Android 11 may finally remove Android’s 4GB file size limit for video recordings

In 2019, smartphone brands have made huge jumps in camera quality, especially when it comes to zoom and low-light. On the other hand, video quality hasn’t been given the same amount of attention. That could change in 2020 with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865’s improved ISP. Yet, even as Android smartphones are shipping with larger internal storage capacities, have faster modems, and are now supporting 5G networks, an old limitation prevents most of these phones from saving video files that are larger than 4GB in size. However, that could change in Android 11, the next major version of Android that’s set to release in 2020.

I’ll try to summarize the reasoning behind this limitation without going too deep into the technical aspects. Basically, Google decided that Android’s MediaMuxer and MPEG4Writer classes, which are respectively responsible for muxing (combining) video files and saving them as MP4 files, should support outputting an MP4 file with a maximum size of 2^32 – 1 bytes, which is approximately 4GB. This decision was made in early 2014, back when the Google Nexus 5 with its maximum 32GB of internal storage was still on the market, SD cards were still widely in use, and the first phones with 4K video recording had just come to market (Galaxy Note 3). Thus, there wasn’t much demand to save video files over 4GB in size: most phones didn’t have enough storage, SD cards formatted in FAT32 wouldn’t support it anyway, and few phones recorded in high enough quality to even meet that limitation. Fast forward 5 years and much has changed: there are now phones with 1TB of storage, SD cards are now the exception rather than the norm, and 4K video recording is ubiquitous, with 8K video recording soon to reach devices.

Today, if you record a 4K video on the Pixel 4, your video will reach 4GB in size in about 12 minutes; that’s at the default quality settings of 30fps for the frame rate and 48Mbps for the bitrate. After about 12 minutes of recording, the camera app will save the video and immediately begin recording another video – without the user noticing. When you check your phone’s DCIM folder, you’ll notice that what was supposed to be one continuous video recording has instead been split into multiple video files. For example, a 73 minute video recording on my Pixel 4 was split into 7 different files – all of which were seen by Google Photos as separate recordings. It’s not difficult to mux these MP4 files before uploading to Google Photos, but you’ll have to use a third-party app if you want to do so. Most people wouldn’t bother or know how to do so, I would imagine.

A 73 minute 4K30 video recording from my Pixel 4 split up into 7 different files.

Developers have asked for a way to record video files larger than 4GB in size for years now, and it seems that change could finally be coming in Android 11. According to the description of a new commit in the AOSP gerrit, Google is updating Android’s media classes to remove the 32-bit file size limitation. Specifically, Android will now “use [a] 64bit offset in mpeg4writer,” which allows Android “to compose/mux files more than 4GB in size.” During testing, Google successfully composed a file of around 32GB in size, and in a separate test, even managed to fill up the entire storage capacity of the phone with a single recording. A maximum file size of 2^64 -1 bytes is comically large and would never really ever be met, so we expect Google to limit the MediaRecorder API or OEMs to limit their stock camera apps to support a more reasonable maximum file size. However, apps like OpenCamera that use the Camera2API should still be able to arbitrarily set whatever maximum file size they want without having to worry about the 32-bit file size limitation.

OpenCamera’s Video Recording Settings

The commit has not been merged yet, but when it does, we expect the change to be reflected in Android 11 since that’s the next major Android release. The first Android 10 beta went live in March of this year, so expect to see an Android 11 beta in March of 2020 followed by a stable release sometime in August of 2020. With phones from Xiaomi and Samsung expected to support 8K video recording, this change is welcome – albeit way overdue.

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Thanks to XDA Recognized Developer luca020400 for the tip!

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Chrome OS 80 lets you sideload Android apps without Developer Mode

It’s probably no secret to anyone that Chrome OS now supports Android apps. It has for a while, in fact. Before bringing Android app support to Chrome OS, it was actually very much limited to web apps, but Android app support has unlocked a lot of possibilities for Chromebook users, including better, native experiences for social media, productivity apps, and even some gaming as well. The experience was, at first, pretty limited, but further updates have made it so Android apps feel more native and seamless every time. One notable omission, though, was that you couldn’t sideload Android apps on a Chromebook unless you enabled Developer Mode. Starting with Chrome OS 80, as previously announced, this will be changing.

Now, please note that the process is still not at all as straightforward as it is on an Android phone or tablet. This is because Google intends users to install Android apps to their Chromebooks exclusively through the Google Play Store: the process for sideloading APKs is meant for developers testing out their apps, according to Google. This is probably to ensure compatibility with their Chrome OS system, but it’s still a hurdle for power users wanting to sideload APKs. Once you have Chrome OS 80 running on your Chromebook, though, the process goes as follows:

1. Download Google’s Android SDK Platform Tools for Linux on your Chromebook and extract the contents to an easily accessible location. This will essentially allow you to use adb and fastboot commands within your Chromebook through the Linux console. For more info on how to get adb and fastboot running, please refer to the Linux section of this tutorial.
2. Enable ADB debugging in the Develop Android apps section under Chrome OS’s Linux settings. The device will restart when you’ve confirmed the dialog.
3. Open up a Linux console and set up an ADB-over-WiFi server within your device by running the adb connect 100.115.92.2:5555 command.
4. Drag the apps you want to install to the platform-tools folder you are using.
5. From here, you can sideload Android apps by using the adb install command within that same Linux console. For example, if I want to install fortnite.apk, then you should run adb install fortnite.apk.
6. The app should have been installed correctly at this point.

It is far from a streamlined process, but it doesn’t require you to enable Developer Mode on your Chromebook and compromise its security. You will, however, have a warning on your lock screen saying that non-Google Play apps may be running on your device.

Chrome OS 80 is currently available in the Dev branch, so that’s also something you should keep in mind if you want to sideload apps to your Chromebook. We hope Google ends up relaxing their policies a bit so that we can sideload apps like you can on Android phones, as several popular apps, including Fortnite, are not available on the Play Store.

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Via: AboutChromebooks

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Download links for the ASUS ROG Phone II’s Android 10 beta are now online

ASUS is one of the smartphone brands that has improved the most during 2019. The launch of the ZenFone 6 was certainly one that caught us off guard: it provided flagship performance on a budget, and what’s better, they got rid of all of ZenUI’s bloat, with the newer version of ZenUI being very, very close to stock Android. It went on to become one of ASUS’s biggest smartphone hits – at least among smartphone enthusiasts – in a while. Then we saw them release the ASUS ROG Phone II, which is a total powerhouse of a device, powered by a Snapdragon 855+, up to 12GB of RAM, and a 120Hz display. It also brought the same software that made the ZenFone 6 so great. Now, after pushing the Android 10 update for the ZenFone 6 and 5Z, ASUS is gearing up to roll out the update for the ROG Phone II. Before that happens, the device is first receiving a beta update to Android 10.

ASUS ROG Phone II XDA Forum

The Android 10 update for the ASUS ROG Phone II comes with all the software features that you should expect from the latest Android release. It also comes with the December 2019 security patches and no UI changes – it is still based on ZenUI 6. Of course, being in a beta state, there are a few bugs that you should be aware of, including the inability to answer calls properly while on game mode as well as the inability to open the icon manager without crashing SystemUI. These are risks that you should acknowledge before trying to flash it to your device.

If you’re not comfortable with beta software, then you may very well wait for a stable update to roll out which, given how we already have a beta, shouldn’t be much longer. If, however, you’re dying to try Android 10 on your device, then you should hop ahead and download it to your device now. After downloading the below file, rename it to UL-ASUS_I001_1-ASUS-16.0631.1912.22-1.1.227-user.zip and then put on the root of the internal storage and then restart. If you have a rooted phone, check out this thread in our forums for methods to keep root access.

Download Android 10 Beta for the ROG Phone II

Are you excited about Android 10 on the ROG Phone II?

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Download links for the ASUS ROG Phone II’s Android 10 beta are now online

ASUS has been one of the companies that have improved the most during 2019. The launch of the ZenFone 6 was certainly one that caught us off guard: it provided flagship performance on a budget, and what’s better, they got rid of all of ZenUI’s bloat, with the newer version of ZenUI being very, very close to stock Android. It went on to become one of ASUS’s biggest smartphone hits in a while. Then we saw them release the ASUS ROG Phone II, which is a total powerhouse of a device, powered by a Snapdragon 855+, up to 12GB of RAM, and features a 120Hz display. It also brought the same software that made the ZenFone 6 so great, and now, the device is receiving a beta update to Android 10.

ASUS ROG Phone II XDA Forum

The Android 10 update for the ASUS ROG Phone II comes with all of the software features that you should expect from Android 10. It also comes with the December 2019 security patches and no UI changes—it is still based on ZenUI 6. Of course, being in a beta state, there are a few bugs that you should be aware of, including the inability to answer calls properly while on game mode as well as the inability to open the icon manager without crashing SystemUI. These are risks that you should acknowledge before trying to flash it to your device.

If you’re not comfortable with beta software, then you may very well wait for a stable update to roll out which, given how we already have a beta, shouldn’t be much longer. If, however, you’re dying to try out Android 10 on your device, then you should hop ahead and download it to your device right now. Aside from the known issues, it should run completely fine but do expect bugs. Also, please do check out this thread in our forums for knowing more about it, as well as alternative mirrors and root methods for it.

Download Android 10 for the ROG Phone II now!

Are you excited about Android 10 on the ROG Phone II?

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Samsung’s next flagship lineup may be called the “Galaxy S20”

We’re less than a week away from 2020, yet we’re already getting to know some of the devices that will be making headlines this upcoming year. One of them is, obviously, from Samsung. We already know a fair bit about Samsung’s upcoming flagship phones, including their screen sizes, overall design, and some camera specs and hardware features as well including 108MP cameras and high refresh rate displays. Samsung’s upcoming flagship lineup is largely expected to launch as the Galaxy S11, Galaxy S11e, and Galaxy S11+, but if two Twitter sources are to believe, this may not be the case at all: we might see a small change in the naming scheme and see them launch as the Galaxy S20.

Galaxy S11+ XDA Forums | Galaxy S11 XDA Forums | Galaxy S11e XDA Forums

This possibility was suggested by two separate Twitter sources, leaksters @IceUniverse and @MMDDJ_, who both independently tweeted the purported device’s name (“Galaxy S20” in the case of Ice Universe, while @MMDDJ_ stuck to just “S20”). So if this is to be believed, Samsung’s newest lineup of devices would be called the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20e, and Galaxy S20+. This wouldn’t be out of the ordinary: Huawei also did this last year with the Huawei P20 line (which was expected to launch as the P11) and has stuck to it from then onwards, with their latest device being the Mate 30. Ice Universe also followed up their tweet saying that “next year is 2020, and 20 is a new beginning” as a possible explanation for the name change.

Next year is 2020, and 20 is a new beginning.

— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) December 24, 2019

For now, though, you should take this with a grain, or rather a metric ton, of salt, as neither of them provided any sources for their claims. So while Galaxy S20 is a definite possibility, we shouldn’t rule out the Galaxy S11 name just yet, as we’re still at least two months away from an official announcement at Unpacked 2020. It’s very possible that even Samsung itself doesn’t yet know which name to use.

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Samsung’s next flagship lineup may be called the “Galaxy S20”

We’re less than a week away from 2020, yet we’re already getting to know some of the devices that will be making headlines this upcoming year. One of them is, obviously, from Samsung. We already know a fair bit about Samsung’s upcoming flagship phones, including their screen sizes, overall design, and some camera specs and hardware features as well including 108MP cameras and high refresh rate displays. Samsung’s upcoming flagship lineup is largely expected to launch as the Galaxy S11, Galaxy S11e, and Galaxy S11+, but if two Twitter sources are to believe, this may not be the case at all: we might see a small change in the naming scheme and see them launch as the Galaxy S20.

Galaxy S11+ XDA Forums | Galaxy S11 XDA Forums | Galaxy S11e XDA Forums

This possibility was suggested by two separate Twitter sources, leaksters @IceUniverse and @MMDDJ_, who both independently tweeted the purported device’s name (“Galaxy S20” in the case of Ice Universe, while @MMDDJ_ stuck to just “S20”). So if this is to be believed, Samsung’s newest lineup of devices would be called the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20e, and Galaxy S20+. This wouldn’t be out of the ordinary: Huawei also did this last year with the Huawei P20 line (which was expected to launch as the P11) and has stuck to it from then onwards, with their latest device being the Mate 30. Ice Universe also followed up their tweet saying that “next year is 2020, and 20 is a new beginning” as a possible explanation for the name change.

Next year is 2020, and 20 is a new beginning.

— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) December 24, 2019

For now, though, you should take this with a grain, or rather a metric ton, of salt, as neither of them provided any sources for their claims. So while Galaxy S20 is a definite possibility, we shouldn’t rule out the Galaxy S11 name just yet, as we’re still at least two months away from an official announcement at Unpacked 2020. It’s very possible that even Samsung itself doesn’t yet know which name to use.

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Download the latest Google Recorder app on most Android devices

Google’s latest Pixel 4 smartphones have a lot of appealing features like 90Hz refresh rate displays and Google’s latest camera software, but one of the features that we’ve personally found to be incredibly useful is the new Google Recorder app. This app is a fully offline voice recorder with real-time transcriptions and audio search. Google’s Recorder app may not be entirely original or the most feature-filled, but it does what it’s built to do really well. If you own a Pixel 3a, Pixel 3, or Pixel 2, then the app is also available for you so long as you’re running the latest December 2019 software release. If you have the first generation Pixel or any other smartphone, then you’ll have to resort to unconventional means to download and install the latest version of the Google Recorder app.

This app is really useful if you’re a student looking to record lectures or if you’re a journalist looking to record interviews. I personally find it really useful to quickly make a note about whatever I’m thinking of; it’s faster to open up the Google Recorder app and start talking than it is to type out whatever is on my mind in an app like Google Keep.

The only currently supported language for transcriptions is U.S. English, though, so you may have trouble getting the transcription engine to recognize your speech if English isn’t your primary language. While running the app on my Pixel 4, it was able to transcribe my voice even in noisy environments, though your mileage may vary on phones that aren’t officially supported. Lastly, the audio quality of saved recordings isn’t that high, but Google is working on letting you save audio in the higher-quality WAV format. If you think you’ll find this app to be useful, then here’s how to get it on most modern Android smartphones.

Download the latest Google Recorder app

Requirements

1. Android smartphone running Android 9 Pie or Android 10. The app wasn’t built for Android versions older than Android 9 Pie.
2. Android software without significant modifications to the TextView component in the Android framework. It seems that the Google Recorder app fails to work properly on certain devices because those devices are running software with modifications to TextView. There’s no way to tell if this app will work on your device without actually testing it, though, so we went ahead and tested it on a bunch of different phones to save you the trouble:
   • Fully Works
     • Google Pixel and Pixel XL running Android 10
     • Huawei and Honor phones running EMUI 9 (Android 9 Pie) or EMUI 10 (Android 10)
     • LG phones running LG UX 8.0 (Android 9 Pie)
     • Motorola phones running Android 9 Pie
     • Nokia phones running Android 9 Pie
     • Samsung Galaxy phones running One UI 1.0/1.5 (Android 9 Pie) or One UI 2.0 (Android 10)
     • Sony Xperia phones running Android 9 Pie or Android 10
     • Any phone running a custom ROM based on AOSP Android 9 Pie or Android 10
   • Partially Works (recording works but transcriptions aren’t visible after saving)
     • ASUS phones running ROG UI 2.0/ZenUI 6.0 based on Android 9 Pie or Android 10
     • OPPO and Realme phones running ColorOS 6 based on Android 9 Pie
     • OnePlus phones running OxygenOS 10 based on Android 10
   • Doesn’t Work
     • Xiaomi phones running MIUI 10 or MIUI 11

If you want to download an official, unmodified version of the Google Recorder app straight from Google, there’s only one version that works on unsupported devices: the leaked APK that I found and uploaded to APKMirror. Though it’s an older version of the app (version 1.0.271), it still has the key functionality of the app such as real-time transcriptions and audio search.

Alternatively, if you want the latest version of the app (version 1.1.284), you can download the modified version that I uploaded to AndroidFileHost. It has the same package name as the original app but was signed by a different signing key (my own), so it won’t install on top of the official releases. The only thing I changed in the app was the requirement to have the PIXEL_2017_EXPERIENCE feature flag; with the removal of this flag, the app no longer immediately closes on unsupported devices.

Download Google Recorder App: Official 1.0.271 ||| Unofficial 1.1.284

During our attempt to get this app working on more devices, we discovered that, at least on the phones where the app doesn’t immediately crash (ie. everyone but Xiaomi), transcriptions are being saved even though the app is unable to surface them after saving a recording. When transferring the Google Recorder app’s data folder from my OnePlus 6T to my Pixel 2 XL, the transcription that I thought wasn’t saved on the OnePlus 6T suddenly became visible on the Pixel 2 XL. That, plus the logs we saved when debugging the crash on MIUI, led us to believe that OEM software is to blame for the app not working properly on all devices. For further evidence, we confirmed that the app works fully on OnePlus and Xiaomi devices running AOSP-based custom ROMs.

Thus, either Google would need to make changes to their app or OEMs would need to make changes to their software in order for the app to run on every device. I don’t blame Google for locking this app to Pixel smartphones, though, since it’s a killer feature. That’s why the XDA forums are here.

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