Android Developers Blog: The First Beta of Android 17
The dedicated option key, also known as menu key, and its on-screen simulation, is no longer supported since Android version 10. More recent devices typically allow the former through a long press or swipe away from the home button. 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. The recent list may appear side-by-side or overlapping, depending on the Android version and manufacturer. An “All Apps” screen lists all installed applications, with the ability for users to drag an app from the list onto the home screen.
Requirements (Latest version)
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.
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.
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.
Customizable keyboard shortcuts
- Android’s standard C library, Bionic, was developed by Google specifically for Android, as a derivation of the BSD’s standard C library code.
- To support these “Registered App Stores,” Google is working on core changes to the Android operating system.
- 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.
- On October 16, 2018, Google announced that it would change its distribution model for Google Mobile Services in the EU, since part of its revenues streams for Android which came through use of Google Search and Chrome were now prohibited by the EU’s ruling.
- This new screen will use “neutral language” to inform users about the store they’re about to install and clarify which permissions it requires, such as the ability to install other apps.
With Android 16 Beta 3, Google is giving app developers a chance to test if their apps are affected by this upcoming change. Local Network Protection will eventually require apps to request specific permission to access the local network. Later QPR betas give us even more features that can be chalked up to the next platform release, unless they are completely Pixel-exclusive. This gives us situations where we can try out new features coming to Android 17 (by checking them out in Android 16 QPR1 betas) before the stable Android 16 update is even launched! Android 17 will also crack down on apps that try to start audio in the background automatically when your phone boots up. Going forward, apps will need to either be visible on your screen or run a proper foreground service designed for things like music playback, navigation, or calls.
- 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.
- 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.
- In 2018, Android 9 released Smart Reply, which provides suggested replies as tappable chips beneath a notification for quick responses.
- Going forward, apps will need to either be visible on your screen or run a proper foreground service designed for things like music playback, navigation, or calls.
- 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).
- Upload your music library for free and listen to your music anywhere, on any device.
Google is preparing to upgrade Android’s UWB stack with features from the FiRa 3.0 core specification. This button is slated to receive “special visual treatment,” possibly indicating a custom animation when it appears or is tapped. In Android 17 Beta 3, if you have a 2×1 Quick Settings tile, tapping the left side (on the Wi-Fi icon itself) toggles Wi-Fi on and off, while tapping the right side (outside the Wi-Fi icon, on the label) opens the pop-up. Previously, tapping the Wi-Fi Quick Settings tile would open a pop-up with options for nearby Wi-Fi networks, a toggle to enable or disable Wi-Fi, and other settings.
Why doesn’t the Google Play Store work even after installing the APK?
As of Android 11, Android has required apps to conform to a data privacy policy known as scoped storage, under which apps may only automatically have access to certain directories (such as those for pictures, music, and video), and app-specific directories they have created themselves. Google later changed its Android specification documents to state that “Touchscreens will be supported”, although “the Product was designed with the presence of discrete physical buttons as an assumption, therefore a touchscreen cannot completely replace physical buttons”. As you’d expect, the “share” button will launch the system’s share menu, and the “edit” button will prompt you to open the video in a compatible media editor. Instead of a dropdown menu, the audio options are now listed as separate toggles. Parents can use this menu to set daily screen time limits, schedule downtime to automatically lock the device at night, and restrict specific apps via timers or total blocks.
App lists
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.
Constant Quality for Video Recording
This new spec adds features like hybrid UWB scheduling, which allows multiple UWB applications and features to run concurrently. These changes will be ready “in a version of the next major Android release.” Google could introduce these changes as early as the initial Android 17 release, but no later than Android 17 QPR2. To support these “Registered App Stores,” Google is working on core changes to the Android operating system. This new screen will use “neutral language” to inform users about the store they’re about to install and clarify which permissions it requires, such spinalto casino as the ability to install other apps.
Android 16 QPR1 allows users to configure what happens when they tap the touchpad with three fingers. You can see a gray, circular button located after the divider separating pinned and recent apps. To address this, Google added the taskbar overflow button with the release of Android 16 QPR1 Beta 2. When long-pressing an app icon in the app drawer, you’ll see a “pin to taskbar” shortcut in the context menu, while you’ll see an “unpin from taskbar” shortcut when long-pressing an app icon on the taskbar. If you’d like to try the changes ahead of its stable rollout, you can already do so, starting with Android 16 QPR1 Beta 1.








