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.

Why doesn’t the Google Play Store work even after installing the APK?

On newer Android versions, permissions may need to be granted per app (like Chrome or Files). However, be careful when deleting messaging or social media apps, as it is possible to delete some photos and videos you have saved there if you are not careful. Simply mark the games and apps you want to remove, and with a single tap, they will be deleted from your Android device. From your User Profile, located in the upper right corner of the Google Play interface, you can quickly access a list of the apps you have installed. You will also usually be able to see screenshots, some videos of the app or game, and a detailed description.

Status bar

With Android 12, Google combined the two toggles into a singular Internet tile. Before Android 12, the OS had separate Quick Settings toggles for Wi-Fi and mobile data. Swiping down from the left side of the inner screen will open up notifications, while swiping down from the right will open Quick Settings. There may be no toggle or setting to switch back to the classic combined notification and Quick Settings panel. With Android 16 QPR1 Beta 1, we also managed to activate its Settings menu entry. With this new gesture, you can double-tap on an empty spot of the lock screen to turn off your Pixel phone’s screen.

How do I install the Google Play Store APK on my Android device?

With Android 17 QPR1 Beta 3, Google expanded the frosted-glass-like background blur to more parts of the UI, like the power menu, widget picker, and even app folders. Android 16 QPR1 Beta 1 introduced subtle background blur (as mentioned above) to specific parts of the Android UI, namely the notification shade, Quick Settings panel, and Recents screen. These changes were spotted and enabled in Android 16 Beta 4 and are widely available in Android 16 QPR1 Beta 1, but they are unlikely to be available in the Android 16 stable release.

• Many early Android OS smartphones were equipped with a dedicated search button for quick access to a web search engine and individual apps’ internal search feature.
• With Android 17 Beta 4, Google added small arrow keys to appear when you tap the handle to resize the two windows.
• 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.
• 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.
• Research from security company Trend Micro lists premium service abuse as the most common type of Android malware, where text messages are sent from infected phones to premium-rate telephone numbers without the consent or even knowledge of the user.

Navigation buttons

More importantly, the “Microphone, Camera & Location” dialog now correctly lists the specific apps accessing your location. 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). To try it out, open the Terminal app and tap the Display button in the top-right corner to launch a session that supports graphical output. Android 16 QPR2 introduces a built-in Parental Controls menu that provides a centralized location for managing device-specific restrictions. In Android 16 QPR1, this has changed to display the same UI element that you’d see in the notification shade, where you can hang up, toggle the speaker, and mute your microphone. 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 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. 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. The Android Photo picker lacks a direct shortcut to launch the device’s camera. With Android 17 Beta 3, widget padding, text size, and layout attributes automatically scale based on the density difference between the app’s original context and the target display. This is useful for multitasking scenarios, such as a video conferencing app keeping video call controls accessible while the user navigates other apps. Android 17 Beta 3 introduces a separate Assistant volume slider, allowing you to change the Assistant’s volume independently from the media volume. You can choose to have notifications, ringtones, and alarms play on your connected hearing aid or on your device’s built-in speaker.

• These are all the changes we expect to see in the Android 17 platform update in 2026.
• 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 you can see in the video above, lock screen widgets on phones work differently from those on tablets.
• In Android 16 Beta 4, there’s evidence that Google is working to add a gesture to turn off the screen with a double-tap on the lock screen, and we managed to activate the gesture for a first look.
• With these changes, Google can add new system functions and update apps without having to distribute an upgrade to the operating system itself.
• Once consent is provided, this session-based access eliminates the need for repeated prompts for location-dependent features.

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 spinalto casino 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 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. This feature is similar to features that OEMs have added to such devices, allowing users to run apps at any window size and aspect ratio. Screen magnification options in Android 16 QPR1 Beta 2Screen magnification options in July Android Canary/QPR1 Beta 3 build You can now configure it to launch a specific app of your choosing, expanding on the previous options (middle click, launch Google, go home, go back, or view recent apps). Starting with the touchpad, the three-finger tap gesture introduced in QPR1 is now more customizable. Android 16 QPR2 delivers a variety of new features for touchpads and mice, including expanded gesture actions and robust accessibility options.