We’re announcing Google Play’s Best of 2025 awards, celebrating the best apps, games and books of the year.
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Generate a video of a woman holding a mug, then cut to the company branded packaging using the provide images |
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Generate a video of a woman interacting a the product using the provided images |
The Workspace tool that helps you easily create videos is giving more users access to its AI features.
A Simpler, Smarter Future: Our Integration with GFiber
If you’ve ever tried to build a “smart community,” you know how complicated it can get. One
vendor for locks. Another for smart devices. Another for internet. Multiple contracts, massive
upfront costs, and when something breaks, the finger-pointing begins.
At Quext, we’ve always believed there had to be a simpler way. And a big part of that simplicity comes from working with great partners who share our vision. That’s why I’m excited to share that we’ve integrated with GFiber to launch Quext Smart Communities powered by GFiber, a unified platform that brings Access Control, IoT, and Managed Internet together and eliminates the fragmentation multifamily and proptech have dealt with for years.
No more juggling systems. No more “Who do I call?” headaches. Just one integration, one
platform, one seamless experience. As our Chief Strategy Officer, Blake Miller, said: “When
technology fades into the background and just works, that’s when it’s truly powerful.” And that’s exactly what we’ve built with GFiber. A platform that makes connectivity effortless for residents and property teams alike.
Smart communities shouldn’t be stitched together from disconnected apps and vendors. They should just work. GFiber delivers a future-proof solution with multi-gig speeds and Wi-Fi 7. Quext provides the smart community platform that runs on top of it. Together, we’re replacing a patchwork of tools with a streamlined solution that’s reliable, affordable, and future-ready.
For owners and operators, this integration is about more than convenience; it’s about unlocking new value. Instead of heavy upfront hardware costs, everything is bundled into one predictable monthly price.
Even better, owners can generate new net operating income (NOI) through bulk pricing and optional technology revenues directly in the Quext dashboard. And because we’re the only platform with direct integrations into RealPage, Yardi, and Entrata, move-ins and move-outs happen automatically. That means less manual work, fewer systems to learn, and a smoother experience for everyone.
For residents, we’re delivering what the industry has been asking for: a true “one-app” experience. App fatigue is real, and having to download multiple apps just to live in an apartment is no longer acceptable. With Quext, when residents walk in the door, their internet works from day one- and from there, one app controls everything: door access, thermostats, Wi-Fi plans, and guest permissions. No technician visits, no juggling multiple passwords, and no app overload.
Property teams are already stretched thin, and our platform automates the routine work so they can focus on what matters most. When a lease starts, the system automatically sends access credentials and internet setup. When a resident moves out, the unit resets on its own. One dashboard. One support team. Total peace of mind. This integration with GFiber isn’t just a new product; it’s a new operating model for our industry.
We’re solving the biggest pain points owners face while creating a modern living experience residents actually love. Reliable fiber internet, powerful device automation, and seamless access control, all delivered through one trusted platform.
At Quext, our mission has always been to make technology serve people. With GFiber, we’re doing exactly that: making smart communities simple, scalable, and sustainable for the future.
If you’re ready to see what the next generation of smart living looks like, we’d love to show you what’s possible.
Posted by Dave Marcinkowski, CEO, Quext
The ChromeOS Stable channel is being updated to OS version 16463.20.0 (Browser version 143.0.7499.28) for most ChromeOS devices.
Visit our ChromeOS communities
General: Chromebook Help Community
Beta Specific: ChromeOS Beta Help Community
Interested in switching channels? Find out how.
Luis Menezes
Google ChromeOS
The Stable channel has been updated to 142.0.7444.175/.176 for Windows and 142.0.7444.176 for Mac and 142.0.7444.175 for Linux, which will roll out over the coming days/weeks. A full list of changes in this build is available in the Log.
Security Fixes and Rewards
Note: Access to bug details and links may be kept restricted until a majority of users are updated with a fix. We will also retain restrictions if the bug exists in a third party library that other projects similarly depend on, but haven’t yet fixed.
This update includes 2 security fixes. Below, we highlight fixes that were contributed by external researchers. Please see the Chrome Security Page for more information.
[N/A][460017370] High CVE-2025-13223: Type Confusion in V8. Reported by Clément Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group on 2025-11-12
[N/A][450328966] High CVE-2025-13224: Type Confusion in V8. Reported by Google Big Sleep on 2025-10-09
Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2025-13223 exists in the wild.
We would also like to thank all security researchers that worked with us during the development cycle to prevent security bugs from ever reaching the stable channel.
Many of our security bugs are detected using AddressSanitizer, MemorySanitizer, UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer, Control Flow Integrity, libFuzzer, or AFL.
Interested in switching release channels? Find out how here. If you find a new issue, please let us know by filing a bug. The community help forum is also a great place to reach out for help or learn about common issues.
Google’s deep investments in American technical infrastructure, R&D and the workforce will help the U.S. continue to lead the world in AI.
Learn more about Google’s Flow Sessions, an artist cohort focusing on using AI in film while also using Google’s AI filmmaking tool, Flow.
Posted by Ben Weiss - Senior Developer Relations Engineer
In today's world of mobile applications, a seamless user experience is not just a feature—it's a necessity. Slow load times, unresponsive interfaces, and instability can be significant barriers to user engagement and retention. During their work with the Android Developer Relations team, the engineering team at Reddit used the App Performance Score to evaluate their app. After assessing their performance, they identified significant improvement potential and decided to take the steps to enable the full power of R8, the Android app optimizer. This focused initiative led to remarkable improvements in startup times, reductions in slow or frozen frames and ANRs, and an overall increase in Play Store ratings. This case study breaks down how Reddit achieved these impressive results.
Tree shaking is the most important step to reduce an app's size. Here, unused code from app dependencies and the app itself is removed.
Method inlining replaces method calls with the actual code, making the app more performant.
Class merging, and other strategies are applied to make the code more compact. At this point it's not about human readability of source code any more, but making compiled code work fast. So abstractions, such as interfaces or class hierarchies don't matter here and will be removed.
Identifier minification changes the names of classes, fields, and methods to shorter, meaningless names. So instead of MyDataModel you might end up with a class called a.
Resource shrinking removes unused resources such as xml files and drawables to further reduce app size.
Caption: Main stages of R8 Optimization
Reddit saw improved performance results immediately after a new version of the app was rolled out to users. By using Android Vitals and Crashlytics, Reddit was able to capture performance metrics on real devices with actual users, allowing them to compare the new release against previous versions.
Caption: How R8 improved Reddit's app performance
The team observed a 40% faster cold startup, a 30% reduction in "Application Not Responding" (ANR) errors, a 25% improvement in frame rendering, and a 14% reduction in app size.
These enhancements are crucial for user satisfaction. A faster startup means less waiting and quicker access to content. Fewer ANRs lead to a more stable and reliable app, reducing user frustration. Smoother frame rendering removes UI jank, making scrolling and animations feel fluid and responsive. This positive technical impact was also clearly visible in user sentiment.
User satisfaction indicators of the optimization's success were directly visible on the Google Play Store. Following the rollout of the R8-optimized version, the team saw a dramatic and positive shift in user sentiment and engagement.
Drew Heavner: "Enabling R8's full potential tool less than 2 weeks"
Most impressively, this was accomplished with a focused effort. Drew Heavner, the Staff Software Engineer at Reddit who worked on this initiative, noted that implementing the changes to enable R8's full potential took less than two weeks.
After observing the significant real-world improvements, Reddit's engineering team and the Android Developer Relations team at Google conducted detailed benchmarks to scientifically confirm the gains and experiment with further optimizations. For this analysis, Reddit engineering provided two versions of their app: one without optimizations and another that applied R8 and two more foundational performance optimization tools: Baseline Profiles, and Startup Profiles.
Baseline Profiles effectively move the Just in Time (JIT) compilation steps away from user devices and onto developer machines. The generated Ahead Of Time (AOT) compiled code has proven to reduce startup time and rendering issues alike.
When an app is packaged, the d8 dexer takes classes and methods and constructs your app's classes.dex files. When a user opens the app, these dex files are loaded, one after the other until the app can start. By providing a Startup Profile you let d8 know which classes and methods to pack in the first classes.dex files. This structure allows the app to load fewer files, which in turn improves startup speed.
Jetpack Macrobenchmark was the core tool for this phase, allowing for precise measurement of user interactions in a controlled environment. To simulate a typical user journey, they used the UIAutomator API to create a test that opened the app, scrolled down three times, and then scrolled back up.
In the end all that was needed to write the benchmark was this:
uiAutomator {
startApp(REDDIT)
repeat(3) {
onView { isScrollable }.fling(Direction.DOWN) }
repeat(3) {
onView {isScrollable }.fling(Direction.UP)
}
}
The benchmark data confirmed the field observations and provided deeper insights. The fully optimized app started 55% faster and users could begin to browse 18% sooner. The optimized app also showed a two-thirds reduction in Just in Time (JIT) compilation occurrences and a one-third decrease in JIT compilation time. Frame rendering improved, resulting in 19% more frames being rendered over the benchmarked user journey. Finally, the app's size was reduced by over a third.
Caption: Reddit's overall performance improvements
You can measure the JIT compilation time with a custom Macrobenchmark trace section metric like this:
val jitCompilationMetric = TraceSectionMetric("JIT Compiling %", label = "JIT compilation")
To enable R8 in full mode, you configure your app/build.gradle.kts file by setting minifyEnabled and shrinkResources to true in the release build type.
android {
...
buildTypes {
release {
isMinifyEnabled = true
isShrinkResources = true
proguardFiles(
getDefaultProguardFile("proguard-android-optimize.txt"),
"keep-rules.pro",
)
}
}
}
This step has to be followed by holistic end to end testing, as performance optimizations can lead to unwanted behavior, which you better catch before your users do.
As shown earlier in this article, R8 performs extensive optimizations in order to maximize your performance benefits. R8 makes substantial modifications to the code including renaming, moving, and removing classes, fields and methods. If you observe that these modifications cause errors, you need to specify which parts of the code R8 shouldn't modify by declaring those in keep rules.
Reddit's success with R8 serves as a powerful case study for any development team looking to make a significant, low-effort impact on their app's performance. The direct correlation between the technical improvements and the subsequent rise in user satisfaction underscores the value of performance optimization.
By following the blueprint laid out in this case study—using tools like the App Performance Score to identify opportunities, enabling R8's full optimization potential, monitoring real-world data, and using benchmarks to confirm and deepen understanding—other developers can achieve similar gains.
To get started with R8 in your own app, refer to the freshly updated official documentation and guidance on enabling, configuring and troubleshooting the R8 optimizer.
A new suite of Gemini certifications are designed to validate core skills in generative AI.
