A step-by-step guide on how to delete and recover photos on your Android smartphone

Some photos just don’t turn out the way we want. In many instances, it’s best to save space and get rid of them, so we’re going to show you how to delete photos on an Android device. Sometimes. however, we delete the wrong photos or decide we want to keep a snap after all, so we’re also going to show you how to recover deleted photos. Although Android smartphones may look different given many of them utilize a custom interface, the process for deleting and recovering photos is actually quite similar. Google even has its own set of standalone apps, so if you use Google Photos, the process will be the same regardless of your phone.

More: How to delete and recover photos from your iPhone

Deleting photos in stock Android

If you have stock Android, then you will be dealing directly with Google Photos. You can also choose to use Google Photos regardless of your smartphone’s brand, so let’s take a look at this app first.

Deleting photos while viewing them

Tap the photo that you want to view.
When viewing the photo, tools will appear on top of the photo at the bottom of your screen for a few second. If you don’t see them, then tap the photo once and they’ll appear again.
Tap the trash icon in the lower-right corner. This will move the item to the trash.
You can also tap the More menu () in the upper-right corner, and select Delete device copy. This will permanently delete the photo if you haven’t backed up the picture. Select Delete to confirm your decision.

Deleting photos in the Photos view

Make sure you are in Photos view by selecting Photos at the bottom.
Tap the More menu () in the upper-right corner, and tap Select in the drop-down menu. Alternatively, you can tap and hold the picture you want to delete.
You can delete multiple photos at once by tapping on them. Selected photos feature a white check mark on a blue background in the upper-left corner.
Tap the trash can in the upper-right corner.

Delete photos in Albums view

Select Albums in the lower-right corner, and then select the album you want to delve into.
Tap the More menu () in the upper-right corner, choose Select, and select the pictures you want to delete. Alternatively, you can select the date of the pictures, which will select all the pictures taken on a given day.
Tap the More menu () again, and select Delete device copy.
A warning will come up indicating that if the pictures aren’t backed up, they will be deleted permanently. Select Delete to confirm your decision.

Deleting photos on a Samsung phone

Samsung has its own Gallery app. It basically works the same way as any other Android smartphone, but TouchWiz does have its own look, so we will take you through the screens and show you how it looks on a Samsung smartphone.

Deleting photos while viewing them

You should have tools on your screen while viewing a picture, but if not, just tap the picture once.
Tap the trash can in the lower-right corner.

Delete photos in Time view

Instead of Photos view, Samsung has Time view. You can see the photos individually here. Just tap More in the upper right-hand corner.
You are now in selection mode where you can select the pictures you want to delete, then select Delete in the upper right next to More.

Deleting photos in Albums view

To see the albums, tap Time in the upper-left corner, and change it to Albums.
Here, you will see More in the upper-right corner. If you want to delete an entire album, go to More and select Edit. Afterward, select the album you want to delete and press Delete in the upper-right corner.
If you want to go inside an album, select individual pictures, and then delete them, you can do so by tapping More in the upper-right corner. Then, tap Edit, select the pictures you want to delete, and press Delete in the upper-right corner.

Recovering photos

Recovering photos from the Google Photos trash

If you deleted your pictures by tapping the trash icon, and the photos were moved to the trash, then they will be in the trash for 60 days before being permanently deleted.

Select the Hamburger menu  () in the upper-left corner.
Select Trash from the menu.
Select the photos you want to recover by tapping the More menu in the upper-right corner. Alternatively, you can tap and hold the pictures you want to recover.
Once you have selected all the pictures you want to recover, tap the Undo button in the upper-right corner.

Recovering photos using third-party software

You can always try to use third-party software to rescue deleted photos. Below is one of the best options to get you started.

Wondershare Dr.Fone ($70+)

Phone Rescue will allow you to recover a number of media files, including photos. Not only will the software allow you to recover media, but it also offers a suite of recovery and repair tools for Android. These include tools that allow you to extract data from damaged devices, or recover data lost during an update.

Download now from:

Wondershare

Backing up your photos

We recommend using Google Photos to automatically back up your photos, and ensure that you can recover them in the future. Google Photos gives you unlimited free storage for photos up to 16 megapixels in size and video recorded at up to 1080p. You also get 15GB of free storage for photos and videos of higher quality.

Tap the Hamburger menu () in the upper-left corner.
Go to Settings.
Tap Back up & sync, and make sure the feature is toggled on.

So you’ve lost your Cardboard QR code? Here’s what to do

If you’ve lost your QR code, don’t panic. You can find it again online.

Google Cardboard was the first phone based VR that hit the market, and for some users it’s still a great way to get introduced to VR. However if it’s been a few months since the last time you’ve pulled out your Cardboard viewer, then you may run into a problem. That problem being that you’ve lost your Cardboard QR code, and can’t properly set up your Cardboard Viewer. Don’t panic though, all is not lost. Instead we’ve got the details on how to deal with this problem.

Read more at VRHeads

Google Assistant for every phone was the best move Google will make in 2017

And shows that Play Services is almost an operating system on its own.

Yep. Google Assistant is going to be available for any phone with Android 6 or later. And it won’t require a system update, which is one of the smartest moves Google has ever made.

Why? Because Samsung was never going to build it into the Galaxy S8 or any other phone it sells. Now the decision was taken out of Samsung’s hands and left up to you to opt in if you want Google Assistant.

300 million Galaxy phones shipped in 2016 and most will be running Marshmallow or better.

Of course, it should be our decision because we’re the ones paying way too much for phones. It’s nice to sit back and think Google worked to allow Assistant to work through Play Services for everyone because it loves us and want us to have control over what’s on our phones, but that’s probably not why it did it. The 300 million phones Samsung shipped in 2016 (how staggering is that?) is why it did it. Without Samsung phones supporting it, Assistant would have quickly faded away.

I’m not saying that having Assistant on all those Galaxy phones means it will be a success. Just that it could never be without them. Assistant depends on user data even more than Google Now did and in a lot of different ways.

Assistant can do all those Google Now things like telling you about the weather or an upcoming flight. It’s tied very tightly to your Google Account. You’ll understand this when you read the agreement and accept the terms the first time you use it. (Please read it. Read them all.) But it also gets smarter with more user data of a less personal nature.

Little things that seem unimportant — how many of us are interested in a particular movie or what time of day we tend to buy gas — are a gold mine of data for a truly smart computer. For Google, too, because the companies producing movies and selling gas are interested in working with the advertiser who knows these things. Assistant may seem like an altruistic offering from Google to mankind, but it’s a money-making opportunity first.

When the Pixel launched with Assistant, smart people in the industry said it would have to come to every phone soon. Because it needs data to survive, keeping it for Google’s own phones or even Android TV means it would never grow. Getting it to work without a system update on those 300 million Galaxy phones means it can grow faster and better. This is a really big deal.

Samsung has its own assistant to work on and can’t be taking time to work on Google’s.

We don’t think there is a Hatfield-McCoy thing going on between Google and Samsung. Neither would be where they are today without the other, and both know it. But there has to be some healthy competition, where Samsung’s first order of business is to do what’s best for its own bottom line and Google doing the same. If Google Assistant required Samsung to take the time to integrate it into its operating system it wouldn’t happen. If anything Samsung would work to integrate its own assistant instead. It might be doing that, too. Google had to do the work itself on this one.

Corporate profits and strategy aside, having Assistant on all those Samsung phones as well as others is what is best for us. We get to choose what we want to use and for everyone using it, a bigger data pool makes it get better and better. That’s what really matters here, and even if it’s just a side effect from Google’s plans to continue the domination of mobile and expand it into other areas we still benefit.

Smart garbage can turns trash into a game

Waste is a big concern for cities — after all, no one likes looking at trash on the street. But it ends up there anyway, for various reasons: bins overflow, sometimes they’re hard to find and worst of all, some people just don’t care what they do with their trash. Sencity seeks to fight this apathy by turning litter disposal into a game with its new TetraBIN, a connected trash bin that rewards you for tossing out your garbage.

Sencity is part of a cohort of startups based out of Urban-X, a Brooklyn-based accelerator focused on improving the livability of cities like New York. This means companies focused on issues near and dear to city dwellers, like transportation and utilities. Street furniture is a big part of the urban landscape, and while a lot of municipalities have tried to make bike racks and benches more attractive, very little of it is what you’d call entertaining. Sure, there are bus stops with connected displays and public WiFi access points, but you still have to make your own fun while you’re out and about.

The TetraBIN is a large three-sided container wrapped in a screen displaying a sidescrolling green field. Bats fly through the air, while dogs eagerly wait on the ground crying “feed me!” The inside is lined with motion sensors that detect when something is tossed into the bin, and these are translated into chicken drumsticks on the screen. Successfully feeding the dog results in a win screen with a code that can be redeemed on the TetraBIN website. The idea is that pedestrians will earn various rewards by playing; they might even be able to receive physical items in the mail. Over time Sencity hopes that throwing out trash becomes an automatic habit, especially among children: the game may encourage kids to pick up other people’s trash as well, which Sencity staffers wouldn’t mind one bit.

In New York and other cities, street furniture like bus shelters and newsstands are built and operated by Cemusa, which makes its profits by putting advertisements on everything. TetraBIN would be a natural fit for interactive ads, but Sencity would rather partner with cities and local business improvement districts to get its containers on the street. The bins use 4G to connect and can transmit information to each other if in close proximity, so getting them set up requires minimal effort. And yes, when people tire of the games they can display other things like bus and train schedules, traffic updates and the weather. But where’s the fun in that?

Backstage with the big winners of the IGF and GDC awards

Every year, the Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice award shows bring a bit of glitz and glamour to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. And 2017 was no different. The two back-to-back spectacles honor the most innovative and important titles of the past year, covering everything from mobile gaming and student projects to mainstream, AAA extravaganzas.

We went backstage with the winners directly after they received their awards, capturing their thoughts on the industry — and their massive smiles.

See the full list of winners and honorees below, and check out our video for a first-hand look at GDC’s biggest night.

Independent Games Festival Awards winners

• Excellence in Narrative ($3,000): Ladykiller in a Bind (Love Conquers All Games)
• Excellence in Audio ($3,000): GoNNER (Art in Heart)
• Excellence in Design ($3,000): Quadrilateral Cowboy (Blendo Games)
• Excellence in Visual Art ($3,000): Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine)
• Nuovo Award ($5,000): Oiκοςpiel, Book I (David Kanaga)
• Best Student Game ($3,000): Un Pas Fragile (Géraud de Courrèges, Alisée Preud’homme, Gregory Parisi, Gaspard Morel)
• Audience Award ($3,000): Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine)
• Alt.Ctrl.GDC Award: Fear Sphere (New Arcade)
• Seumas McNally Grand Prize ($30,000): Quadrilateral Cowboy (Blendo Games)

Game Developers Choice Awards winners

• Best AR/VR Game: Job Simulator: The 2050 Archives (Owlchemy Labs)
• Best Visual Art: Inside (Playdead)
• Best Technology: Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (Naughty Dog)
• Best Narrative: Firewatch (Campo Santo)
• Innovation Award: No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)
• Best Mobile/Handheld Game: Pokemon Go (Niantic)
• Best Design: Overwatch (Blizzard)
• Best Debut: Campo Santo (Firewatch)
• Best Audio: Inside (Playdead)
• Audience Award: Battlefield 1 (DICE)
• Game of the Year: Overwatch (Blizzard)
• Ambassador Award: Former White House adviser Mark DeLoura
• Lifetime Achievement Award: Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner and Epic Games co-founder Tim Sweeney

Click here to catch up on the latest news from GDC 2017!

Here’s what happened at GDC 2017

Our time at GDC 2017 has come to an end, and we’re already looking forward to next year. Over the course of the week, we covered the latest developments from the gaming world, which included major announcements by Oculus and Microsoft on the alternative-reality front. But that wasn’t all: Independent games are always a major part of GDC and this year was no exception, as demonstrated by the massive Indie Megabooth. The show floor may be closed now, but stay tuned because we still have some stories to share with you about trends we noticed at the event.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from GDC 2017!

Can’t sleep? Text Dirty Lemon and see if its Sleep potion will help

Why it matters to you

Getting a good night’s rest is crucial, and you may be able to do it with the Sleep beverage from Dirty Lemon.

Finally, a nightcap that won’t make you feel like you need to wear a ball cap the next morning to hide a hangover. No, we haven’t discovered a side effect-less alcoholic beverage, but we may have found a way to help you sleep better. Meet Dirty Lemon, a new functional beverage brand based in Brooklyn that is sells its various tonics (really, we don’t know how else to describe them) exclusively via text message.

Created to address its customers beauty and wellness needs, Dirty Lemon offers three major products — Sleep, Detox, and Skin + Hair. Sleep — which launched just this January, promises to put customers to bed quickly and naturally with its combination of “functional herbs along with magnesium and rose water to promote drowsiness and mental calm.” Made with chamomile, lemon balm, and passionflower, Sleep hopes to help you get ready for bed when you need it most.

More: Your sleep tracker may actually disturb your sleep, study suggests

So what do those apothecary-esque herbs actually do for you? According to Dirty Lemon, passionflower is used to promote healthy sleep in those who experience restlessness, wakefulness or interrupted sleep patterns. Chamomile, on the other hand, is described as a sleep-inducer that modulates a healthy inflammatory response throughout the body. Magnesium Glycinate is said to promote an overall state of muscle relaxation,and also to improve sleep efficiency, early morning awakening, and combat insomnia.

As for its other products, Detox and Skin + Hair, these drinks also do what their names suggest. Detox, which is made with filtered water, lemon juice, herbal extracts, and activated charcoal (sourced from coconut shells), claims to help calm the stomach, support the liver and kidney functions, and trap impurities before they can be absorbed by the body. As for Skin + Hair, the first bottled beverage to contain collagen (along with hydrolyzed fish collagen peptides, horsetail, red clover, and cayenne) promises to aid in skin elasticity, hydration and skin density, increase internal collagen production, and offer nutrients for optimal hair health.

Marketed directly to millennials, Dirty Lemon’s unique SMS model was conceptualized by the company’s co-founders, Zak Normandin and Sommer Carroll. With hopes of changing the way people buy beverages, Dirty Lemon sought to open up lines of communication in direct a way as possible. “By being direct-to-consumer, Dirty Lemon has the ability to look ahead of what big beverage brands are doing and break the traditional commerce format with his unique text-to-buy platform,” the company notes. “The system gives the brand the opportunity to directly communicate with their consumer, which leads to the customer having a more intimate connection to the brand.”

So if you’re looking to try Dirty Lemon, just shoot the company a text.

9 military robots that are totally terrifying … and oddly adorable

The military has always been at the cutting edge of technology, so it should come as no surprise that the most advanced robots in the world are being built with military applications in mind. While the thought of autonomous machines carrying heavy armaments might make people a bit nervous, they have the potential to dramatically reduce loss of life, allowing soldiers to safely scout locations or breach enemy locations. Many of them are even designed for support purposes, rather than eliminating threats.

More: Meet Boston Dynamics’ eclectic lineup of innovative (and peculiar) robots

While many military projects from around the world are naturally shrouded in secrecy, some of them see the light of day, including robotic projects. Here are some of the coolest robots we’ve seen with military applications, from tiny spy robots to unmanned battle tanks.

MAARS

Don’t let its small size fool you. The MAARS (Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System) fits a lot of firepower into its diminutive frame. Its modular design allows its controllers to outfit it with a variety of armaments, ranging from non lethal lasers (designed to blind foes) to tear gas and even a grenade launcher. The MAARS is a follow-up to an earlier model of robot called SWORDS, which saw deployment in Iraq a few years ago.

DOGO

“What a cute robot!” you might say, as you see the DOGO round a corner. The small machine, roaming around on two treads, could be mistaken for a toy — at least, until it whips out its Glock. Yes, the DOGO houses within its body not only a camera, allowing for remote reconnaissance, but also a 9-millimeter pistol. A promotional video from manufacturer General Robotics shows off the DOGO in a scenario like something out of a Tom Clancy story, as a special forces team sends the DOGO into a hostage situation, taking out one of the kidnappers remotely.

SAFFiR

When designing a robot for military use, creating a heavily-armed assault machine is an obvious route to take. However, any military force has needs beyond shooting bad guys, and there are quite a few robots in development with an eye toward support functions. Take the SAFFiR (Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot), for example. The creation of Virginia Tech engineering students, the SAFFiR is designed to extinguish fires that break out on Naval ships. Although the machine is still in development, it will hopefully be able to react quickly to fires and resist much higher temperatures than the human body, thus keeping sailors out of danger.

Guardbot

Not every military robot needs to come equipped with guns. Reconnaissance is a vital part of military operations, and the small, spherical Guardbot is built with that purpose in mind. Originally designed for missions to Mars, the Guardbot is equipped with powerful cameras and can navigate various adverse environments, including those prone to snow, sand, and even water.

Gladiator

Designed to assist the U.S. Marine Corps in various operations, the Gladiator Tactical Unmanned Ground Vehicle looks like a small tank, and can be outfitted with various modular tools and armaments depending on what the situation calls for. Although it tops out at 10 miles per hour, the Gladiator trades speed for toughness; it has an armored hull, and users can mount machine guns and grenade launchers directly onto its body.

Alrobot

Allegedly built by two brothers, according to a story by the Baghdad Post, this robot is an unmanned vehicle designed to combat ISIS forces. Footage of the machine shows it sporting heavy weaponry and rolling around the Iraqi desert on four large wheels. Given the typical hazards soldiers face when combating ISIS — IEDs, ambushes, etc. — machines like the Alrobot may be crucial in minimizing risks to human soldiers.

Anbot

The Chinese-developed Anbot is an armed police robot designed by the country’s National Defense University. Capable of reaching max speeds of 11 mph, the machine is intended to patrol areas and, in the case of danger, can deploy an “electrically charged riot control tool.” Those worried about the Anbot’s resemblance to a Dalek, take heart; no blue police boxes have yet been seen in its vicinity.

RoboBee

Developed by Harvard’s Microbiotics Laboratory, this tiny robot is capable of hovering, although it seems to require an attached power cable for the time being. Theoretically, the RoboBee could represent an important step toward insectoid robots capable of transmitting audio or video, which would allow military intelligence to truly be a fly on the wall in important meetings. Of course, it could also help with non-military operations; its creators highlight the Robobee’s potential for crop pollination.

PD-100 Black Hornet

Another model of flying surveillance robot, the Black Hornet is made by Prox Dynamics, and looks like a miniature helicopter. The machine contains cameras that can stream live video to the user, allowing them to scout areas from a safe distance. Small, quiet, and helpful on the battlefield, the Black Hornet is like a Mission Impossible gadget in real life. The robot has already seen its share of action, too. Speaking with UAS Vision, British Major Adam Foden said that the military has already begun deploying the Black Hornet inside compounds in an effort to clear routes through enemy-held spaces. It’s worked well thus far, and frequently transmits clear and concise images back to British forces.

Ultimate List of Moto Z Mods

Want to give your Moto Z an ego boost? Tack on one of these magnetic modular backs.

The Moto Z, Moto Z Force, and Moto Z Play are all modular smartphones that can take advantage of Motorola’s proprietary Moto Mods. You can buy them separately online or through your carrier. Once you snap them on, the Moto Z knows how to utilize them from there. Here’s the complete list of Moto Mods to check out for your modular smartphone.

JBL SoundBoost

The music is better when you’re dancing to it with your friends. Bring your Spotify playlists to life with the JBL SoundBoost speaker, which snaps on to the Moto Z and has a built-in kickstand. The mod is comprised of two 27mm speakers with 6W of power each. You can use the speaker to broadcast conference calls and make sure everyone in the room can hear what’s being said back at headquarters. There’s also an extra 1000 mAh of battery packed in there.

See at Amazon

Moto Insta-Share Projector

YouTube is fun for everyone, but not when you have to huddle over a small screen to see what’s going on. Snap on Motorola’s Insta-Share projector, which projects what’s on your Moto Z’s screen onto the wall of your choice. You can project up to 70-inches and adjust the device as you like with the included stand. The projector also adds on an extra 1100 mAh of battery.

See at Amazon

Hasselblad True Zoom Camera

Get up the ten times the optical zoom with the Motorola-commission Hasselblad True Zoom Camera. This Moto Mod turns your regular old smartphone into a bonafide point-and-shoot of sorts. It features optical zoom, xenon flash, and physical buttons for zooming’ and shootin’. And if you use the Moto Z’s RAW shooting format, you can do all the editing and tweaking you need to do to make it look professional in a desktop app.

See at Amazon

Mophie Juice Pack

The battery will eventually peter out on your Motorola smartphone. Avoid living life without smartphone juice by packing something like the Mophie Juice Pack. This snap-on module provides an extra 3150 mAh of battery and can be easily recharged when you charge up the Moto Z.

See at Amazon

Kate Spade New York Power Pack

For the stylish lady in your life, get her a Kate Spade New York Power Pack. It not only hails the brand’s simplistic, modernist color palette, it also boosts her smartphone’s battery capacity an extra 2200 mAh. Like the Mophie Juice Power Pack, this easily charges alongside the Moto Z when it’s plugged in for the night.

There is also a polka-dotted variant that we found offered at Verizon.

See at Amazon

Incipio Offgrid Power Pack

One more power pack! This one is from Incipio and, like the Mophie Juice Pack, it’s a simplistic battery back you can tack on to the Moto Z for an extra boost of battery power. The Incipio Offgrid Power Pack features an additional 2200 mAh of battery. It also supports both Qi and PMA wireless charging, which will come in handy from time to time where wireless chargers might be available —this one compatible with the charging pads offered at Starbucks! It comes in both white and black.

See at Amazon

TUMI Wireless Charging Power Pack

We were clearly joking. Here’s one more power pack and it’s from trusted luggage brand, TUMI. The TUMI Wireless Charging Power Pack is outfitted in a cool, collected black and adds an extra 2220mAh of battery to either of the Moto Z devices. It also supports Qi wireless charging, so you can set it down to charge both the phone and the power pack at the same time. The TUMI Wireless Charging Power Pack will also charge with the Moto Z when it’s plugged in for the night.

See at Amazon

Incipio Vehicle Dock

This phone mount doesn’t just cradle the Moto Z, it latches on to it. Once you snap in the smartphone, the dock will fire up Android Auto so that you can have immediate access to your contact, music, and maps without being distracted from the road. The Incipio Vehicle dock also offers 15-watt fast charging in your car.

See at Verizon

Coming soon

The above Mods aren’t the only ones you can look forward to attaching to the Moto Z series. At Mobile World Congress 2017, Motorola announced a bevy of new Moto Mods, including a gamepad, a glass back wireless charging add-on, a Turbo Charger, and a charging adapter for other Moto Mods. There’s also an Alexa-powered Harman speaker dock coming at a later date.

Moto Z, Moto Z Force and Moto Z Play

• Moto Z + Z Force review!
• Moto Z Play review
• The Hasselblad True Zoom is a Mod to remember
• Moto Z specs
• Moto Mods custom backs
• The latest Moto Z news
• Discuss in our Moto Z forums

Motorola
Verizon

AI continued its world domination at Mobile World Congress

Silicon Valley investor and web pioneer Marc Andreessen said in 2011 that “software is eating the world.” The explosion of app ecosystems seems to prove his point, but things have changed dramatically even since then. These days, it might be more accurate to say that “AI is fueling the software that’s eating the world,” but I’ve never been very quotable. In any case, it’s not impossible to ignore the normalization of artificial intelligence at this year’s Mobile World Congress — even if a resurrected 17-year-old phone did end up stealing the show.

When it comes to the intersection of smartphones and AI, Motorola had the most surprising news at the show. In case you missed it, Motorola is working with Amazon (and Harman Kardon, most likely) to build a Moto Mod that will make use of Alexa. Even to me, someone who cooled on the Mods concept after an initial wave of interesting accessories slowed to a trickle, this seems like a slam dunk. Even better, Motorola product chief Dan Dery described what the company ultimately wanted to achieve: a way to get assistants like Alexa to integrate more closely with the personal data we keep on our smartphones.

In his mind, for instance, it would be ideal to ask an AI make a reservation at a restaurant mentioned in an email a day earlier. With Alexa set to be a core component of many Moto phones going forward, here’s hoping Dery and the team find a way to break down the walls between AI assistants and the information that could make them truly useful. Huawei made headlines earlier this year when it committed to putting Alexa on the Mate 9, but we’ll soon see if the company’s integration will attempt to be as deep.

Speaking of Alexa, it’s about to get some new competition in Asia. Line Inc., makers of the insanely popular messaging app of the same name, are building an assistant named Clova for smartphones and connected speakers. It will apparently be able to deal with complex questions in many forms: Development will initially focus on a first-party app, but should find its way into many different ones, giving users opportunities to talk to services that share some underlying tech.

LG got in on the AI assistant craze too, thanks to a close working relationship with Google. The LG V20 was the very first Nougat smartphone to be announced … until Google stole the spotlight with its own Nougat-powered Pixel line. And the G6 was the first non-Pixel phone to come with Google’s Assistant, a distinction that lasted for maybe a half-hour before Google said the assistant would roll out to smartphones running Android 6.0 and up. The utility is undeniable, and so far, Google Assistant on the G6 has been almost as seamless as the experience on a Pixel.

As a result, flagships like Sony’s newly announced XZ Premium will likely ship with Assistant up and running as well, giving us Android fans an easier way to get things done via speech. It’s worth pointing out that other flagship smartphones that weren’t announced at Mobile World Congress either do or will rely on some kind of AI assistant to keep users pleased and productive. HTC’s U Ultra has a second screen where suggestions and notifications generated by the HTC Companion will pop up, though the Companion isn’t available on versions of the Ultra already floating around. And then there’s Samsung’s Galaxy S8, which is expected to come with an assistant named Bixby when it’s officially unveiled in New York later this month.

While it’s easy to think of “artificial intelligence” merely as software entities that can interact with us intelligently, machine-learning algorithms also fall under that umbrella. Their work might be less immediately noticeable at times, but companies are banking on the algorithmic ability to understand data that we can’t on a human level and improve functionality as a result.

Take Huawei’s P10, for instance. Like the flagship Mate 9 before it, the P10 benefits from a set of algorithms meant to improve performance over time by figuring out the order in which you like to do things and allocating resources accordingly. With its updated EMUI 5.1 software, the P10 is supposed to be better at managing resources like memory when the phone boots and during use — all based on user habits. The end goal is to make phones that actually get faster over time, though it will take a while to see any real changes. (You also might never see performance improvements, since “performance” is a subjective thing anyway.)

Even Netflix showed up at Mobile World Congress to talk about machine-learning. The company is well aware that sustained growth and relevance will come as it improves the mobile-video experience. In the coming months, expect to see better-quality video using less network bandwidth, all thanks to algorithms that try quantify what it means for a video to “look good.” Combine those algorithms with a new encoding scheme that compresses individual scenes in a movie or TV episode differently based on what’s happening in them, and you have a highly complex fix your eyes and wallet will thank you for.

And, since MWC is just the right kind of absurd, we got an up-close look at a stunning autonomous race car called (what else?) RoboCar. Nestled within the sci-fi-inspired body are components that would’ve seemed like science fiction a few decades ago: There’s a complex cluster of radar, LIDAR, ultrasonic and speed sensors all feeding information to an NVIDIA brain using algorithms to interpret all that information on the fly.

That these developments spanned the realms of smartphones, media and cars in a single, formerly focused trade show speak to how big a deal machine learning and artificial intelligence have become. There’s no going back now — all we can do is watch as companies make better use of the data offered to them, and hold those companies accountable when they inevitably screw up.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from MWC 2017.