Follow on Google Google rolls out “Search Profiles,” giving users a touch of social media in their Discover feed for videos and more. All-New Samsung announced that a revamped Health app is on the way to users, highlighting a host of new features. If the app tries to call audio APIs while the application is not in a valid lifecycle, the audio playback and volume change APIs will fail silently without an exception thrown or failure message provided. This allows you to configure a constant quality (CQ) mode for video encoders, giving you finer control over video quality beyond simple bitrate settings. This includes defining the video/vvc MIME type in MediaFormat, adding new VVC profiles in MediaCodecInfo, and integrating support into MediaExtractor.
- With Android 16 Beta 3, Google is giving app developers a chance to test if their apps are affected by this upcoming change.
- Android 17 QPR1 Beta 1 also brings an option to change the Terminal’s resolution through a new “Display resolution” setting.
- Android 17 Beta 3 adds support for Vendor-defined camera extensions, allowing hardware partners to provide Android apps with access to camera features such as ‘Super Resolution’ and cutting-edge AI-driven enhancements.
- An “All Apps” screen lists all installed applications, with the ability for users to drag an app from the list onto the home screen.
- Unlike the solid green background used for camera and microphone alerts, the location indicator uses a solid blue background (though the system reverts to green if multiple permissions are in use).
Status bar
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 spinalto casino 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.
- To set up the feature, users must first tap the “Automatic PIN management” toggle, then enter their phone’s passcode or scan their biometrics.
- This status bar can be pulled (swiped) down to reveal a notification screen where apps display important information or updates, as well as quick access to system controls and toggles such as display brightness, connectivity settings (WiFi, Bluetooth, cellular data), audio mode, and flashlight.
- This presumably lets you record video from the front-facing camera while capturing your screen.
- 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.
- 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.
- The redesigned “Noto 3D” emojis on Android are expected to arrive “later this year.” These new emojis will arrive on Pixel devices first and roll out through Gboard, YouTube, and Gmail.
The dedicated “Screenshot” and “Select” buttons are now also enclosed in pill-shaped containers, creating a more consistent look in the Android 16 QPR1 Beta 1 release. This icon is widely understood to indicate an additional menu, so its presence should help more users realize they can access further actions directly from the recents screen. 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 16 QPR1 Beta 1, Google made some subtle changes to the Recents screen.
Tapping this notification prompts you to open the file in a video player app because Android lacks a native UI for viewing screen recordings. When you tap the Quick Setting tile, a toolbar will appear over your current screen. The most visible change to the screen recorder is the replacement of the pop-up dialog with a new toolbar. Code for the mentioned changes is present since Android 16 QPR2 Beta 3, while Android 17 Beta 3 confirmed most of these changes (but not all).
Key Changes for SDK 37
This will detect apps that hide or change their icons and then launch from the background or abuse accessibility permissions. 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. Tapping the “recording saved” notification opens a new screen with a simple video player that includes a seekbar, a play/pause button, and a mute button. This presumably lets you record video from the front-facing camera while capturing your screen. This new toolbar also introduces new options, including a “show selfie camera” toggle.
Features
Due to the lack of Android tablet-specific applications in 2011, early Android tablets had to make do with existing smartphone applications that were ill-suited to larger screen sizes, whereas the dominance of Apple’s iPad was reinforced by the large number of tablet-specific iOS applications. According to Gartner research company, Android-based devices outsold all contenders, every year since 2012. Research company Canalys estimated in the second quarter of 2009, that Android had a 2.8% share of worldwide smartphone shipments. Thus, forks of Android that make major changes to the operating system itself do not include any of Google’s non-free components, stay incompatible with applications that require them, and must ship with an alternative software marketplace in lieu of Google Play Store.
Customizable keyboard shortcuts
Bionic itself has been designed with several major features specific to the Linux kernel. Once you’ve installed a beta build, you’ll automatically get future updates over-the-air for all later previews and Betas. Android 17 brings professional-grade tools to media and camera apps, with features like seamless transitions and standardized loudness.
Even though the Internet Panel offered more functionality, users weren’t happy because it required more steps to toggle mobile data and Wi-Fi. For non-messaging notifications, the text will change to “New notification” without revealing the notification’s contents. The changes are pretty voluminous to list here, so check out our original coverage for the whole scoop. With the above-mentioned Material 3 Expressive changes, Google is also planning a big UI overhaul for Android and expressive animations to accompany it. As a result, we have a list of features that are coming to upcoming Android 16 QPR releases for Pixel devices, which are also likely to be added to the next Android platform update, Android 17. A close look at an official screenshot (seen above) shows a menu displaying Play Protect status, bootloader status, and build number info.
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.
Users can tap the indicator to see exactly which apps have recently accessed their location and manage those permissions immediately through a “Recent app use” dialog. The expanded bubble bar shows only the five most recently opened bubbles, though the bubble overflow menu lists other previously opened bubbles. Once activated, the launcher adds a “bubble” button to the context menu that appears when you press and hold on any app on the home screen.
Storage
When working with logical cameras that combine multiple physical camera sensors, you can now request additional metadata from all active physical cameras involved in a capture, not just the primary one. Today we’re releasing the first beta of Android 17, continuing our work to build a platform that prioritizes privacy, security, and refined performance. These are all the changes we expect to see in the Android 17 platform update in 2026. Magic Cue had the name in a prominent-looking chip at the bottom of the screen, which users could tap to send. In a Google for Developers session at Google I/O 2026, the company announced that Magic Cue is expanding to more third-party apps, including Snapchat.