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Cet article est aussi disponible en français <!– In partnership with –> First published August 16, 2026 Something funny is happening in the media business today. The Internet spent 20 years teaching publishers to chase scale, and just as many of them got pretty good at it, the Internet decided that scale was no longer the prize. Google wants to answer the question instead of sending you to the article; AI wants to summarise the reporting instead of sending you to the homepage, and social platforms want your headline, your video and your journalist, but preferably not the bill for the newsroom that produced them. This sounds like a disaster for media, and in part it is. But there is another way to look at it. The Internet may finally be forcing publishers to answer a question they have been able to avoid for years: what, exactly, are people paying you for? This question gets more interesting when you look at what some media companies are doing about it. Puck News is giving journalists equity and tying their pay to the subscribers they attract. Defector Media has gone in the opposite direction, with its journalists owning the company. Hunterbrook has decided that readers are not necessarily the customers at all and is using financial markets to fund investigative journalism. These are very different businesses, but they are variations on the same idea. In this case, if distribution is becoming a commodity, the value has to move somewhere else. And that may be good news for journalism. The middle is where the trouble is Media has always had seasons, and I was reminded of that recently when a friend who works at Microsoft told me he has started thinking about his own career in exactly those terms. He is a software developer, but he joked that he might not be one forever, since he is now building tools that could eventually replace parts of his current work. I got a sense that he understood technology’s seasonality and knew the skills that made him valuable in one cycle might not be the ones that mattered in the next. Media has followed the same pattern. Print had its monopoly, then came digital publishing, when a website could reach a global audience without physical newspapers. Social media followed, with Facebook and Twitter (now X) becoming enormous free distribution systems, before publishers figured out search engine optimisation (SEO) and discovered there was money to be made by answering almost every question anyone had ever typed into Google. The arrangement worked by writing an article, Google finds it, someone clicks, an ad follows them around and everyone gets paid. The catch, as my friend’s story makes clear, is that every season eventually produces the technology that makes the previous season less valuable. Still, the problem was that publishers never really owned the most important part of that arrangement. Now, if Google can answer a search directly, there is less reason to click. If ChatGPT can explain a company, market or technology in a paragraph, there is less reason to open multiple tabs. If an AI-generated answer can absorb the work of tens of SEO articles, the publisher producing those articles has a problem that no amount of better headline writing can solve. Next Wave continues after this ad. The best builders don’t just shape the future – they stay informed. Series V by Ventures Platform brings you the insights, perspectives, trends, and opportunities shaping Africa’s innovation ecosystem. It’s an essential monthly asset for founders, operators, investors, and anyone building the future of the continent. Subscribe now! The publishers most exposed are the ones sitting in the middle, where the business requires a reasonably large newsroom but the journalism is not differentiated enough to command a direct relationship with the reader. It is important to take note of this because the problem is not that people have stopped wanting journalism. Rather, people still want someone to tell them what happened, what everyone else is missing and what might happen next. They just have more ways to get the first answer for free. The “awkward” part is that this could also make journalism a better business. The strange economics of being worth paying for Puck News believes people don’t subscribe because they need another article about whatever matters to them, but because they want to know what people inside those worlds know. Sounds like a small distinction, but it changes the economics because the platform has built its newsroom around personalities and expertise, with annual subscriptions ranging from about $100 to $250. Its journalists can receive equity in the company and earn bonuses linked to the subscribers their work generates. A reporter traditionally builds an audience, owns the subscriber relationship, and receives a salary and perhaps a raise. Puck is effectively arguing that if the reporter is the reason someone pays, perhaps the reporter should own some of the upside. The company has about 240,000 total subscribers, including roughly 40,000 paid subscribers, and raised $10 million in a Series B round that valued it at $70 million. Puck is treating journalism as a creator business without pretending journalism is just content creation. The approach may become more important as AI makes generic information cheaper. If a chatbot can tell you what happened, a journalist has to offer something the chatbot cannot easily manufacture, like access, judgement, sources, taste, accountability and a reason to believe that this particular person is worth listening to. Sounds suspiciously like a good journalist, right? Then there is the anti-VC argument Defector Media’s journalists did not want a venture-backed media company but to own the company themselves. Defector was founded in 2020 by former Deadspin journalists after they left the site following a dispute with its private equity owner. They created a worker cooperative, meaning the people producing the journalism also own the business. This is unusual in an industry where the standard sequence is founder, funding round, growth, another funding round, strategic
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Table of contents Why some phones have it before others Google Pixel phones running Android 17 Samsung Galaxy phones running Android 17 Motorola phones running Android 17 OnePlus, Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, and Honor status Full list at a glance What this means for you Android 17 has been available since June 2026, but only a small group of phones actually have it installed today. Google’s Pixel line leads the way, followed by three new Samsung foldables and one Motorola phone. Other brands, including the popular Galaxy S26 series, OnePlus, Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, and Honor devices, are still waiting for a beta or a confirmed release date. This list covers exactly what has shipped as of August 17, 2026, not what brands have promised. Find out whether your phone already has Android 17, and when it is coming if it doesn’t. Why some phones have it before others Google rolls out Android 17 in phases, so not every eligible phone gets the update on the same day. Where you live and which carrier you use both affect when the update reaches your phone. Samsung and Motorola follow the same pattern, and both companies have said their own rollouts depend on region and carrier. There is also a second layer to this update. Having Android 17 on your phone does not guarantee you get Gemini Intelligence, the AI features Google built into the release. Those features need at least 12GB of RAM, a recent flagship chip, and a newer AI engine called Gemini Nano v3. Many phones with plenty of RAM still miss this bar because they run an older version of Nano. The Pixel 9 Pro has 16GB of RAM, more than enough on paper, but it runs Gemini Nano v2 instead of v3. That single detail keeps it out of the Gemini Intelligence group even though it easily qualifies for Android 17 itself. The Galaxy Z Fold 7, the OnePlus 13, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra face the same limit. Devices confirmed to meet the Gemini Intelligence bar include the Pixel 10 series, the Galaxy S26 series, the OnePlus 15 series, and the OPPO Find X9 and X8 series. Google says Gemini Intelligence will reach more phones later this summer, but for now it stays limited to newer, higher-spec hardware. Google Pixel phones running Android 17 Every Pixel from the Pixel 6 onward already has Android 17. Google rolled the update out to these phones on June 16, 2026, alongside the June Pixel Drop, and it has been available ever since. Pixel 6, 6 Pro, and 6a Pixel 7, 7 Pro, and 7a Pixel 8, 8 Pro, and 8a Pixel 9, 9 Pro, 9 Pro XL, 9 Pro Fold, and 9a Pixel 10, 10 Pro, 10 Pro XL, 10 Pro Fold, and 10a Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet Google announced the Pixel 11 series, including the Pixel 11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro XL, and 11 Pro Fold, at its Made by Google event on August 12, 2026. These phones ship with Android 17 already installed. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold arrives later, in October, while the rest of the lineup should reach stores around August 20, based on how Google timed the Pixel 10 launch last year. The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are nearing the end of their update life. Google skipped them in the August 2026 security patch, and they will not receive Android 17 QPR2. Support for both phones ends in October 2026. The Pixel 6a has a longer runway and keeps getting updates until July 2027. If your phone is a Pixel 5 or older, it won’t receive Android 17. Google’s support window for that generation has already closed. Samsung Galaxy phones running Android 17 Samsung’s rollout is much narrower right now. Only three phones ship with Android 17 today: the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Z Flip 8. Samsung unveiled these at Galaxy Unpacked in London on July 22, 2026, and they reached stores on August 7 across 106 markets. The Galaxy S26, S26+, and S26 Ultra are still on the One UI 9 beta. Samsung opened the beta in May 2026 across six countries, and a fifth beta build was rolling out in August. The stable version has not landed yet, and Samsung has not given a firm date. Some reports point to late August, while others expect it to stretch into late September or October. Treat this window as an estimate until Samsung officially confirms it. Samsung has not published a full list of which older phones will get Android 17. Based on internal testing spotted by Samsung-focused outlets, the Galaxy S25 series, S24 series, S23 series, and older foldables like the Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 are expected to get the update later. Samsung is also testing builds on around 50 devices internally. A few older Samsung phones will not get this update, including the Galaxy S22 series, the Galaxy S21 FE, and the Z Fold 4. If you own one of these, One UI 8.5 is the last major update your phone will receive. Motorola phones running Android 17 Motorola is ahead of most other brands except Google and Samsung. The stable rollout has already started with the Motorola Edge 2025, and Motorola’s parent company Lenovo confirmed more than 50 eligible devices in a blog post published around August 10, 2026. After the Edge 2025, Motorola plans to prioritise its newer flagship phones, the Razr 70 series and Edge 70 lineup, before working through the rest of the Moto G series over the coming weeks and months. Two popular models, the Edge 50 Neo and Edge 60 Neo, are missing from Motorola’s list even though they came with a 5-year update promise, and the Moto G56 is also absent. Motorola’s version of Android 17 brings a few new touches, including Live Updates styled like a floating island, a Moto AI assistant called Qira, lock-screen customisation, and a redesigned volume panel. OnePlus, Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo,
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Table of contents What is Android 17 QPR2 Beta timeline so far Confirmed features in Android 17 QPR2 Which devices are getting Android 17 QPR2 How to try the Android 17 QPR2 beta What happens next Android 17 QPR2 Beta 3 was launched on August 14, 2026, and it is the biggest build in this update cycle so far. It brings a native App Lock, a redesigned Quick Settings editor, more lock screen blur, deeper colour customisation, and new protection against call-forwarding fraud. This quarterly release is nearing a stable launch in December 2026, alongside that month’s Pixel Feature Drop. Beta 3 is the newest version available as of August 17, 2026, and no Beta 4 has shipped yet. Here is a breakdown of every confirmed feature, which devices get them, and what to expect before the update goes stable. What is Android 17 QPR2 A Quarterly Platform Release, or QPR, is how Google updates Android between major versions. After Android 17 went stable in June 2026, Google planned three follow-up releases: QPR1, QPR2, and QPR3. QPR1 is expected to go stable in September 2026. QPR2 is expected in December 2026. QPR3 should follow in early 2027. Each one lands on Pixel phones as a Feature Drop, and each is also released to other Android devices through the Android Open Source Project. QPR2 works differently from a full Android version upgrade. Instead of introducing a major new SDK, it ships a minor SDK release with small API additions. Google says these changes should not affect how existing apps behave, so developers do not need to do extensive testing to stay compatible. Google also changed how it tests new builds. Instead of separate Developer Previews, Android 17 uses an always-on testing track called Android Canary. Some QPR2 features, like the Quick Settings editor and the new colour options, first appeared in Canary builds before they reached the QPR2 beta. Google has not confirmed an exact release date for QPR2, but December is the target. For comparison, Android 16 QPR2 went stable on December 2, 2025, so a similar date is likely this year too. Beta timeline so far Beta 1 arrived on July 20, 2026. It focused on stability rather than new features. Google fixed a handful of bugs, including Bluetooth pairing failures, media controls that flashed on the lock screen by mistake, a crash when you opened Gemini, and notifications that disappeared from the shade until you restarted your phone. Beta 2 arrived on August 3, 2026. It was a light release. Google did not publish a changelog, but testers found a redesigned Settings app icon and a quiet internal name change from “CinnamonBun” to “DEV.” Beta 3 arrived on August 14, 2026. This is the biggest build in the cycle. It introduced App Lock, lock screen blur, the Quick Settings editor, expanded colour theming, multitasking updates for foldables, and the new call forwarding protection. As of August 17, 2026, Beta 3 is still the latest version. No Beta 4 has shipped yet. Confirmed features in Android 17 QPR2 1. App Lock Beta 3 adds a native App Lock to Android for the first time. Long-press any app icon, and you will see an “App lock” option next to App info, Pause app, Widgets, and Remove. Once you lock an app, you need your fingerprint or PIN to open it. Notifications from locked apps stay hidden, and any widgets or shortcuts linked to that app disappear too. You manage this from Settings, then Security & privacy, then App lock. One thing to know: AI agents and services that already have permission to access a locked app can still read its data. The lock stops other people from opening the app on your phone. It does not block automated access you have already approved. 2. Lock screen blur Beta 3 brings a blur effect to more of your Pixel lock screen. Your notification list and the fingerprint icon now show a soft, see-through blur instead of a solid background. Two of your lock screen shortcuts get the same treatment. How strong the effect looks depends on your wallpaper. 3. A customizable Quick Settings layout You can now reorder your Quick Settings shade. Open Quick Settings, tap the edit icon, and go to the new Layout tab. From there, you can drag and reorder the brightness bar and the tiles inside your shade. The media player can be moved as well, though none of these sections can be removed, only rearranged. You can also choose which toggles show up as larger tiles. 4. More colour choices Android 17 QPR2 gives you more control over your phone’s colours. In Wallpaper & style, then Colours, tap the paint palette icon to open a colour slider and pick your own accent shade. A pencil icon in the corner adds four style options: Neutral, Soft, Bright, and Bold. 5. Call forwarding fraud protection This is the only Beta 3 feature Google confirmed in its own official changelog, which makes it the most reliable item on this list. Beta 3 adds new protection against call forwarding fraud. Scammers sometimes trick people into forwarding their calls, then use that access to intercept one-time passcodes from banks and other services. Here is how the protection works: Apps can no longer trigger call forwarding codes quietly in the background using only basic call permissions. If you manually dial a call forwarding code yourself, your phone now shows a confirmation screen before it goes through. Mobile money transfers still work normally. Account balance check codes are not affected either. This matters if you rely on mobile money, since your everyday USSD codes for transfers and balance checks are not affected by the new restriction. 6. Settings icon and other small changes Beta 2 brought a redesigned Settings app icon to everyone. Testers also noticed the internal codename quietly changed from “CinnamonBun” to “DEV.” Beta 3 also improved multitasking on foldable devices. Active windows now show a small handle you can
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