It looks like Android 16 will add a feature that lets you screen record what you’re doing on an external monitor. This is an expansion of a current Android 15 feature that enables you to screenshot external monitors connected to Android devices.
Spotted by Android Authority, Android 16 Beta 3 includes a third option in the screen recorder menu: “Record HDMI Screen.” It works just the same as recording your device display, encoding and saving the resulting video in the same way as well.
Right now, the feature only works with Android’s built-in screen recording abilities and only works with external monitors — so you can’t record with a third-party app and you can’t record any screens that you cast to with the Cast Tile. We could see this kind of functionality expansion in the future, though.
The ability to screen record an external monitor could be connected to Android 16’s Desktop View feature. This desktop mode will help Pixel phones and Android devices compete with Samsung and Motorola phones which provide a complete PC experience when connected to an external display.
It’s a useful feature for people who don’t have a pressing everyday need for a laptop or a desktop PC. Instead, when you do occasionally need to do a bit of word processing or work on Google Sheets, for example, you can simply plug your phone into an external display and grab a mouse and keyboard.
And with plenty of TVs capable of acting as an external monitor, you could potentially set up a “workstation” for the price of just a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse set — something you can grab on Amazon for as little as $20.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.