,999 in the first sale.

HONOR 9S

Honor 9S

On the other hand, the Honor 9S comes in Blue and Black color options for ₹6,499, but users can get it for ₹5,999 in the first sale.

Honor MagicBook 15

The Honor MagicBook 15 is Honor’s first foray into the laptop market in India. As the name implies, it features a 15.6″ FHD IPS display with an 87% screen-to-body ratio and TÜV Rheinland certification. The laptop is powered by the AMD Ryzen 5 3500U processor coupled with Radeon Vega 8 graphics. You also get 8GB of DDR4 dual-channel RAM and a 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD.

HONOR MagicBook 15

The laptop is charged through an included 65W charger that charges the laptop 0-50% in half-hour through the USB Type-C port. Other notable features on the notebook include a two-in-one fingerprint power button, a pop-up webcam hidden underneath the camera button, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, and more. And of course, you also get Windows 10 Home edition preloaded.

The Honor MagicBook 15 is priced at ₹42,990 in India and will go on sale on August 6, 2020, in the Mystic Silver color option on Flipkart.com. There is a first-sale discount available, letting users pick it up for ₹39,990.

Buy the Honor MagicBook 15 from Flipkart

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Download: OnePlus 6 and 6T receive OxygenOS 10.3.5 with RAM optimizations, OnePlus Buds support, and more

OnePlus recently rolled out new OxygenOS updates to the OnePlus Nord and the OnePlus 8 family that brought in necessary support for their first pair of truly wireless earbuds — the OnePlus Buds. In a similar fashion, the OnePlus 6 and the OnePlus 6T have now picked up a new stable build of OxygenOS that not only enables official support for the OnePlus Buds on the device duo, but also brings over the July 2020 security patches.

OnePlus 6 XDA Forums || OnePlus 6T XDA Forums

According to a recent post on the OnePlus Community forums, the OEM has started the incremental rollout of OxygenOS 10.3.5 for the OnePlus 6 and OnePlus 6T. Besides the bump in the Android security patch level (SPL), the update also addresses an issue related to frequent crashing of Google Chrome on these phones. Moreover, the new build of OxygenOS includes a fix for the black screen bug while opening the OnePlus Logkit app. For those not familiar with OnePlus Logkit, it is a handy built-in diagnostic app to collect device logs which can be executed by dialing *#800# in stock dialer.

You can find the complete changelog for this update below:

OxygenOS 10.3.5 Changelog for the OnePlus 6 & 6T

  • System
    • Optimized RAM management
    • Newly adapted OnePlus Buds, easier to take advantage of wireless connection
    • Fixed the crash issue when browsing on Chrome
    • Fixed the black screen issue when opening logkit
    • Improved system stability and fixed general bugs
    • Updated Android Security Patch to 2020.07
    • Updated GMS package to 2020.05
oneplus_6_6t_oxygenos_10.3.5_ota

Thanks to OnePlus Community user MMuralidhar for the screenshot!


Download OxygenOS 10.3.5 for the OnePlus 6 & 6T

The company is following a staggered rollout model, which means they are rolling out the update to a handful of users first. If no critical issue pops up during the initial phase, the rollout will gradually be expanding to more devices over the coming days. However, you can grab the appropriate update package for your model from the index below and freely sideload it right away.

OxygenOS 10.3.5 for the OnePlus 6

OxygenOS 10.3.5 for the OnePlus 6T


Thanks to XDA Senior Member Some_Random_Username for the download links!

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[Update: Reno 4 too] OPPO unveils Reno4 Pro global variant with a curved 90Hz Super AMOLED display, 65W charging, and Snapdragon 720G

Update 1 (07/31/2020 @ 03:50 AM ET): In addition to launching the Reno 4 Pro in India, OPPO has also launched the global version of Reno 4 in Thailand. Scroll to the bottom for more information.

OPPO introduced the Reno series last year with a higher mid-range and an affordable flagship — the Reno and the Reno 10X Zoom editions. The first-gen Reno devices were succeeded shortly with the Reno2 series, which was then succeeded by the Reno3 series powered by MediaTek’s Dimensity chipsets in December 2019. While the outbreak of COVID-19 slowed down OPPO a bit, the company still went ahead and launched the Reno 4 and the Reno 4 Pro in China back in June 2020. They are now launching the Reno 4 Pro globally but with Snapdragon 720G instead of the Snapdragon 765G, and an extra camera on the back.

The OPPO Reno 4 Pro global variant varies from both — the Chinese Reno 4 and the Reno 4 Pro variants — in terms of dimensions. It is actually lighter than both of the Chinese variants and weighs only 161 grams. This is because of the plastic composite material used in place of the AG glass on the Chinese variants. Despite the difference in materials, the global Reno4 Pro comes with a similar “anti-glare matte finish.” Globally, the Reno 4 Pro will be available in two different colors — Starry Night & Silky Black.

Oppo Reno4 pro global color

The Reno 4 Pro retains the same 6.5-inch curved Super AMOLED display as on the Chinese version of the device. The display is claimed to cover 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut as well as have a peak brightness of 1,100nits. OPPO boasts of a high contrast ratio of 5000000:1 along with a screen-to-body ratio of about 92%. The display also houses a hole-punch cutout for the selfie camera. In addition, the display sports a 90Hz refresh rate beside all the other virtues.

Oppo Reno4 pro screen

When it comes to the cameras, the Reno 4 Pro global features a quad-camera setup. This includes a 48MP primary camera with a Sony IMX586 sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide, a 2MP macro sensor, and a 2MP mono sensor for phase detection. Unlike the Chinese variant, there’s no Laser Autofocus on this variant. On the front, the Reno 4 Pro features a 32MP camera with a Sony IMX616 sensor — the same as the OnePlus Nord and the Realme X3 SuperZoom. Besides supporting OIS on the primary rear camera, the phone also supports EIS for videos recorded using the front camera.

The next major highlight of the phone is the 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 charging technology that can recharge the entire 4,000mAh battery in about 30 minutes. OPPO provides a 65W charger within the box. The same charging technology is also supported on the OPPO Find X2 Pro and the Realme X50 Pro and the claims of getting the battery fully charged in about 30 minutes have turned out to fairly accurate.

In terms of internals, the OPPO Reno 4 Pro global variant comes with 8GB of RAM along with a Snapdragon 720G chipset. This primarily means that the global variants lack 5G support. The phone also uses a graphite-based cooling system to keep the phone from overheating. There is a 128GB UFS 2.1 storage which can be expanded further using the dedicated microSD card slot.

In terms of software, the smartphone features OPPO’s custom Android skin ColorOS 7.2 based on Android 10.

OPPO Watch

OPPO has also announced the OPPO Watch powered by the Snapdragon Wear 3100 SoC. The OPPO Watch resembles the Apple Watch aesthetically and comes in 41mm and 46mm dial sizes. The 46mm variant features a 1.91-inch display but the company does not reveal the size of the display on the smaller variant.

oppo watch

The OPPO Watch 46mm and 41mm have 24 hours and 36 hours of battery life. Additionally, the Watch also supports VOOC Flash charging that allows the Watch to get fully charged in 75 minutes.

Price & Availability in India

The OPPO Reno 4 Pro will be available in India starting August 5th. The 8GB/128GB is priced at ₹34,990 (~$470).

The OPPO Watch is priced at ₹14,990 (~$200) for the 41mm variant and the ₹19,990 (~$270) for the 46mm. The Watch will be available starting August 10th.


Update: OPPO Reno 4 launches in Thailand

OPPO announced the standard Reno 4 in Thailand alongside the Reno 4 Pro in Inda. The standard variant is similarly tweaked for the global market. It comes with the same flat 6.4 AMOLED screen with dual hole-punch cameras. The Laser Autofocus from the Chinese variant has been replaced by a 2MP depth sensor. Similarly, the phone is also powered by a Snapdragon 720G chipset and therefore lacks 5G support.

Furthermore, the regular Reno 4 global variant comes with 30W VOOC fast charging instead of 65W charging on the Chinese variant. The changes in dimensions also align with the global Reno 4 Pro. It is available in Galactic Blue and Space Black colors.

The OPPO Reno 4 is priced at TBH 11,990 (~$385).


OPPO Reno 4 and Reno 4 Pro Global Specifications

Specifications OPPO Reno 4 Global OPPO Reno 4 Pro Global
Dimensions and Weight
  • 160.3 x 73.9 x 7.7 mm
  • 165g
  • 160.2 x 73.2 x 7.7 mm
  • 161g
Display
  • 6.4″ AMOLED
  • Flat display
  • Dual hole-punch
  • 6.5-inch hole-punch FHD+ curved Super AMOLED
  • 1080 x 2400
  • 90Hz, 20:9 aspect ratio
SoC
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G
  • Adreno 618
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G
  • Adreno 618
Storage and RAM 8GB + 128GB 8GB + 128GB
Battery and Charging
  • 4015 mAh
  • 30W VOOC Flash Charge 4.0 fast charging
  • 4000 mAh
  • 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 fast charging
Rear Camera
  • 48MP Sony IMX 586 primary sensor
  • 8MP 119° wide-angle sensor
  • 2MP macro camera
  • 2MP depth sensor
  • 48MP Sony IMX 586 primary sensor, f/1.7, OIS
  • 8MP 119° wide-angle sensor, f/2.2
  • 2MP macro camera, f/2.4
  • 2MP mono camera, f/2.4
Front Camera
  • 32MP +
  • 2MP
32MP
Fingerprint Sensor In-display optical fingerprint In-display optical fingerprint
Android Version ColorOS 7.2 based on Android 10 ColorOS 7.2 based on Android 10

 

The post [Update: Reno 4 too] OPPO unveils Reno4 Pro global variant with a curved 90Hz Super AMOLED display, 65W charging, and Snapdragon 720G appeared first on xda-developers.



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Android’s Nearby Share now works on Windows via Google Chrome

Google’s alternative to Apple’s AirDrop sharing feature, called Nearby Share, started rolling out to some users in a Google Play Services beta late last month. Shortly thereafter, Google started rolling out Nearby Share support to Chrome OS, allowing Chromebook users to start sharing files with nearby devices by enabling a couple of experimental flags. Now, according to a recent report from Techdows, Nearby Share is rolling out to Google Chrome on Windows on the Chrome Dev and Canary channels.

In order to use the new Nearby Sharing feature, you’ll first need to head over to chrome://flags and enable the “Nearby Sharing” flag. Once you’ve enabled the flag, you’ll need to restart the browser and then head to chrome://nearby. The following page will bring up a list of supported devices that you can share files with.

Chrome Windows Nearby Share

However, there are a couple of requirements that you need to fulfill for the feature to work as intended. First, you will need a Windows PC with Bluetooth support and a supported Pixel smartphone or Chromebook. Secondly, both devices need to be unlocked and close to each other with Bluetooth enabled. And finally, if you’re using a Chromebook to test out the feature, the Chromebook should have Nearby Sharing feature enabled in the Quick Settings.

Google Chrome Windows Nearby Share

While I do have a PC that supports Bluetooth, I wasn’t able to see the feature in action because I don’t have access to a supported Google Pixel smartphone or Chromebook. In case you do have devices that meet all the requirements mentioned above, do try out Nearby Share and share your experience in the comments section below. It’s also worth noting that while Google Chrome on the stable channel (v84.0.4147.105) does show the Nearby Sharing flag on my system, it doesn’t open up the chrome://nearby page yet.


Via: Techdows

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jeudi 30 juillet 2020

Telegram tests floating chat head bubbles for messages

Telegram for Android appears to be testing chat head bubbles for messages. The feature, which is buried in beta version 6.3.0 of the app, allows users to keep conversations at the forefront of their device in the form of a bubble. This adds convenience if you frequently talk to a certain friend or family member.

The feature was first brought to our attention by Twitter user Nadan Parinda, who uncovered the option in a hidden debug menu found in Telegram’s settings. However, this feature appears to have been spotted even earlier by the folks at TestingCatalog.

If you’re using Telegram version 6.3.0 beta, enabling chat head bubbles is easy. Simply open Telegram’s Settings, scroll down, long-press on the app version until you see the ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ emoji, then long-press on the app version again to show the debug menu. In the debug menu, tap “enable chat bubbles” to show bubbles for incoming messages.

Screenshots courtesy of Nadan Parinda

If you’re running Android 10, you also have to enable “Bubbles” in the Developer Options for it to work. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear Telegram’s bubbles work on every device running Android 10. We tested the feature on an ASUS ROG Phone 3 and the bubble UI was broken. On the Pixel 4, the bubble crashed when we tried to interact with it. We did get it to mostly work on an OPPO Find X2 Pro (as shown earlier), while our tipster claimed it ran without issue on a Redmi Note 5 Pro running the Pixel Experience custom ROM.

Meanwhile, on Android 11, Telegram’s chat head bubbles don’t work at all, because the notifications aren’t recognized as a “conversation” notification. This could change, however, in future app updates. After all, chat head bubbles are a main feature of Android 11.

Telegram appears to be working out the kinks right now, hence why it’s a beta feature. But as Android 11 is released, chat bubbles will likely become a standard Telegram feature for quicker, more convenient communication.

Telegram (Free, Google Play) →

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