Here’s What’s New in Android 16’s Second Major Update
Android 16 officially began rolling out back in June , and most of the visual changes from Material 3 Expressive were added in a major update in September. Now, the second major update to Android 16 has arrived, adding a host of new features across notifications, settings, accessibility, and device restrictions.
As usual, this update will be released first on Pixel devices . For other Android devices, including Samsung devices, each phone and tablet manufacturer will independently adjust the software update as needed and release it to their users. Despite the limited number of updates, Google says this marks a “new chapter” in the history of Android, which will be released “more frequently” in the future, rather than once a year. In other words, we may see Android 17 much sooner than expected.
But we won’t see that today. We’re still in the Android 16 era, which will soon receive the following new features and changes:
More interface settings
Personalization has always been one of Android’s strengths, and this Android 16 update brings a number of features to help you make the interface more flexible and consistent. Home screen icons can now be customized, and themed icons are automatically applied to all apps.
Both of these changes should mean that when playing with Android’s appearance, there won’t be a single awkward icon standing out from the crowd—everything should look more consistent. “Your phone should reflect your unique aesthetic,” Google says, and these changes should help.
Dark mode has also been improved: it will now be applied to all apps, even those the developer didn’t specifically support. This should result in a more consistent visual style and additional battery savings by darkening most of the screen more frequently.
Improved parental controls
If you have children using Android devices, you know that current parental control features are somewhat cumbersome and mostly managed remotely. In the future, more parental control features will be available on your children’s devices, making them easier to access and manage.
The new built-in settings will be PIN-protected, preventing your children from changing them. They will cover device usage time, inactivity schedules, and app usage. You can also increase the time spent using apps and devices on the phone or tablet you’re using, which is especially convenient if you’re with your child.
Google is also simplifying the setup of Google Family Link on Android 16 phones and tablets, where family connections and device rules are initially set up. Other key parental control features, including purchase protection and location tracking, can still be managed remotely.
AI in your notifications
Technically introduced last month with Pixel Drop , Android 16 now summarizes your notifications using artificial intelligence—a feature tech companies continue to push in an effort to save us time and avoid the tedious task of sifting through notifications, even if the results have been mixed so far. Why Google is announcing this alongside other new features is unclear, but it’s a good reminder for any Pixel users who might be interested in taking advantage of it.
AI summaries are a feature Apple first introduced on the iPhone , then partially removed from some apps, and then brought back. According to Google, these AI summaries will give you “quick insights and context at a glance,” so hopefully they’ll understand what’s important in your group chats and what’s not.
We’re also getting AI-powered notification management: “low-priority notifications” (which Google says includes promotions and social media alerts) will be muted and grouped to be less distracting. It’s unclear how much control you’ll have over this.
And even more updates
There are also a ton of other smaller updates that apply to a wider range of Android devices, not just those running Android 16. These include more vivid subtitles, simplified accessibility features like TalkBack (voice dictation) and Auto Click (using a mouse with Android), and pinned tabs in Chrome for Android.
Emoji Kitchen is getting more features and more ways to combine emoji, Circle to Search is adding scam detection (just hover over a suspected scam message), and group chats in Google Messages will now have the ability to report issues—chats can be easily left, blocked, and reported.
We’ll also soon be getting a beta version of Google’s “Reason for Calling” feature in the Phone app. It lets you mark outgoing calls to saved contacts as urgent, which will be visible when you call (and may prompt them to answer). Learn more about this feature and other features coming to Android starting today in the official blog .