These 3 options simply made Android 16 much more thrilling

As arduous as it’s to consider, we’re just some quick months away from Android 16’s public launch. We’ve had Developer Previews since final November and beta releases since January, and we’re anticipating the ultimate launch to be prepared in Might or June.

To this point, the replace hasn’t given us a lot to stay up for. There are a great deal of developer-focused and under-the-hood tweaks, however when it comes to thrilling user-facing modifications, Android 16 has been missing. Exterior of enhancements to the photograph picker, Dwell Updates notifications, and enhancing app assist for tablets and foldables, it’s shaping as much as be a reasonably boring replace.

Fortunately, it seems like issues are taking a flip for the higher. Google launched Android 16 Beta 3 on March 13, and hiding inside this launch are a handful of small but promising new options. I’ve to confess, they’ve made me considerably extra enthusiastic about Android 16 than I beforehand was.

The primary — and arguably greatest — change I’m enthusiastic about is the overhauled Fast Settings. Fast Settings in “inventory” Android has largely stayed the identical since Android 13, however Android 16 will introduce a brand new cut up design. As a substitute of seeing your notifications and Fast Settings on the identical web page, Android 16 will cut up them throughout two pages. You’ll get your notifications whenever you swipe down from the highest left nook and your Fast Settings after swiping down from the highest proper.

I might take or go away the cut up design itself. What I’m most geeked about is the brand new look of the Fast Settings web page. For one, your Fast Settings are actually vertically scrolling and take up your entire web page — which means you’ll be capable to match a lot extra toggles in your display screen. Because it stands immediately, Android 15 on a Pixel exhibits simply eight Fast Settings toggles at a time. Nonetheless, with this new design in Android 16, you’ll be capable to see an applicable 16 (or extra) buttons directly. That’s a giant improve.

Moreover, Google seems to be experimenting with further toggle sizes and designs, together with a brand new small sq. that takes up half the house of the usual rectangle buttons. As visually pleasing as the large, rectangular bubbles could also be, I’m actually glad that extra sensible designs are coming with Android 16. The smaller icons nonetheless look nice whereas letting you squeeze rather more performance in your display screen. That’s a win-win when you ask me.

Lastly, along with being extra sensible, I additionally love that Google is opening up Fast Settings to extra consumer customization. Particularly in comparison with skins like One UI and OxygenOS, inventory Android has paled as compared with supplying you with full management over what your Fast Settings feel and appear like. For that to lastly be altering in Android 16 is a giant deal to me.

The most important draw back is that this new Fast Settings/notification panel possible received’t be prepared in time for the primary steady Android 16 launch. Nonetheless, we must always see it with a future Android 16 replace down the highway, and I can’t look forward to it.

In Android 15, house display screen customization for Pixel telephones is fairly fundamental. You may have some app grid decisions, accent coloration picks, and the choice to theme your app icons with the accent coloration you select. And … that’s about it. However Android 16 will add one other choice to the combo: app icon shapes.

Though not dwell in Android 16 Beta 3, we managed to allow the performance, and it really works as you’d anticipate. In a brand new “App form & structure” web page, you possibly can select considered one of six shapes to use to all of your app icons. Some are simple, like a circle or a squircle, whereas others have extra uncommon designs — together with “four-sided cookie” and “complicated clover.”

Though I don’t like how all of those look, I do love seeing Google convey extra customization choices to the Pixel Launcher. App icon customization has been a pillar of third-party Android skins and launchers for years, but Google’s Pixel Launcher has at all times lagged on this division. I’m additionally inspired that this can be a signal of much more but to return — reminiscent of customized icon pack assist or customizing app icons on a person foundation. This is among the causes I’ve most well-liked utilizing OxygenOS 15 a lot lately, and I’m thrilled to see Android 16 is taking steps to enhance issues right here.

This one might or is probably not prepared in time for the primary Android 16 public launch, however I’m crossing my fingers that it’s.

This final Android 16 function isn’t technically a part of Android 16 Beta 3. Nonetheless, Google did verify its existence lately as one thing that’ll be part of Android 16 QPR1, which is ready for a September rollout. The function I’m speaking about is lock display screen widgets. Google added lock display screen widgets particularly for Android tablets final yr, however Android 16 will convey them to telephones, too.

As somebody who carries an iPhone and an Android cellphone, lock display screen widgets with iOS 16 has been considered one of my favourite new iOS options in recent times. Customizing my lock display screen to point out my procuring record, upcoming calendar occasions, a Google Maps search widget, or perhaps a shortcut to ChatGPT is equally cool and handy.

I’m a giant widget fan, but it surely doesn’t take lengthy to expire of house display screen house to place mentioned widgets. The lock display screen is a good canvas for them, particularly to shortly look at your calendar or to-do record, or to show some Google Pictures reminiscences. Admittedly, it’s a bit foolish to champion Google for re-adding a function that beforehand existed with Android 4.2 (and was then eliminated with Android 5.0), however I’m nonetheless very joyful to see lock display screen widgets make a return.

Whereas definitely not probably the most thrilling Android replace we’ve ever had, Android 16 is shaping up properly and coming into focus higher than it was a few weeks in the past. A lot of the replace remains to be centered on behind-the-scenes modifications you and I received’t instantly discover, but it surely’s reassuring that some user-facing goodies will give us new toys to play with. With a revamped Fast Settings and notification panel, new app icon customization choices, and the reintroduction of lock display screen widgets, I don’t suppose we are able to name Android 16 “boring” any longer.

We must always get a greater take a look at these modifications throughout Google I/O in Might, and it’s additionally attainable that Google will present further Android 16 options that haven’t been revealed but. Even when it’s not the huge revamp that Android 13 was, there are thrilling modifications right here, and I’m trying ahead to getting my arms on them.