Android AICore is a background service that manages machine learning models stored on your phone. It helps run features like scam detection, audio transcription, Pixel Screenshots, and other similar tools. You can turn it off and get some space back, but that means taking away the AI features your phone was sold with, which is a big part of the pitch now. Manufacturers are pushing AI much harder than any meaningful hardware upgrades lately. Google recently updated its support documentation to explain why AICore can balloon. When the system updates a local model, AICore keeps both old and new v
AICore is turning 128GB Android phones into a storage nightmare… Nobody wants the AI feature to fail and then have to download gigabytes to fix it. But the duplicate data is a lot. On a 256GB phone, that’s annoying. On a 128GB phone, it can be the difference between installing an app and spending your afternoon deleting videos. …
… Sign in to your Android Police account Google is spending a lot of energy courting iPhone switchers. You can see it in Google's marketing campaign and software update coming out of Mountain View. …
… AI is capable of picking up the subtleties of languages, but don't expect this to completely fix your pronunciation immediately. The feature is currently available in the US and India in English, Spanish, and Hindi. …
… A human adapts if the button moves from the lower-left corner to the upper-right corner. Will an AI agent adapt when an app updates its UI overnight? What happens when agentic AI has to navigate through pop-ups, banners, and consent prompts? …
… So wait for the leaked Onn speaker, other Gemini-native third-party hardware, or Google’s first-party refresh. Current Nest speakers can still handle basic jobs, but spending new money on one right now means buying into the wrong generation.
Ben Khalesi Mar 30, 2026, 9:30 AM EDT I’ve been covering Android since 2023, when I joined Android Police, mostly focusing on AI and everything around Pixel and Galaxy phones. I’ve got a bachelor’s in IT with a major in AI, so I naturally view technology differently. …
… The industry is moving to always-available on-device AI, and that needs memory. If you plan to keep your phone for years to come, 12GB is the baseline now. And if AI isn’t part of your buying decision, I envy that freedom.
… If nothing is waiting, the modem can skip that wake-up call. MediaTek claims this cuts idle power use by 15%. …
… In practice, it changes how non-designers will actually use AI for visual work. Canva's head of ecosystem, Anwar Haneef, pinned the real problem when he said the biggest problem in creative AI work is the gap between raw AI output and a brand-ready asset. …
… Instead of trying to remember things, you can ask Gemini to summarize emails about a certain topic or from a certain person. That alone saves me more than most full-fledged AI productivity tools can. …