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If you own an Android phone, it's more likely to be a Samsung Galaxy handset than anything else—Samsung is comfortably ahead of the likes of Google, Xiaomi, and others when it comes to global market share. And if you've got a Galaxy, you've got access to a selection of features you won't find on other Android devices.

Samsung has added a bunch of its own ideas and settings on top of Google's mobile operating system, and if you want to make the most of your Galaxy, you need to know about them. Here are some of the best ways to hack your Samsung Galaxy experience.

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Automate your life with Routines

Why keep changing the settings on your phone if your phone can do it for you? Routines is a Galaxy utility that will wait for certain triggers and then take certain actions—one example would be turning on Do Not Disturb mode whenever you reach the office, then turning it off again when you leave.

Head to Settings then pick Modes and Routines. The first screen is Modes—specific notification settings for sleeping, working out, gaming, and so on—but if you switch to the Routines tab you can start adding some new automations.

The available triggers include times, places, specific wifi networks (like home or the office), connected devices (such as headphones), and events (like incoming notifications). Actions to take cover everything from specific Do Not Disturb modes and display settings to tasks inside apps (such as creating calendar events) and accessibility options.

Get to your favorite contacts from the Edge Panel

Choose your favorite contacts for the Edge Panel. Credit: Lifehacker

If you haven't explored the Edge Panel feature much, you might not have realized just how capable it is. It's not just for shortcuts to apps—you can also add shortcuts to your favorite contacts, which is potentially even more useful.

From Settings, select Display > Edge Panels, then activate the feature via the toggle switch and tap Panels. Make sure the People panel is selected, and use the Edit button to select specific contacts. Tap the three dots then Reorder to put the contacts panel first.

There are plenty more Edge Panel customization options on these screens as well. You can choose which side of the screen it shows up on and how transparent it is, for example.

Create an ambient photo wallpaper

Samsung Galaxy phones can take one of your photos, apply it as the wallpaper on your device, and then dynamically adjust it based on the time of day and weather conditions—dimming the backdrop and covering it with raindrops if there's a storm at night, for instance.

You can configure this from Settings by tapping Wallpaper and style, then Change wallpapers > Create with AI > Weather. You'll need to pick an image and allow location access, and the new wallpaper will be applied to the lock screen. To make further changes to the lock screen, press and hold on it while your handset is locked. You're able to then adjust elements like the shortcuts and widgets on the display, as well as the wallpaper.

Enhance streaming videos with extra brightness

Your video apps can benefit from an extra boost. Credit: Lifehacker

Galaxy phones come with a special brightness and vibrancy boost for watching video content, whether it's something you've saved locally or something you're streaming. From Settings, tap Advanced features > Video brightness, select Bright, and then use the toggle switches to select the apps it applies to.

Add light effects to notifications

Besides beeps and vibrations, notifications on Galaxy handsets can have some cool lighting effects associated with them as well. It's a fun way to make sure you see your incoming alerts, and it also can give you a quick idea of what the notifications are for.

Open Settings, then select Notifications > Notification pop-up style > Add lighting effect. You've got a choice of styles and colors to choose from, and you can set the duration for the lighting effect. For the lighting effects where you can choose a color, you can change that color based on matching keywords by selecting Lighting effect color by keyword. You could put in a contact's name and assign them a special color, for example.

Change what the side button does

This one is simple but useful: You can change what a double tap on the side button does by opening Settings and choosing Advanced features > Side button. You can have it launch the camera, the flashlight, or a specific app, for example. On the same screen, you can also adjust what a long press on the side button does—you can have it either launch one of the digital assistants installed on the phone (like Bixby or Gemini) or bring up the power menu.

Switch to one-handed mode

There's a one-handed mode available in the interface. Credit: Lifehacker

There are likely to be multiple situations where you're trying to use your Samsung phone with one hand rather than two (walking the dog, carrying groceries), and that's where one-handed mode comes in.

It's enabled from Settings via Advanced features > One-handed mode, and you can then activate it by swiping down at the bottom of the screen to get a smaller, more reachable interface. Repeat the gesture again to go back to normal.

Multitask better with two apps on screen together

Multi Windows is another useful feature available on Samsung Galaxy phones—though it's likely to be most useful on the biggest phone displays. It lets you get two apps on screen at the same time, so you can read messages while watching a video, or whatever you want.

Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to the center to bring up the carousel of recently used apps, then swipe to your first app. Tap the app icon at the top, then Open in split screen view. You'll then be asked to choose another app to pair with it.

Adjust the screen resolution

Changing the screen resolution on a Galaxy phone. Credit: Lifehacker

One of the lesser-known options on Samsung Galaxy phones is the ability to change the pixel resolution of the screen—a higher resolution means sharper text and graphics, though it will also drain your phone battery faster too, so bear that in mind.

You can configure this by selecting Display > Screen resolution from Settings. The options you'll see will depend on the specific model of handset you're using, but above the options you can see a preview of the difference each one will make.

Check the wifi coverage around your home

It's a little odd that Samsung has hidden this menu away, but it's a suite of wifi diagnostics tools that you can use to check signal strength around your home, troubleshoot network problems, and check data usage. To enable the menu, which is called Connectivity Labs, open Settings and pick Connections > Wi-Fi. Tap the three dots (top right), then choose Intelligent Wi-Fi, and tap Intelligent Wi-Fi at the bottom of the screen seven times to add the extra menu.

Open Connectivity Labs and you'll see there are a host of options and features to work through. One of the most useful is the Home Wi-Fi inspection feature: Select this and your phone will guide you in measuring wifi signal strength around your home.

Known by the codename Nano Banana 2, the most recent AI image generation updates added to Google Gemini have been a significant step forward in terms of quality and accuracy, and now similar capabilities are being plugged into the Google Earth app on the web. It means you're able to use the aerial, satellite, and 3D imagery packed into Google Earth as the basis for prompts for AI images—maybe peering into the distant past with a historical reconstruction or looking to the future with a sci-fi reimagining.

We've already seen just how precise and realistic the Nano Banana-powered features in Google Gemini are now, and Google has five suggestions for how you might deploy these capabilities in Google Earth. First, you can learn while exploring, so maybe getting the AI to build an infographic on the Statue of Liberty with key historical facts about it.

One idea for the new feature: Infographics (the Statue of Liberty in this case). Credit: Google

A text prompt such as "reimagine this empty lot in Tokyo as a vibrant shopping and retail district with open spaces" would transform a rather bare part of the Google Earth 3D map into something quite different. You can also visualize personal projects such as a dream lakeside home or an extension for your current property. Google Earth would combine the existing landscape with whatever you prompted, and help you come up with ideas as part of the planning stage.

You can also look forwards and backwards. "Sometimes it’s fun to let your imagination run wild," says Google, suggesting that you might want to get the AI to imagine how a place might look in a hundred years. (It might be worth nudging your prompt towards a utopian rather than dystopian vision of the future.)

Finally, Google suggests you dive back into the past. The company showcased a demo with the prompt "render a hyper-realistic view of what these Pompeii ruins looked like in 78 AD," which could be used by teachers, for example. That would instantly transform today's ruins "into a bustling, colorful street scene from the Roman Empire," in Google's words.

These new features come with the usual AI image caveats, however. While Nano Banana 2 can pull real-world information and images from the web, and is able to render graphics with more consistency and accuracy than previous models, there's still going to be the usual weaknesses involved with AI: Your lakeside home might not be entirely structurally sound, and the Pompeii reconstruction may not be entirely authentic—so bear that in mind when your images are produced.

Pompeii in all its original glory, as depicted by AI. Credit: Google

When I asked Google about this, a representative emphasized the real-world knowledge base that Nano Banana 2 draws on, which includes all the text and graphics it can find online, as well as the vast number of images that have been plugged into the AI during its training. With Google Earth, it will also trace over the structure ruins that are still in place when it comes to Pompeii, for example.

For a bit more clarity, you can try quizzing the Nano Banana 2 model inside the main Gemini app: I got it to render an imagined scene from Pompeii just prior to it being smothered by Vesuvius, then asked about the image accuracy. The AI said it had combined a bunch of real, historical information points to render the scene, including details on Pompeii's raised sidewalks, and the clothing styles of the day. Google hasn't said anything specific about usage limits, but the Nano Banana 2 upgrade is rolling out now globally, for all users of Google Earth on the web.

Finding yourself locked out of your Google account for whatever reason is a stressful situation to be in—what with all your emails, documents, photos, and other data suddenly out of bounds—but there's now a new way to prove your identity and regain access: a simple selfie video.

It's always wise to have multiple sign-in methods set up, beyond the basic password and email address, as each additional one gives you a better chance of getting your account back if something goes wrong. The recovery contacts feature is a good example, where Google uses verified, trusted contacts of yours to prove your identity.

Now you can also use a selfie video. By following this link you can see if the feature is live for your account, and record your selfie via a webcam or phone camera. If you're having trouble logging in, you'll be able to record a new selfie, which will be compared against the original saved in your account.

At the moment, the selfie video option for my account isn't available, so I couldn't test it out. It seems this will be rolled out gradually to users, though Google hasn't said anything specific about availability or a schedule—just that users can now check if their account is eligible.

"Your selfie video is yours and you're in control," says Google in its announcement blog post. "It is recorded and securely stored with your consent, and you can delete it at any time in your Google Account. It's used only for helping you sign in, unless you opt to share it for additional purposes. Your selfie video is encrypted at rest, meaning it's securely stored even when it's not being used."

Those "additional purposes" mean that Google will use your "video and related data to help ongoing efforts to develop and improve facial recognition, age estimation, and other verification methods that may use your physical features or movement" (the specter of age verification looms large again).

There's also the rather obvious issue of deepfakes. Google says there are "multiple layers of security" to guard against fake photos and videos, including getting you to go through several simple movements when recording the selfie—movements that are hard to predict and mimic with a deepfake.

All of the usual Google account checks will be in force too, so (for example) you might find additional security questions pop up if you're suddenly trying to log in from the other side of the world from where your usual login attempts are.

Given the accuracy of technologies like Face ID these days, video selfie sign-in should prove to be a useful backup method of accessing your account. There's nothing extra for you to remember—you just have to bring your face—and it appears at the moment to be difficult to get around.

Amid another busy Galaxy Unpacked event and the reveal of several new Samsung foldables and smartwatches, there's also news from Google in partnership with Samsung: Several new Android features are going to show up first on the Z Fold 8, Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Z Flip 8, before appearing on Pixels and other phones.

This has become something of a tradition with Samsung's mid-year product launches, as a smattering of new features—including gaming support for Circle to Search—appeared first on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 last year.

For 2026, the emphasis is on Gemini. First, the Gemini Intelligence feature that completes tasks for you, launched in beta in May, is being expanded to support more than 40 apps and is available out of the box on the new Galaxy foldables. Plus, you can launch your agentic assistant with a screengrab now as well as a prompt (so maybe a picture of an item of clothing you want the AI to look for online).

Google hasn't specified which 40 apps are now included, but the idea is the same as before: Gemini can carry out more admin for you, like booking cabs or reserving tables, in your apps. You'll still get an overview of what the AI is up to on your screen, as well as final approval on any important actions, and you can stop the process at any time.

Gemini Notebook is preinstalled on the new Samsung phones. Credit: Google

Next up is the newly rebranded Gemini Notebook (the AI research tool previously known as NotebookLM). There are no new features here, but the app is going to be preinstalled on the foldables that Samsung just unveiled, and on the Z Fold 8 devices, you can take advantage of the wider screen to drag and drop elements (such as images and web links) into your notebooks from other apps.

Additionally, if you buy a Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, or Galaxy Z Flip 8, you get six months of Google AI Pro for free (usually $19.99 a month). Compared to the free tier, Google AI Pro gets you video generation, the Antigravity coding tool, YouTube Premium Lite, 5TB of storage to play with, and significantly higher usage limits across all of Google's AI tools (including Gemini and Gemini Notebook).

The third Gemini perk for those investing in a new Samsung device applies to the Galaxy Watch 9. On the new smartwatch, Gemini will start listening for instructions as soon as you raise your wrist to talk—no wake word required. It's a small tweak, but means you'll get faster access to the AI.

Lastly, Google has also announced "streamlined switching" from iPhones, built into Android 17 and available on the new Samsung phones. You'll no longer need a cable, as it now works wirelessly, and extra data types are now supported as well—including your Google Account details and wifi credentials, on top of photos, videos, contacts, messages, and calendars.

This improved switching method has already started rolling out on Pixel devices, Google says, and will, reportedly, soon be showing up on other Android devices as well.

NotebookLM may not be the most well-known of Google's numerous AI products, but having been introduced as Project Tailwind in May 2023, it's actually been around almost as long as the Google Gemini chatbot (originally called Bard, as you might remember).

Now, perhaps in a bid to make its suite of AI tools a little less confusing, Google is renaming NotebookLM as Gemini Notebook. If you love the app in its current form, though, don't panic—not much else is changing.

"It remains a standalone product ... but it will now do more across the Google ecosystem, including inside the Gemini app and Google Search," explains Google. That "do more" will start with your notebooks appearing in AI Mode in Google Search for reference, which is rolling out soon.

Google's announcement post also mentions that users on the Pro plans ($19.99 a month) will soon be getting the upgrades rolled out last month, which were previously exclusive to Ultra plan users ($99.99 or $199.99 a month).

These upgrades include a dedicated cloud computer for each notebook you create, enabling deeper analysis of sources and the ability to write and execute code natively (via Google Antigravity). It also means more capabilities in terms of what the app can do within each of your notebooks, including creating PDFs, charts, and slideshows, and editing them through prompts.

The new branding for Gemini Notebook. Credit: Google

Where Gemini ends and Gemini Notebook begins

You could be forgiven for getting confused about the difference between the standard Gemini AI chatbot app you find on the web and mobile, and the newly renamed Gemini Notebook—especially if you've not used the latter much.

They run on the same set of Gemini AI models, and can do a lot of the same tasks in terms of looking up information from the web and summarizing documents. When you've created notebooks inside Gemini Notebook, you can then also access them in the main Gemini app, confusing things even further.

What makes Gemini Notebook different is that it's very much a research tool. You load up a bunch of sources, from YouTube videos to PDFs, and then get Gemini Notebook to query and summarize those sources, with citations.

As we've written about before, you can turn your notes into audio podcasts and video overviews, as well as mind maps, flashcards, infographics and slideshows. Unlike the main Gemini app, though, it can't create images or videos out of a single prompt, without one or more sources to work from.

As an addendum: If you're already a seasoned NotebookLM/Gemini Notebook user, you may have missed the latest feature upgrade, rolled out to all users a couple of weeks ago. It's called Short Video Overview, and adds a shorter, vertical video format for your summary options: Click Video Overview then Short to use it.

There are a dizzying number of ways you can keep up with what's new on the web and try to find articles and posts of interest: Your options include the chaotic algorithms of social media, classic news portals, old-school RSS, traditional web search, AI-powered search, and whatever it is Google is trying to do with Discover these days.

It's a lot, and the latest app I've spotted to try and cut through the noise (via TechCrunch) is HyperTexting (just for iOS for now). It's a sort-of RSS reader, though it isn't marketed that way, and the core idea is that you get updates from the sites and people you want, in chronological order—with no ads, AI, or algorithm-powered interface.

As the HyperTexting app landing page puts it: "HyperTexting is your timeline minus the ads, algorithms, and AI slop. It's like the 'for you' feed, but it actually works... for YOU (not the platforms)." You can even create a HyperTexting profile of your own and contribute posts yourself, which others can then follow in turn. Here's how the app works, and why you might want to switch to its simplified way of keeping up with the web.

What the HyperTexting feed looks like

HyperTexting presents stories in a straightforward way. Credit: Lifehacker

When you launch the HyperTexting app for the first time, you don't need to sign up for anything or open an account right away: There's already a selection of news sources included for you to get started with, which you can add to or edit as needed.

The Timeline tab is where news and updates appear, presented in chronological order. You pull down from the top to refresh the feed, just like the old days, and you're able to tap on individual articles to read them. As with any RSS reader, whether or not you get the full article text or just a snippet directing you to the website depends on the publication. Tap the toggle switch button (top right) to change the colors and other settings.

In 2026, it's actually quite strange going back to a feed like this. I felt a twinge of nostalgia slowly browsing through the headlines, without any AI-generated animal videos, adverts for mobile games that don't exist, clippings from podcast interviews, and snippets of stories I've seen a dozen times already but have just gone viral again. You get your choice of story sources, in order, whenever you're ready to browse through them. Each post comes with buttons for sharing with others or viewing it on the web, and I also like the way each source has its own profile with more ways to explore: Posts to see all the stories, for example, and Attachments to see all the visuals.

Profile pages work a lot like profiles on social media accounts, and you can follow and unfollow publications from these pages. Many sites also offer multiple feeds—including ESPN, which has different feeds for different shows and sports—so if this is available you can customize your story list further.

Discovering and customizing the HyperTexting feed

Discovering new stories and sources only takes a few taps. Credit: Lifehacker

The Explore tab is where you need to head to find and follow new websites, and there's also a Trending tab here that shows you the 100 most-linked pages from the feeds you're currently following. If you just want the most widely appealing stories from your selected sources, this is a great place to keep returning to.

Head to Discover and you can pick out new sites you want to follow: You can either enter a few keywords to search for something, or type out a full URL, then tap Follow when the right publication appears. This seems to be the part of HyperTexting that's most obviously a 'work in progress,' as I couldn't add all the sources I wanted—including the esteemed outlet you're currently reading.

It's possible that the app is having some early growing pains, or that being able to follow a page depends on how it's hosted (the HyperTexting website says that support for WordPress sites is "coming soon"). In any case, I did find plenty of feeds I was interested in following, even if I couldn't access everything.

You can switch to the Activity tab to get back to articles you've previously looked at, like a rudimentary browsing history, while the Post tab is where you can contribute to the HyperTexting community—this feature isn't widely available yet, but eventually the goal is to have mini-blogs available for users that work a little bit like social media feeds.

There's still work to do here, but I like what HyperTexting is doing already, and it's a reminder of how discovery on the web used to be—I'll be keeping an eye on it as another way of staying updated. It's definitely worth installing if you like your new content presented in a clean, accessible way.

We're now well used to AI companies pushing out model upgrades and new features, but one of the most recent updates to Claude added something more unusual: a Reflect tool that looks back on how you've been using the AI bot.

Anthropic says Claude Reflect has been introduced to answer questions like, how often should someone use AI? How can it be used most effectively? When is AI suited to a task, and when is it better left to a human? And also, perhaps, are you letting AI do too much of your thinking for you?

In practice it works a little bit like Spotify Wrapped, rounding up your activity in the app over the past month, three months, six months, or year. And it turns out that its summaries are mostly fair and insightful, based on my testing.

Reflect is available now inside the Claude apps for Free, Pro, and Max users, though Anthropic is labeling it as a beta feature for now.

Getting started with Claude Reflect

Claude will summarize your recent AI chats. Credit: Lifehacker

Before you can use Claude Reflect you need to have the Memory feature enabled: On the web, click your profile icon (bottom left), then Settings > Capabilities. In the mobile apps, tap the menu button (top left), then your profile icon, then Capabilities. If the Search and reference chats toggle switch is enabled, you're good to go.

When you're ready to do some reflecting, you need to be in the web or desktop apps. Click your profile icon (bottom left), then Settings, then Reflect. A summary will be automatically generated for your last month of usage, by default, but you can change the time period via the drop-down menu in the top right corner (click the circular refresh arrow icon to load a new summary).

I must admit up front that I tend to regularly delete my Claude chats as I go—I don't like leaving a long digital trail behind me for a variety of privacy and security reasons—so I can't tell you what it's like to have Claude dig through months and months of conversations. It may be that digging into bigger datasets get you different results.

What I can tell you is that Claude's review of my last month of AI use was still interesting: It correctly identified that I spend a lot of time working on little web apps and widgets that can help with my work, and of course experimenting with Claude's capabilities (also for work purposes, most of the time).

However, it does ignore your most recent conversations, depending on the calendar: If you're half way through July, your "past month" summary will only run up to the end of June, so only whole months are counted in the summary. It also seems to ignore shorter, one-off chats in favor of bigger trends.

Digging deeper into the data

The summary splits your AI usage up into categories. Credit: Lifehacker

Your reflection starts with a summary and a chart showing daily activity, but if you scroll down there's more to explore. Claude will break down your time into categories that you spend time on (like a New Tab extension for Chrome in my case), and assess your AI fluency skills too—basically, how good a prompter you are.

I scored highly in terms of "delegation" to the chatbot and "discernment" in terms of assessing the AI output, but apparently my "description" skills could use some work. Claude pointed out an occasion where I could've been more precise with a prompt, and gave me an example of how I could've refined it.

I'm not sure anything I read in Claude Reflect is going to change how I use the AI, but I think it's worth dipping into every now and again just as a self-audit. In the same way Spotify Wrapped can reveal that you're listening to far too much '90s pop, Reflect can help reassess your AI boundaries—particularly for heavy users.

I did find some of the summarizing to be a bit too polished: It's typical of AI bots like Claude to want to write a flowing narrative that can be tied off neatly, rather than a more awkward report that's more accurate, and this is evident again here. On the whole, though, it seemed to give me fair assessments.

If you do feel your Claude use has got out of hand, the Reflect summary includes a Set quiet hours and breaks link that leads to the Time and focus section of the app settings: From here you can set screen time limits for yourself with the AI, and have it remind you to take a break from prompting every so often.

The latest upgrade being pushed out to ChatGPT, heading to all users now, is GPT‑Live. OpenAI is describing it as a "new generation" of voice models for interacting with the AI chatbot, and you might find that it leads you to spend more time chatting than typing.

Voice mode for ChatGPT is nothing new, but previously it's been a relatively basic wrapper on top of the standard text input and output. It has been billed as a more natural way to engage with the AI, but GPT-Live promises to dial this fluidity up to an even higher level.

For the first time, the voice mode will be able to think in the background while continuing the conversation. It'll also give you extra space to pause when you need it, and indicate it's still listening with phrases like “mhmm” or “yeah."

You should find the upgrade on mobile and the web now (or very soon). Free users get access to GPT‑Live‑1 mini, while those on paid plans are able to access the even smarter GPT‑Live‑1 model.

How GPT-Live works

OpenAI's end goal is to make talking to ChatGPT feel like talking to a real person, and GPT-Live gets closer to that. Originally, interacting with the AI via voice required a specific model for speech-to-text, another for actually responding to the query, and another for text-to-speech.

The previous voice mode in ChatGPT combined all of that into a single AI model, but it was still turn-based: You spoke, the chatbot answered, then you spoke again. With GPT-Live, ChatGPT can be talking and listening at the same time. You can interrupt it as and when needed, and responses should be faster and more nuanced.

The new voice mode is supposedly smarter when it comes to recognizing the difference between you pausing mid-thought and actually finishing your query. The model now recalculates several times a second "whether to speak, continue listening, pause, interrupt, or invoke a tool."

Credit: OpenAI

An added benefit of the upgrade is that even complex work and deep thinking can be passed back to ChatGPT's servers in the background, while the conversation is continuing. You can also tell ChatGPT to take a beat or slow down; visual responses have been improved as well, so you might, for example, see pop-up cards for locations, weather forecasts, and sports scores.

You can also now ask GPT-Live to translate something into a foreign language as you speak. Thanks to the new capabilities, you'll hear a running translation in the other language as you talk, with no pauses or interruptions. Improvements have also been made in terms of ignoring background noise (like background traffic or conversations happening nearby).

Testing out GPT-Live

To get to voice mode in the mobile app, tap the soundwave-style icon to the right of the prompt box. The new mode looks a lot like the old one on the surface, but with this update, you should see Live at the top of the screen (for the time being, at least, you can tap this to switch back to the older models).

Right away, the upgraded voice mode feels more realistic and natural. ChatGPT will talk in a varied and expressive way, throwing in useful markers like "let me check" whenever it's looking something up. It'll lso hesitate and draw words out at times.

I chatted with GPT-Live for several minutes about upcoming movies, recent soccer matches, and tech news headlines, and got back answers that made sense and were respectfully brief (voice mode continues to be a refuge for those who don't want to see walls of text for every response).

There are three 'intelligence' levels to choose between. Credit: OpenAI

There were a couple of moments where the speech glitched and the conversation hung, but that was in about half an hour of chatting (presumably these bugs will get ironed out over time). Interruptions are handled well too, with the AI pausing to acknowledge what you've said and then continuing its train of thought.

You can tweak the level of thinking ChatGPT puts into the new voice mode: Tap the sliders icon (top right), then tap Intelligence. There are three modes to pick from—Instant, Medium, and High—with varying levels of trade-off between the speed of the response and how detailed and accurate it is.

Understanding cable tech can be hard at times—harder than it should be, really—and weighing the pros and cons of a new gadget is complicated enough without having to know the differences between HDMI 2.1 and HDMI 2.2, or the reason some USB-C ports are also Thunderbolt ports. Help is at hand, though: WhatCable is a free app that does a fine job of analyzing the cables attached to your Mac—not just giving you a list of specs but also explaining what those specs mean.

One way it can be useful is in explaining why your MacBook isn't charging as quickly as it could be. This can be down to the charger and the specific USB-C cable you've got connected, and WhatCable will break all of this down for you without any jargon. You'll see the rate your laptop is charging at, and the reasons why.

Why your cables matter

To fully explain the modern cable landscape would take an article many times the length of this one, but it is possible to get to grips with the basics relatively quickly. Every connection has three elements that you need to consider together: The port on the device you're connecting to (like a monitor or charger), the cable in between, and the port on the device you're using (like a phone or laptop).

For the best results (the fastest charging or the smoothest display performance, for example), all those elements must be supporting the same standards. If they aren't, you might not get optimum results, or the setup might not work at all.

Unfortunately for us as consumers, simply finding a cable that fits a port isn't enough to guarantee everything will work, or work as well as you might like. Both cables and ports come with supported standards that you need to weigh, like the various flavors of USB (we're up to USB 4.0 version 2 now, for reference).

Always double-check the specs when buying a new cable. Credit: Lifehacker

The most common port you'll see on laptops and phones today is USB-C, but this is only the start of the story. USB-C ports can also support Thunderbolt and DisplayPort protocols, as well as a variety of USB speeds—you need to check the device spec for details. Even similar-sized ports on the same device may be configured differently.

When you've determined what the ports on your computer or phone are capable of, you need to find a cable that supports the same standard to get the best possible results. Be careful when reviewing cable listings before buying, both in terms of specs and length—cables beyond one meter (a little over three feet) typically require extra tech to support the highest data speeds, and will therefore usually be more expensive.

To add to the confusion, these standards can change pretty regularly, with manufacturers sometimes adopting the changes promptly and sometimes waiting a while to implement them. The short version is, don't rush cable buying, or think that all cables and ports are the same. Spend a few extra minutes analyzing the relevant specs in detail, and it'll pay off.

How WhatCable can help figure out your cables

You can download WhatCable for free from its website or GitHub page, which will both direct you to a zip archive. Launch the app, and WhatCable shows up on the menu bar; click its icon to see details of connected USB cables. Via the cog icon (top right) you can have WhatCable launch with macOS, and run as a regular app rather than from the menu bar. As soon as you connect a cable, you'll see information on the charging speed and data transfer rate (where applicable), and a breakdown of what the cable can do.

If you've connected a charger, then you'll be told whether or not it's a good match for your MacBook. Look for the "charging well" message for confirmation, alongside the charging rate. If a cable isn't charging your MacBook at the maximum speed, or the MacBook is itself limiting the charging (because the battery is almost full), you'll be told about this too.

WhatCable presents its data in a simple, understandable way. Credit: Lifehacker

If you've hooked up a phone or another peripheral, then its identity will be reported inside WhatCable, and it's here that the data transfer speeds might be more relevant. If an external storage device has been connected, then you'll see the transfer speed it's negotiated with the Apple operating system.

WhatCable also looks at the e-marker inside a cable, which is essentially its digital ID, advertising its capabilities to the computer it's plugged into. If there are discrepancies between this e-marker and commonly followed technology standards, then you'll see an orange flag. It's not necessarily saying the cable is a fake, but just alerting you to something that doesn't quite seem right.

In short, any details that the cable is reporting to macOS will be shown by WhatCable, and you should see a significant difference between cheap and limited cables and the more expensive and powerful ones—which will likely be reassuring if you've paid extra for them.