- Android 16 has now been released, with new features such as live updates and safety tools
- Many other Android 16 features – as well as its visual overhaul – are not present and are landing on September 3
- This initial deployment is just for Pixel phones, with other brands that should deploy Android 16 later this year
Android 16 has now landed, and if it seems unusually early, you are right, because the last versions of Android all landed towards the end of their exit years, with Android 15 only in October.
It is therefore a quick turnaround for the latest Android version of Google – which may explain why the most awaited and substantial feature is absent.
More specifically, the visual overhaul of Android – nicknamed Material 3 expressive – that Google showed not so long ago, is not yet there. This will land as part of the QPR1 of Android 16 (Quarterly Release 1 platform), which, according to a source which is aimed at Android Authority, will be deployed on Pixel devices on September 3 – it is roughly when we generally expect to see new numbered versions of Android.
September 3 would also be when we see the office mode of Android 16, which allows you to connect your phone to a monitor and interact with an office interface, just like Samsung has been offering for years with its Dex mode.
And we will probably also see smaller updates, such as a more organized sound settings screen, which was spotted by Android Authority in the latest Android 16 QPR1 version.
However, this does not mean that this first version of Android 16 is not worth being downloaded. It includes various new features, such as live updates that offer you real -time updates on things like food deliveries and Uber requests on your locking screen.
You can also activate advanced protection mode to help keep your phone protected from dangerous websites, scam calls, harmful applications and other threats. All the features of advanced protection are not new, but you can now activate all these guarantees with a single tap.
Grouped notifications and accessibility improvements
Android 16 will also group notifications from a single application to keep things organized, and there are improvements for hearing aid users, as you can now choose to use the microphone of your phone for audio comments during calls (rather than the hearing aid microphone) and natively control the volume of your hearing aid from your phone.
There are also smaller updates, such as a discharge method which offers faster access to the details of key devices, thus accelerating the exchange of exchanges when you sell your phone.
These features and others are now taking place on supported pixel phones (which means the Google Pixel 6 and more). If you use another phone brand, you will have to wait a little longer, with Google saying that updates for the handsets of other brands will arrive “later this year”.
