Video chats with family, friends, and significant others are about to get a whole lot easier — at least for Pixel owners. On Wednesday, October 11, Google announced the rollout of integrated video calling for the Pixel, Pixel 2, Pixel XL, Pixel 2 XL, Nexus smartphones, and Android One devices.
Here’s how it works: Starting today on supported devices, you can start a video call through the Phone, Contacts, and Android Messages app. It piggybacks on Duo, Google’s video calling app for iOS and Android, but there’s work behind the scenes that removes some of the hassle. If you ring someone on a carrier that supports ViLTE (Video over LTE) calling, for instance, you’ll be automatically routed through the carrier’s dedicated ViLTE pipeline.
It’s not a perfect system. Google said it will add the ability to switch between audio-only and video calls, but not for “months.” And if you and your calling party aren’t on a network with with ViLTE, you’ll both be directed to install Duo from the Play Store.
Still, it’s a significant step for Google, which has long demurred from adding FaceTime-like functionality to Android. It planted the seeds in March of this year, when it teamed up with with spam-blocking app Truecaller to handle voice and audio messages.
“Video calling brings you face to face with your family and friends, whether you’re in the same city or thousands of miles away,” Jan Jedrzejowicz, product manager for Google’s phone app, wrote in a blog post. “We want to make it even easier to start a video call from your Android device, so we’re making video calling an integrated part of your phone,” Jedrzejowicz said.
Enhanced video calling comes on the heels of an improved Duo experience. At an April press event in Brazil, Google launched a fallback feature that helps maintain connections on unstable networks. When download speeds dip or the network becomes unreliable, video call quality degrades gracefully before switching to audio only.
“We’ve built Duo to be fast and reliable, so that video calls connect quickly and work well even on slower networks,” Google software engineer Justin Uberti wrote in a message. “Call quality adjusts to changing network conditions to keep you connected [so] when bandwidth is limited, Duo will gracefully reduce the resolution to keep the call going smoothly.”
Not long ago, Apple treated independent repair like an act of outright hostility. The Cupertino giant locked down parts with serial-number pairing, while repair tools remained firmly out of reach of anyone outside its authorized repair network. More importantly, the company waged a legal and lobbying battle against right-to-repair legislation.
I've covered enough of these fights over the years to know what a shift looks like. That's why what happened in October 2026 genuinely caught me off guard. The day the iPhone Duo went on sale, what may be the most mechanically complex iPhone to date, Apple pulled off a surprising about-face. It published teardown-style repair manuals for a handful of major components.
Apple's first foldable phone is now on shelves, in short supply, but with an unreal amount of buzz around it. After all, it's the first foldable iPhone, and there's plenty that this phone gets right. But there's also a lot that is either broken or underwhelming. What's peculiar is the dialogue around this phone, and how it has completely overshadowed every other attempt at making a phone with a similar form factor.
I've spent some time with the iPhone Duo, and I've used the Galaxy Z Fold 8 for almost three months now. In my opinion, Samsung deserves more credit. When the Galaxy Z Fold 8 arrived earlier this year, it was celebrated in some circles and ridiculed in others for supposedly copying what Apple would eventually deliver with the iPhone Duo. The dialogue was pretty odd, for multiple reasons. Samsung has been making foldable phones for years, so claiming that it copied a product Apple hadn't even launched was simply absurd.
For years, Samsung’s Galaxy A phones have been some of the easiest recommendations for anyone who wants to go the Android route without paying flagship prices. But that part of the lineup could soon become harder to find at a good price.
According to South Korea’s Electronic Times, Samsung is cutting Galaxy A production by about 20% in the fourth quarter compared to its original plans. Component orders have reportedly dropped by a similar amount, which could mean roughly 10 million fewer phones over the year. Samsung is also said to be considering another production cut of more than 10% next year.