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Do your future self a favor and back up all your precious photos, messages, and more before it’s too late. Your phone is the guardian of your digital life. It has that video of your child’s first words, the heart-warming message from your significant other that never fails to cheer you up, and the latest save from your favorite mobile game. You have invested time in getting it just the way you want, and there are irreplaceable memories onboard. Spending a couple of minutes backing up is a small price to pay to ensure you don’t lose it all. We will show you how to back up your Android phone in a few ways, so pick the one that appeals. We have separate guides on how to back up your iPhone and how to back up your computer. Updated November 2023: We added Samsung's new Temporary Cloud Backup option, more information on Google One, and a table of contents. Table of Contents Backing Up to Google Managing Backups and Extra Storage Backing Up to Your Windows PC Backing Up to Your Mac Backing Up to Your Chromebook Backing Up to Another Cloud Service Backing Up a Samsung Backing Up to Google The simplest and easiest backup option is Google’s cloud service, which is built into Android. Android via Simon Hill Go to Settings, Google, and choose Backup. You can see how much storage is available for the Google account you are signed into listed at the top. Below that, you will likely see an option that says Backup to Google Drive with a toggle next to it. (If you have Google One installed, it might say Backup by Google One.) Make sure it is toggled on. There is a Back up now button beneath. Tap it. Remember that backups can take several hours to complete if you haven't backed up before. It’s best to leave your phone plugged into a charger and connected to Wi-Fi overnight. The section at the bottom shows details of your backup. Tap on Photos & Videos and make sure that Backup is toggled on. You can also do this in the menu in the Google Photos app. At the bottom of the Backup details section, you can tap Google Account data (also accessible via Settings > Accounts > [Your Google Account] > Account sync). This is where you can choose what to sync with your Google Account. The list of toggles that appears here differs based on the apps and services you use. Managing Backups and Extra Storage Google via Simon Hill You can find your backups in the Google Drive app by tapping the menu at the top left and choosing Backups. It can be a challenge to stay under Google Drive’s free 15 GB of storage, so you might consider signing up for a plan with Google One. You can get 100 GB for $2 per month or $20 annually, 200 GB for $3 per month or $30 annually, or 2 TB for $10 per month or $100 annually. Once you subscribe you will see options for even more storage from 5 TB for $25 per month or $250 annually all the way up to 30 TB for $150 per month. You can share this storage with up to six family members. The Google One app offers more insight and control for your backups, found on the Storage tab listed under Device Backup. You might not want to pay for extra space, so let’s look at how to back up files directly to your computer before we dip into alternative backup services. Backing Up to Your Windows PC Google via Simon Hill It is easy to back up files from your Android phone on a Windows PC. Here’s how: Plug your phone into a USB port on your desktop or laptop. Drag down the notification shade on your phone and look for a notification from Android System that says something like Charging this device via USB, Tap for more options and tap it. Look for an option that says File transfer and select it. A window should now pop up on your PC, or you can open Windows File Explorer and click your phone listed in the left pane under This PC. You can dig into folders and copy and paste any files you want to back up. This isn’t the most user-friendly layout, though. For example, your photos will probably be in a folder labeled DCIM, Camera. If you want something like iTunes to manage this process or an app to manage a wireless backup from phone to PC, then you can find various premium options online, though we don’t recommend any of them. If you're trying to send files from your Android phone to a PC, try using Microsoft’s free Link to Windows app. Backing Up to Your Mac To back up files from your Android phone on a Mac is also pretty straightforward. Here’s how: Install the official Android File Transfer app on your Mac. Plug your phone into a USB port on your Mac. An Android File Transfer window should open on your Mac, and you will see a list of folders and files on your phone. Dig in and copy and paste any files you want to back up. You may have to search to find the files you want. For example, your photos will be in a folder labeled DCIM, Camera. There are some premium apps for MacOS that offer more of an iTunes-like experience, but nothing that we vouch for. Backing Up to Your Chromebook Here is how to back up files from your Android phone on a Chromebook: Plug your phone into a USB port on your Chromebook. Drag down the notification shade and look for a notification from Android System that says something like Charging this device via USB, Tap for more options and tap it. Look for an option that says File transfer and select it. The Files app will open on your Chromebook, and you can drag any files you want to copy over. Backing Up to Another Cloud Service Maybe you have run out of Google storage, or you prefer another cloud service. There are Android apps for Dropbox, Microsoft’s OneDrive, MEGA, Box, and others. Most of them offer some cloud storage for free, but what you can back up and how you do it differs from app to app. We looked at how to back up mobile photos on a few of these before, and you can usually set that up to be automatic, though other files often have to be backed up manually. If you want to automatically sync photos and other files across devices using one of these services, then check out the Autosync app. There are specific versions for Dropbox, OneDrive, MEGA, and Box. Whatever service you choose, make sure to keep your cloud storage safe and secure. Backing Up a Samsung Courtesy of Samsung If you have a Samsung phone, then you have additional backup options. We recommend sticking with Google, because Samsung backups can be restored only to Samsung phones, but if you want a second backup or you plan to stick with Samsung, here’s how to use Samsung’s cloud service: Go to Settings, Accounts and backup, then Backup and restore. Under Samsung account, tap Back up data (the option to back up through your Google account is listed here too). You will have to create and sign in to your Samsung account if you haven’t already done so. Tick everything you want to back up and tap Back up at the bottom. Samsung recently added another option called Temporary Cloud Backup. Available on Galaxy S and Z series phones running One UI 6 or later, this free service stores your backup in the cloud for up to 30 days, so you can potentially backup and then sell or trade in your old phone and restore the backup as part of the setup of your new Samsung phone. There is no total storage limit, though file sizes max out at 100 GB. Here’s how to use it: Go to Settings > General Management > Reset > Temporary Cloud Backup or Settings > Battery and Device Care > Maintenance Mode > Temporary Cloud Backup. Select Back up data, and decide what you want to include. You can back up third-party apps, photos, videos, audio, documents, calls and contacts, messages, and files. Once you have ticked the boxes next to everything you want, simply tap Back up and wait. Samsung also offers Smart Switch, an app that lets you back up your smartphone onto a Windows or Mac computer. It makes it easy for anyone switching to a Samsung phone to copy over all their data. Sadly, although Smart Switch backups can be made from most smartphones, they can only be restored to Samsung phones. Source

Machine learning is already being used in most smartphones. It is this feature that helps out system performance, translations, voice commands, camera quality, and more. However, Samsung is aiming to take it a step further. The Android phone creator just announced that they will be bringing smart technology to their RAM modules for smartphones. During the announcement, Samsung revealed that their processing-in-memory (PIM) tech was coming to RAM. This is on top of the technology landing in DRAM modules and the already improved high-bandwidth memory. In the press release, Samsung mentioned that their LPDDR5-PIM technology will be able to provide independent AI capabilities without relying on data center connectivity. They also reported that during simulation testing the LPDDR5-PIM more than doubled the performance, while reducing energy usage by over 60% when used in voice recognition, translation, and chatbot apps. At first glance, this sounds great as it will be improving machine learning performance quite significantly. However, there are still a few questions that have not yet been answered by Samsung. For one, at this stage, it is unclear whether PIM is an actual processor that will be attached to the RAM module. Or is it a suite of algorithms and optimizations? If it is a real chip, will third-party developers and OEMs be able to access it for their own needs? Effectively spreading the smart RAM to other Android or iOS devices. We are also not yet sure how powerful this technology will be. Would it be able to handle more advanced tasks like image processing and computer vision? Many smartphones already have chipsets that are capable of running advanced machine learning tasks. Most flagships also have AI silicon to further improve these features. This makes us wonder if PIM-enabled RAM with some grunt would enable OEMs for budget phones to go with cheaper silicon and let the smart RAM do most of the work. Currently, there is no expected release date for Samsung’s smart RAM. However, Samsung is aiming to completely standardize PIM technology in the first half of 2022. Closing words Samsung’s smart RAM sounds like a great addition and would help to improve the performance of a wide range of apps. However, I can’t help noticing that there are still a few questions unanswered. I look forward to seeing what light Samsung's next release will shed on these questions. Your Android phone may be getting ‘smart’ RAM

In the research paper "What Data Do The Google Dialer and Messages Apps On Android Send to Google?", Trinity College professor Douglas J. Leith claims that the Google applications Messages and Dialer are sending data to Google without user consent. Both applications are installed on over a billion Android devices each. Google Messages is the default messaging application that many manufacturers and mobile phone companies ship as the default application for messaging on their devices. The same is true for Dialer, as it is the default phone application on many Android devices. The paper notes that Google does not provide specific privacy policies for the two applications in question, even though Google requires that third-party developers do provide privacy policies. The applications link to Google's generic consumer privacy policy only. The researcher analyzed the data that the Google Messages and Google Dialer applications sent to Google on Android handsets. According to the research paper, linked here the following data is sent when the Messages application sends or receives messages When an SMS message is sent/received the Google Messages app sends a message to Google servers recording this event, the time when the message was sent/received and a truncated SHA256 hash of the message text. The latter hash acts to uniquely identify the text message. The message sender’s phone number is also sent to Google, so by combining data from handsets exchanging messages the phone numbers of both are revealed Google Messages submits data about the event, including the time messages were received or sent, a truncated hash of the message text, and the sender's phone number, to Google. The hash may identify the message according to the researcher, and if Google Messages is used on both handsets, Google gets both phone numbers involved in the conversation. Google Dialer sends similar logs to Google. The data includes the time and the call duration according to the research paper. When a phone call is made/received the Google Dialer app similarly logs this event to Google servers together with the time and the call duration. The data that is sent to Google "is tagged with the handset Android ID" according to the researcher. The ID is linked to Google user accounts and thus the identify of the user. Additionally, both applications submit data about user interactions within the applications. Nature and timings of interactions, e.g., viewing an app screen, searching contacts, or browsing an SMS conversation, are also submitted to Google according to the paper. If "See caller and spam ID" is enabled, which it is by default, Google Dialer sends the phone number of each incoming call and the time of the call to Google as well. The applications have no opt-out that prevents the data from being submitted to Google. The data is sent to Google via the Google Play Services Clearcut logger service and Google/Firebase Analytics according to the researcher. The Google Messages and Dialer apps send data to Google via two channels: (i) the Google Play Services Clearcut logger service and (ii) Google/Firebase Analytics. Recent Android measurement studies have noted the large volume of data sent by Google Play Services to Google servers on most Android handsets. A substantial component of this data is sent by the Clearcut logger service within Google Play Services. However, the data transmission is largely opaque, being binary encoded with little public documentation. The Register received confirmation by Google that the "paper's representations [..] are accurate". Additional details, including information about the test setup and code, are available in the research paper. Android users may switch to different applications that may take over the tasks of the default applications. For instance, Simple Dialer: Phone Calls, as a replacement for the Google Dialer application, and Simple SMS Messenger. as a replacement for Google Messages. Now You: which dialer and messaging apps do you use? Source: https://www.ghacks.net/2022/03/22/android-messages-and-dialer-apps-allegedly-sent-data-to-google-without-consent/