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Android 16\u2019s first public beta will start rolling out later today, bringing with it dynamic lockscreen notifications for ride-sharing and food delivery, following yesterday\u2019s reveal of a similar feature in Samsung\u2019s Galaxy S25 phones. The new beta also forces apps to be resizable, a move to make sure they run full-screen on tablets and foldables. This is expected to be the first of four public beta releases before Android 16\u2019s full release in Q2.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Live Updates are dynamic notifications that \u201chelp users monitor and quickly access important ongoing activities\u201d and are updated in real time. They\u2019re Android\u2019s take on the Live Activities that Apple added to its iPhones in 2022<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Samsung also added a similar feature in One UI 7<\/a>, shown off in its Galaxy S25 phones<\/a> at yesterday\u2019s Unpacked event, which it calls the Now Bar. However, while Apple and Samsung\u2019s versions support a range of app and notification types, including live sports scores, the Android 16 implementation is so far limited to progress trackers, and Google suggests it should only be used for ride-sharing, food delivery, and navigation apps.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n While Samsung\u2019s Now Bar appears as a floating notification at the bottom of the lockscreen, and Apple\u2019s are designed around its Dynamic Island camera cutout, Android 16\u2019s Live Updates seem to instead be pinned to the top of the regular notification stack.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The other major change in the public beta release<\/a> is a restriction on developers\u2019 ability to lock the size and orientation of their app windows. The change is intended to make sure that apps \u201cwork seamlessly\u201d on devices \u201cregardless of display size and form factor.\u201d In short: this is to make sure apps open full-screen on larger devices like tablets and foldables, and can be resized freely for multi-tasking. Games are exempt, and app developers are able to opt out for this release, but won\u2019t have that option by the time Android 17 rolls around in 2026.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Other additions to the public beta include support for the Advanced Professional Video (APV) codec, scene detection to enable night mode in camera apps, and better support for vertical text rendering. These join features already revealed in Android 16\u2019s two developer betas<\/a> including improvements to Android\u2019s photo picker menu, richer haptic controls, and a Health Connect app for sharing medical information.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Google has also confirmed that it\u2019s working on adding more Gemini Extensions, after yesterday launching the ability for its AI assistant to act across multiple apps in a single prompt<\/a>. So far Gemini only works with Google\u2019s own apps, a few of Samsung\u2019s, and a handful of third-party options including Spotify and WhatsApp, but Google promises support for \u201cmore apps with more OEMs on more devices across more form factors.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Android 16 beta is rolling out today to any Google Pixel phone since the Pixel 6, plus the Pixel Tablet. This is the wider public\u2019s first chance to try out the new Android version, but you won\u2019t have long to wait if you\u2019d rather not risk beta software.\u00a0Google is changing its update cadence this year, with Android 16 expected to be released fully sometime in Q2<\/a>, following a final beta release in April, much earlier than its usual Q3 release window.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n