Google Maps tests feature to hide all saved places

YouTube has introduced a new feature that users have been requesting for a long time. The platform has launched new tools that make it easier for creators to edit and customize the thumbnails of their videos. However, the feature is currently available only to users who are part of the YouTube Partner Program those who earn money from their videos. Eligible creators can now upload custom thumbnail images for their YouTube Shorts. This will allow their short videos to attract more viewers by displaying more eye-catching thumbnails. Creators will also be able to change the thumbnails of their previously uploaded Shorts by using YouTube Studio on a desktop or laptop computer. According to YouTube, the feature will be expanded to more users in the near future. On desktop, creators will be able to choose one of three suggested video frames as the thumbnail. This option has long been available for regular videos and is now being extended to Shorts. On the mobile app, users will continue to be able to select any frame from the video as the thumbnail. YouTube also said that the suggested thumbnails will be generated based on the video’s theme and overall style.

Google has announced a major change to its cloud storage policy ending a long-standing free benefit for Google account users. Almost every internet user today relies on a Google account which comes with limited cloud storage. When users approach their storage limit, Google typically recommends upgrading to a paid plan for additional space. Until now, a user’s Google storage quota included Google Photos media files, Google Drive files and Gmail emails. Under the new policy, however, Android phone backup data will also count toward the account’s storage limit. Google informed users of the change through email giving them 45 days notice before the new policy takes effect. Once implemented, Android backup data including system settings, app data, SMS messages and call history will be included in the storage quota of a Google account. The company said the advance notice is intended to give users enough time to manage their storage or adjust their backup settings before the policy is enforced. Previously, only certain Android content, such as Google Photos uploads and MMS messages counted toward storage usage. Under the updated policy, complete Android backups are expected to consume a much larger portion of users available cloud storage. Google warned that if Android backups cause users to exceed their storage limit, they will either need to free up space in their Google account or subscribe to a paid Google storage plan for additional capacity. A Google spokesperson previously said that the average Android backup is expected to use around 40 MB of storage. The company also noted that users will have greater control over which data and apps are included in their backups. This marks another change to Google’s account storage policies. Earlier, in May 2026, the company began testing a reduction in free storage for new Google accounts lowering the limit from 15 GB to 5 GB.

Google’s Nano Banana image generator is considered a powerful artificial intelligence (AI) model for creating images based on users ideas and prompts. However, many people do not like using it because images generated by Nano Banana contain a prominent watermark in the bottom-right corner. Images generated by ChatGPT’s latest model do not contain such a visible watermark. Google is now giving users the option to remove the visible watermark. For this purpose, a new setting is being added to Gemini and Flow and the option will also be available in the AI Mode of Google Search. Using this setting, users will be able to remove the watermark from images generated by Nano Banana. In fact, the feature will not be limited to images. Users will also be able to remove visible watermarks from videos generated by Gemini Omni. However, this setting will not be available to users in countries where laws require the presence of visible watermarks. According to Google, while the visible watermark can be removed, an invisible watermark embedded within the image or video will remain intact.

Meta has revealed that one of its artificial intelligence (AI) models hacked a company’s system during cybersecurity testing. The incident occurred when an AI model was accidentally given access to the internet due to an error by a testing partner. The incident came to light after OpenAI and then Anthropic recently admitted that their AI models or agents had hacked the systems of other companies during testing. In a statement, Meta said the incident occurred due to an error by the autonomous testing company Irregular which unintentionally provided one of its AI models with internet access. An investigation into the incident is now underway. According to the statement, the AI model exploited a security vulnerability in a third-party service. Earlier, The Information reported citing sources that Meta’s Muse Spark 1.1 model had modified the internal systems of a company. A spokesperson for Irregular said the incident occurred in much the same way as the incident reported by Anthropic in recent days and that it was not a comprehensive cyberattack. The spokesperson said the company is preparing a white paper that will recommend best practices for the continued development of AI technology. Such incidents indicate that AI models could pose a potential threat to cybersecurity while developers may face increasing challenges in keeping their models under control. OpenAI’s AI models also hacked company Earlier, at the beginning of the second week of July, OpenAI said that two of its most advanced AI models had successfully hacked another company, Hugging Face on their own. At the time, OpenAI said that an autonomous AI agent based on the recently introduced GPT-5.6 Sol and another advanced model that had not yet been released managed to access the open internet outside the controlled environment during testing. Later, at the end of July, OpenAI stated that during testing, an AI agent escaped its restricted environment, connected to the internet and attempted to access various web services. The company further said that an investigation found that the AI agent had obtained login credentials of some companies on the internet and gained access to several accounts. Anthropic reports similar incident Later, another leading AI company, Anthropic also admitted that its AI model Claude had done something similar. The company said its AI models independently hacked the systems of three companies during an internal security experiment. The models were being tested in a controlled environment but they identified a vulnerability and managed to connect themselves to the internet. Following OpenAI’s admission, Anthropic investigated whether its own models had also independently hacked company systems. According to the company, it identified three such cases and notified the affected companies about the incidents.

Instagram has changed its logo after several years. Yes, Instagram has introduced a new logo which is a text-only logo. The announcement was made in a post by Adam Mosseri, head of the Meta-owned photo-sharing platform. He described the new logo as more refined and modern while maintaining the simplicity of the previous name. Mosseri said that Instagram’s logo was being changed after more than a decade because the previous design had begun to feel outdated. The new font used for the name has also changed the appearance of some of the letters in the word “Instagram.” Instagram last redesigned its logo in 2016, when it replaced the classic brown camera design with a colourful rainbow-style logo. Meta has not yet issued an official statement regarding the change.