Until now, tapping on the call chip would bring you to the full-screen call UI. At Google I/O 2026, Google has introduced new “Metric Style” notifications template that expands Live Updates to health and fitness apps, timers, and travel app use cases. You can press and hold a notification and tap “Turn off,” or disable the feature from the app’s main notification settings page. In the first Android 16 stable release, the Android system treats these notifications just like other notifications. Instead, the first release supported progress-centric notifications, a new type of notification that merely displayed progress and milestones on ride-share and food delivery apps. Live Updates is one of the highlight features of Android 16, but it was absent from the first stable Android 16 release.
Versatile Video Coding (VVC) Support
With Android 17 Beta 2, Google is expanding its SMS OTP protection by automatically delaying access to SMS messages with OTP for apps that aren’t the intended recipient or the default SMS handler app. This feature is designed to offer seamless task continuity, enabling users to pick up exactly where they left off in their workflow across their Android ecosystem. Android 16 QPR1 included code for a new system-level feature called “Task Continuity,” and, as you’d expect, it’s designed to let you seamlessly transfer an app’s current state from one Android device to another. Back in July 2025, we spotted Google working on a Handoff feature that would allow users to sync notifications, share files, and continue apps across their Android devices. Once consent is provided, this session-based access eliminates the need for repeated prompts for location-dependent features. With Android 17 Beta 3, Google is introducing a new location button that apps can use to request the user’s precise location for one session (i.e., until you close the app).
- This Time zone change notification went live in the July 2025 Android Canary release and was graduated to the stable release with Android 16 QPR2 stable release.
- Swiping down from the left side of the inner screen will open up notifications, while swiping down from the right will open Quick Settings.
- With Android 16 QPR1 Beta 1, Google made some subtle changes to the Recents screen.
- Because of this limitation, apps that need this functionality end up baking in a separate mechanism (usually a button or similar entry point outside the Photo picker) to click a new photo.
- Bionic itself has been designed with several major features specific to the Linux kernel.
- This allows you to configure a constant quality (CQ) mode for video encoders, giving you finer control over video quality beyond simple bitrate settings.
Finally, you will find Google’s huge catalog of ebooks within the Books tab, which is all just a tap away. It was designed by then-Google graphic designer Irina Blok on November 5, 2007, when Android was announced. At Google I/O in May 2016, Google announced Daydream, a virtual reality platform that relied on a smartphone and provided VR capabilities through a virtual reality headset and controller designed by Google itself. Ouya, a video spinalto casino game console running Android, became one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns, crowdfunding US$8.5m for its development, and was later followed by other Android-based consoles, such as Nvidia’s Shield Portable – an Android device in a video game controller form factor. The open and customizable nature of Android allows device makers to use it on other electronics as well, including laptops, netbooks, and desktop computers, cameras, headphones, home automation systems, game consoles, media players, satellites, routers, printers, payment terminals, automated teller machines, inflight entertainment systems, and robots. Google has developed several variations of Android for specific use cases, including Android Wear, later renamed Wear OS, for wearable devices such as wrist watches, Android TV for televisions, Android Things for smart or Internet of things devices and Android Automotive for cars.
These changes are specific to large screens; they do not apply to screens smaller than sw600dp (including traditional slate form factor phones). This build continues our work for more adaptable Android apps, introduces significant enhancements to camera and media capabilities, new tools for optimizing connectivity, and expanded profiles for companion devices. In addition to these changes, Terminal also gets a dedicated full-screen button that hides the navigation and status bars.
Requirements (Latest version)
- Beginning with Android 4.1 “Jelly Bean”, “expandable notifications” allow the user to tap an icon on the notification in order for it to expand and display more information and possible app actions right from the notification.
- Android devices incorporate many optional hardware components, including still or video cameras, GPS, orientation sensors, dedicated gaming controls, accelerometers, gyroscopes, barometers, magnetometers, proximity sensors, pressure sensors, thermometers, and touchscreens.
- This ensures a consistent user experience with distinct icons while reusing existing watch role permissions.
- A close look at an official screenshot (seen above) shows a menu displaying Play Protect status, bootloader status, and build number info.
- Now, the Recents screen displays the app’s icon and name, along with a downward-pointing arrow, within a small pill-shaped button overlaid on the task.
- With Android 17, this change is now mandatory, and developers will no longer be able to opt out.
- This new profile is intended for companion apps to medical devices, granting permissions for posting notifications, managing Bluetooth connections, and sending alerts at precise times.
You can access this comprehensive metadata using TotalCaptureResult.getPhysicalCameraTotalResults() to get more detailed information that may enable you to optimize resource usage in your camera applications. By setting this key to ON in your CaptureRequest, the TotalCaptureResult will include metadata from these additional active physical cameras. Previously, you had to implement workarounds, sometimes allocating unnecessary physical streams, to obtain metadata from secondary active cameras (e.g., during a lens switch for zoom where a follower camera is active).
Constant Quality for Video Recording
One of those components, Google Play Services, is a closed-source system-level process providing APIs for Google services, installed automatically on nearly all devices running Android 2.2 “Froyo” and higher. The Guardian complained that the method of distribution for updates is complicated only because manufacturers and carriers have designed it that way. Each upgrade has had to be specifically tailored, a time- and resource-consuming process. Android is developed by Google until the latest changes and updates are ready to be released, at which point the source code is made available to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), an open source initiative led by Google. Chinese companies are building a PC and mobile operating system, based on Android, to “compete directly with Microsoft Windows and Google Android”. Android used to require an autofocus camera, which was relaxed to a fixed-focus camera if present at all, since the camera was dropped as a requirement entirely when Android started to be used on set-top boxes.
Software similar to Google Play Store 11
When enabled, adjusting the slider dynamically adjusts the brightness of specific elements in an HDR image, such as the sky or water. It’s worth noting that these screen saver features are only new to older models, as they have been available on the Pixel 10 series since launch, complementing the lineup’s Pixelsnap wireless charging accessories. This meant that if you wanted to use the Home Controls screen saver during the day but switch to the Clock at night, you had to toggle between them manually. In Android 16 QPR1 Beta 2, users noticed that swiping away apps in the Recents menu is now faster than ever.
The video compression standard can deliver video quality similar to or better than the original at lower file sizes, provided the Android device also supports it. Vulkan allows developers to leverage the performance of modern smartphone GPUs to unlock features such as ray tracing in games and multithreading. The app UI should fill the space and respect the device posture on large-screen devices (as this change does not apply to conventional glass-slab smartphones). With Android 17, this change is now mandatory, and developers will no longer be able to opt out.
Status bar
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has denounced that the fact that developers will be required to pay a fee and provide government-issued identification will dishearten free and open-source communities, as several of them operate with limited or no funding, and that it further expands Google’s Play Store monopoly over alternative app stores. These changes bring Samsung and potentially some Qualcomm-powered devices closer to competing platforms, such as Apple, whose iPhones have received four to eight years of support. Shortly thereafter, Qualcomm followed suit, offering extending support timelines for OEM building phones with its chipsets, first to seven years in 2024, followed by eight years in 2025.
When you’re creating a home screen, your Pixel will offer to automatically populate it with apps and widgets of a certain type — frequently used, games, social media, and more. In fact, we also see the two options in the Aluminium OS build leak, further adding weight to the theory. In Android 17 QPR1 Beta 3, we managed to enable two new icons/buttons in the screenshot overlay.
