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).
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- This new spec adds features like hybrid UWB scheduling, which allows multiple UWB applications and features to run concurrently.
- 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.
- 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.
- In December 2011, Greg Kroah-Hartman announced the start of Android Mainlining Project, which aims to put some Android drivers, patches and features back into the Linux kernel, starting in Linux 3.3.
- Chinese companies are building a PC and mobile operating system, based on Android, to “compete directly with Microsoft Windows and Google Android”.
- Android smartphones have the ability to report the location of Wi-Fi access points, encountered as phone users move around, to build databases containing the physical locations of hundreds of millions of such access points.
- Before Android 12, the OS had separate Quick Settings toggles for Wi-Fi and mobile data.
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.
Features
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.
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 spinalto casino 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.
How do I install the Google Play Store APK on my Android device?
Android smartphones have the ability to report the location of Wi-Fi access points, encountered as phone users move around, to build databases containing the physical locations of hundreds of millions of such access points. For example, Samsung has worked with General Dynamics through their Open Kernel Labs acquisition to rebuild Jelly Bean on top of their hardened microvisor for the “Knox” project. In 2020, David Wang under his company Corellium released Project Sandcastle which made Android run on the iPhone 7. Android’s standard C library, Bionic, was developed by Google specifically for Android, as a derivation of the BSD’s standard C library code. Android is a Linux distribution according to the Linux Foundation, Google’s open-source chief Chris DiBona, and several journalists.
- You can see a gray, circular button located after the divider separating pinned and recent apps.
- 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.
- Live Updates is one of the highlight features of Android 16, but it was absent from the first stable Android 16 release.
- In May 2017, with the announcement of Android 8.0, Google introduced Project Treble, a major re-architect of the Android OS framework designed to make it easier, faster, and less costly for manufacturers to update devices to newer versions of Android.
- 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.
Android 17: Confirmed features and changes
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.
Additionally, the menu acts as a direct gateway to Google Family Link, allowing quick access to broader controls like School Time, purchase approvals, and location alerts. With Android 17 Beta 4, Google added small arrow keys to appear when you tap the handle to resize the two windows. As you can see in the video above, lock screen widgets on phones work differently from those on tablets. Then, tap the “customize” card to open the widget editor, where you can add, remove, or reorder your widgets.
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.
Android 17 Beta 3 lets users independently manage where specific system sounds are played in their hearing device. For example, you’ll be alerted when the clock has changed for daylight saving time. With Android 17 Beta 3, users can now receive alerts when their phone’s clock performs a scheduled change.
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.
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.