Getting locked out of an account is no fun. Google has a few ways to help you regain access if you happen to forget your password or lose an authenticator, including recovery contacts and backup codes. Now, Google has a completely new option: your face. You can now give Google a video record of your face and sign into your account with a selfie, which sounds like something people are going to just love.

You will have to set this feature up ahead of time if you want the option of regaining account access with a selfie later on. To get started, verify your account type is supported. You won't be able to configure selfie sign-ins for Workspace accounts, child accounts, or any account enrolled in Google's Advanced Protection Program.

Configuring selfie sign-in requires you to record a video, which Google will store on its servers. Google's selfie sign-in landing page includes the typical disclaimers about privacy and data access, promising that the company will keep the video encrypted and won't use it for any other purposes unless you opt in.

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On Thursday, Google became the third tech giant slapped with massive Digital Markets Act (DMA) fines, ordered to pay more than $1 billion for two serious violations that the European Commission (EC) found went unchecked for way too long.

In a press release, the EC explained that the fines were due to Google “self-preferencing its own services on Google Search” ($522 million) and for anti-steering practices, like charging fees or restricting app developers from directing consumers to cheaper purchase options outside of Google Play ($488 million).

Google has 60 days to make changes to its services, or else risk even more daily fines. To comply with the DMA, the EC has asked Google to "treat third-party services that feature on Google's search results in a fair and non-discriminatory manner” compared to its own services in categories like shopping, hotels, and flights. And Google must also allow app developers, “both technically and contractually,” to freely sign up users and promote offers outside of Google Play.

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Google has reported its financial results for the second quarter of 2026 (PDF), and as usual, the search giant raked in an unfathomable amount of money. Google saw total revenue of $119.8 billion, beating analyst expectations by a comfortable margin. Despite that, the company's stock has taken a hit. Along with all that revenue, Google has announced a further increase in its AI-fueled capital expenditures (or capex). The company is actually spending so much on AI infrastructure that it has negative cash flow for the first time.

Search was the largest chunk of Google's income, accounting for $63.3 billion. Google Cloud pulled in $24.8 billion, a significant 23.8 percent increase from the first quarter. This shows there is massive demand for Google's AI services. Google also earned $12.9 billion from its subscriptions, platforms, and devices portfolio, as well as $11.1 billion from YouTube ads. The company managed to goose that last one by more than 12 percent since last quarter as it made YouTube ads even longer.

A significant chunk of Google's revenue comes from investments. When you subtract those non-cash earnings, Google's operating cash flow for Q2 2026 was about $39.1 billion. That's not the most the company has ever seen, but it's a healthy 40 percent increase from Q2 2025. The problem is that Google's spending has also gone up—a lot.

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Google announced a significant evolution of its AI models at I/O in May with the release of Gemini 3.5 Flash, and it's not slowing down. The company revealed three new AI models today, including its first version of Gemini geared toward cybersecurity. However, none of the new models is the delayed Gemini 3.5 Pro, which was supposed to launch in June.

Gemini 3.5 Flash, which was the star of the show at I/O, has already been deprecated. In its place, developers and users will find Gemini 3.6 Flash. Google makes the usual claims about this model—it's marginally more capable and better at coding, and it has great multimodal features.

Google says the changes to 3.6 Flash were made in response to user feedback on the 3.5 release. In general, Gemini 3.5 Flash didn't appear to live up to Google's promises around code generation. Perhaps that is simply a consequence of Google's intense focus on efficiency as businesses have started to fret over the cost of AI tokens.

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As smoke from hundreds of burning wildfires spread across Canada and the United States, the first three operational satellites in the Google-backed FireSat program successfully launched into orbit. The satellites will begin providing wildfire detection capable of spotting even small fires in the United States, Australia, and Europe before the end of the year.

The launch of the microsatellites aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on July 7, 2026 marks a transition to “initial operational capability” for the FireSat constellation managed by the nonprofit Earth Fire Alliance. After a three-month testing period, the three satellites will begin actively providing data to fire agencies while covering every fire-prone region on Earth at least twice per day.

FireSat represents the first satellite constellation purpose-built for detecting wildfires, including spotting smaller fires that other satellites may miss. The satellites were designed by California-based satellite manufacturer Muon Space and have received over $15 million from Google to support initial deployment. Other notable financial supporters include the Bezos Earth Fund that committed $26 million.

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This week, San Francisco’s attorney general, David Chiu, sent cease-and-desist letters, demanding that Apple and Google remove 13 so-called nudification apps from their app stores, Wired reported.

Nudification apps can make it trivially easy to transform ordinary photos of real people into explicit images. The harmful AI tools allow bad actors to remove clothing, change a person’s features, place them in sexualized positions, and swap victims’ faces onto other people’s naked bodies.

Chiu's letter warned that app stores were violating "California’s laws that prohibit supporting services that create deepfake pornography," Wired reported.

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Europe wasted no time using its landmark Digital Markets Act (DMA) to try to rein in Big Tech. Companies like Apple, Meta, and Google have faced steep fines and orders to modify their business practices since the law came into force in 2024. And the hits keep on coming for Big Tech in Europe. After several months of consideration, the European Commission has announced new DMA measures that will force Google to support interoperability and competition in the European Union, and Google is not happy about it.

The new "specification measures" cover two elements of Google's business: Android phones and search. Both changes could theoretically increase competition and give users more choices, but Google claims they will undermine privacy and security. But as a "gatekeeper" under the DMA, Google has no choice but to comply. As the European Commission points out in its announcement, these decisions are legally binding.

On Android, Google will have to open up access to competing AI platforms. Currently, Google's Gemini gets preferential access to the system. Gemini is preloaded on all Google-certified Android phones and can wake up in response to the "Hey Google" hot word. Google's AI also includes system and app automation features, screen content access, and more.

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Big changes are coming to Android apps, but they're not the changes Google wanted. The settlement between Google and Epic that aimed to put to rest the companies' long-running antitrust battle is being withdrawn, and that means third-party app stores are coming to the Play Store. Google has confirmed that it will begin distributing rival app stores next week, setting the stage for competing platforms to take a bite out of Google's Android revenue stream.

This case has the potential to upend software distribution on Android, and it's all because of V-Bucks. In 2020, Epic Games was frustrated that it had to pay a 30 percent cut to Apple and Google every time someone bought a bundle of V-Bucks in a mobile version of Fortnite. The publisher added a direct purchase option to the game in violation of both Apple's and Google's rules. Naturally, Fortnite was pulled from the App Store and Google Play, kicking off the antitrust lawsuit that is only now reaching its conclusion.

While Apple suffered little penalty in its Epic case, Google was tripped up by its anti-competitive management of the supposedly open Android ecosystem. Google used its market position to discourage device makers from promoting or pre-loading non-Google app stores and attempted to hide that conduct. The remedies set by Judge James Donato included lower fees, mirroring Google Play apps in other stores, and most vitally, placement of alternative app stores in Google Play.

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Believe it or not, there was a time when searching the web for images was not possible. Twenty-five years ago, Google launched image search, and it's celebrating by looking back at its biggest visual milestones and refreshing the experience for today's searchers. The celebration also includes expanded AI because that's just how Google rolls in 2026.

Google claims the impetus for image search a quarter-century ago was the green Versace dress Jennifer Lopez wore to the 2000 Grammy Awards. If you were alive at the time, you probably remember the one. Google engineers understood that people searching for the dress didn't want to read about it—they just wanted to see it. The company got to work building image search, launching the first version in July 2001. Twenty-five years later, it's easy to take for granted that you can search for Lopez's green dress or whatever else strikes your fancy.

Currently, going to the Google image search site shows a plain search bar for finding images. It's a refreshingly minimalist interface for the modern web. Even Google's search homepage has a smattering of AI buttons and drop-down menus. That will change when the new Google Images rolls out.

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Robotaxi companies have thrived in California, where the good weather, enthusiasm for technology, and sophisticated labor force have supported their growth for nearly two decades. But a delayed decision from a state regulatory agency is now slowing Alphabet’s subsidiary Waymo, the US leader in driverless robotaxi service.

The holdup means that Waymo isn’t yet allowed to expand into parts of Northern and Southern California. And, in an upside for riders, Waymo still isn’t able to charge California passengers for rides in its new vehicle, a pale blue Chinese-made car it’s calling the Ojai, which started picking up riders last month.

If Waymo continues to operate these vehicles in its driverless ride-hail service, they could be gratis until the end of September and perhaps beyond. (The company continues to charge for rides in its Jaguar I-Pace robotaxis, which make up the majority of its fleet.)

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Code generation is emerging as one of the most popular applications for large language models (LLMs), but not all agents are equally good at all development tasks. Google created a benchmark earlier this year to evaluate how LLMs perform in Android app development, and Android Bench is getting a big update today. The leaderboard now includes a raft of new models, and Google has adopted a new framework that should be easier to use. Developers are invited to run their own tests and submit feedback that could shape the future of Android Bench.

While they are popular coding tools, LLMs don't get everything right. Separating the useful outputs from straight-up slop means choosing the right tool. Android Bench aims to demonstrate which AI agents do best on a suite of 100 Android development tasks. After launching Android Bench in March, Google has added metrics like cost and efficiency, as well as open-weight models.

To keep Android Bench relevant, Google is updating the test with eight new models, including all the latest heavy-hitters: Claude Fable 5, Claude Sonnet 5, Claude Opus 4.8, GLM 5.2, Kimi K2.7 Code, MiniMax M3, Qwen 3.7 Plus, and Qwen 3.7 Max.

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Google has announced its next Made By Google event, taking place on August 12 in New York City. Google's invite doesn't name names, but the imagery clearly shows a new Pixel phone that looks a whole lot like last year's phone. Some new rumors, however, suggest the updated phones will come with inflated price tags courtesy of the AI-driven component shortage.

The sleek lines of the phone in the teaser image are a dead ringer for Google's last few Pixel phones, and that matches some early rumors. Google's new phones will have similar shapes, with the Pro and Pro Fold models perhaps shaving off a little thickness. The most notable design change will probably be the rumored "Pixel Glow" lights, a rear-facing notification and status light.

Recent reports claim that Google is finally doing away with the base 128GB storage option for the smaller phones. In 2025, both the Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro started at 128GB of storage, a bit lacking for a modern flagship device at a time when people don't upgrade as often. Google will reportedly move to 256GB as the base storage for both phones.

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