Android 16 is here
345 comments
·June 10, 2025paxys
bandoti
I find as time goes on I am less-and-less excited about mobile releases. I’ve had a smartphone since the Google Nexus 1. The desktop experience is always better, and a good book is even more inviting.
Curious what other folks are feeling. A lot of these tools seem like useless frivolity.
Meanwhile, I have family who constantly get confused whether the iOS phone icon is FaceTime or the “real” phone; and I have to do multiple taps instead of one to make a FaceTime call—and Apple is busy making Liquid Glass, for what?
SchemaLoad
The old mobile OSs used to be hilariously lacking so every update was genuinely game changing. I remember getting really excited when Android Ice Cream Sandwich was adding screenshot functionality to tablets. And hearing people talk about folders getting added to iOS.
Now all the low hanging fruit is gone they are less exciting. The photogrammetry api stuff added to iOS probably took 100x the dev effort of adding folders and copy/paste, but gets far less excitement.
nashashmi
The remaining low hanging fruits seem to be in porting to desktop docks.
spankibalt
> A lot of these tools seem like useless frivolity.
That's me on a good day; I fuckin' hate smartphones (hardware and software-wise), lol. I have pretty much given up on a slab-style pocket computer (6-7 inch, essentially a deshittified, Samsung XCover-series smartphone on steroids, e. g. S-Pen, exchangeable batteries, audio jack, 1-2 USB-C ports, mSD card slot, lotsa memory, phone-functionality is second fiddle) or a small detachable (8-9 inch, also EMR-penabled, essentially an updated, miniaturized HP ZBook x2 G4 with Nintendo Switch-like capabilities for docking and attachments for a variety of controller options and the keyboard). :(
sellmesoap
I got myself a lenovo duet 10" detachable second hand and put postmarketOS on it, it's got standby for days and a pen. No SD but a couple of usb-C ports a fun little Linux box!
vladms
Why hate them though? They can be great for some things, like messaging, maps, shopping lists and taking pictures. I never consider them "the ultimate computer", and I wouldn't want them to be, mostly because mobile stuff can break/get lost/get stolen.
strix_varius
So there are at least two of us! I'd be truly excited and willing to pay laptop-tier prices for either:
1) a bare (ala Pixel) foldable with S-pen and without large external displays to get cracked and complicate things
2) a rooted linux-computer-in-your-pocket that can be plugged into a usb-c hub and happens to have a SIM card/cell modem to work as a phone.
...but until then I just get by for years and years on whatever mid-tier phone happened to be the smallest form-factor and best-camera-for-$ at the time my last one became unusable.
ItsBob
> Curious what other folks are feeling. A lot of these tools seem like useless frivolity.
Something I have long said when talking about operating systems is that I consider them tool boxes. The same kind of tool box a carpenter would have.
I don't "use" the OS per se. I use the OS to hold my tools in a manner that makes it easy for me to access them.
So, it's like a carpenter's toolbox where he carries around his saw, hammer etc. and can easily grab them when he needs them. He doesn't need to hear about Hammer v2.0 AI-edition or any of that shit!
I don't need my toolbox doing anything other than holding my tools and fucking right off out of my way!
officeplant
>>> Curious what other folks are feeling. A lot of these tools seem like useless frivolity.
Personally I feel like phone OS releases need to slow down to a 2-3 year cycle and lock in on bug fixes.
My iphone 16e has some of the most glaring bugs I've seen in an iOS release in quite some time (Slow motion capture crashes the camera app unless you set it to 120fps first in settings, 240fps is broken).
I feel like we could all use a break from the update cycle for software to actually get patched and optimized.
anal_reactor
Honestly, I'm happy my phone won't get an update. This way I won't be exposed to new bugs. I'm on Android 13 and the only thing I observed when updating from 12 was that now when I switch apps, the screen blinks for split-second, which is incredibly annoying. Functionality-wise, there's very little that can be improved anyway. It's mostly just fiddling with details of the UI here and there.
I think we grew up with technology advancing rapidly and expensive tech from previous year being outdated, but now we came back to baseline where technological advancement is just small fixes stretched over a long period of time.
mad182
> Functionality-wise, there's very little that can be improved
Yep. Honestly can't name a single major new smartphone feature that I would consider a dealbreaker that wasn't available 10 years ago.
The last things that made me excited about a new phone was contactless payments and Android auto, but both are pretty old now.
Now it's just a slightly different ui and maybe a bit better camera when I got a new phone.
mcny
Android 12 made it possible to have unattended updates possible on fdroid. I sincerely will not recommend an Android version less than 12 at this point.
At some point, we will have something similar on a newer version of Android that we will want and that we can't have with an older version. I don't know what it is yet but i am sure there will be something at some point.
dr-detroit
[dead]
jauntywundrkind
The layer separation on Material has been really not good for me. The floating action button is so hard to notice sometimes; I've reached out for IT help or support sometimes because I just didn't notice it.
I haven't used it yet but the refraction effect on Liquid Glass feels like it could be amazingly good at creating a sense of layer separation. Static content it's maybe not going to be awesome at, but as soon as the there's motion, the non-linear motion around the bend of the glass, for me, seems to create a very easy perturbance of regular motion that it feels like eyes, in their radar like way, instantly know of, without having to look closely and interpret.
cosmic_cheese
In my view the dramatic reduction of depth in Material 2 and beyond was a real mistake. That was the one redeeming thing it had over other flat UI design systems.
SchemaLoad
Material is fine, but it feels pretty uninspired to me. Like the corporate art version of UI. Big flat inoffensive blobs, washed out pastel colours, etc. The new iOS demo kinda makes me feel excited to try the new update, once they iron out a few of the poor contrast spots.
lmm
Bland and inoffensive is what I want from my OS. The stage manager should be facilitating the show, not trying out their own material on the crowd.
derefr
The OS is less the stage manager, and more the venue itself. Imagine if the Sydney Opera House or Carnegie Hall looked "inoffensive" rather than majestic.
xinayder
It used to be better when Material Design came out. It was more rectangular, looked better. Take a look at Android 10. It was much more "expressive". Now, it's just round, as if they're trying to copy the trend set by Apple.
I updated my Galaxy S21 to Android 15 and I hate it. The new design occupies TOO MUCH space, I could check almost all my notifications (I only have 3-4 apps that send me notifications) with a quick scroll from the top, but now a single notification occupies like 1/5th of the screen, making it much more difficult to take a look at all my notifications at once.
The other stupid thing, they moved the media playback to the quick settings panel and made it a tiny widget on the lock screen, on the bottom, where you barely pay attention to it. I removed this widget thinking it would restore the old functionality, but I was wrong. Now, whenever I listen to music, I cannot control playback from the notifications panel or the lock screen, I must manually open Spotify and control it from there.
I don't know what drugs UX designers are on but I can safely say this is not convenient for the user and we didn't ask for it.
pxoe
Seems odd to point at older Material versions as "more expressive" when it's the Material You theming in 12 that really got it to shine.
M95D
> a single notification occupies like 1/5th of the screen
> I must manually open Spotify and control it from there
It seems like they did it on purpose, the purpose being the management of your attention.
IgorPartola
I agree. It is clear, functional, and reminds me of staged doctor’s offices in commercials for prescription drugs.
Apple now is entering their Windows XP design era. Once things get too gaudy they will introduce Flat Glass or pretend like they invented straight lines and sharp corners. But at least that seems to have a personality.
chasil
You likely mean the "Aero" stage.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Aero
While many express nostalgia for Aero in Windows 7, Microsoft dismissed it in fairly harsh terms:
'Microsoft called the Aero interface it once championed and poured so much love upon "dated and cheesy".'
https://www.theregister.com/2012/05/21/windows_8_aero_dead/
The thing with [Microsoft's] dictated GUIs is that they all end up on the trash heap.
Some people have affinity for a GUI aesthetic. I liked Motif and CDE. Ripping them away for the garbage pile is a supremely foolish thing to do, as it can drive users away.
Apple, and Microsoft, will surely add more to this pile shortly.
JadeNB
> Apple now is entering their Windows XP design era.
Is Windows XP universally understood to be bad design? I remember it as somewhere between blandly unremarkable and slightly pleasant.
LorenDB
My main complaint with Material Expressive is that every other button seems to be 85% padding and 15% actual content. What happened to reasonable information density?
legitster
For control surfaces, padding prevents misclicks. It's actually very important part of perceived interface quality when dealing with a handheld touchscreen device.
jay_kyburz
Yeah, but the icons and labels could use more of that padding and be larger so old folks like me can see them.
robocat
Different topic: CSS doesn't have a good way to manage nearby clicks? A tap just a few px outside a button should click the button? <Input>s can steal focus from nearby taps on Mobile Safari (which can also be a fuckup). I hate iPhone taps that slip a little and scrollable areas having queer interactions (causing usability/accessibility issues).
xboxnolifes
Buttons are whatever for me, but the padding on things like notifications and other information text is getting ridiculous. The notifications are taking up 1/4 of the screen and managing to only show 3 words of an email or text on my phone.
pier25
Couldn't agree more. Quite a fall from grace by Apple.
nextos
Apple did skeuomorphism really well, which is hard and requires a lot of design work.
I cannot understand why they gradually abandoned that, as it was clearly a competitive moat in terms of usability.
I've seen how computer illiterate or elderly people were able to navigate skeuomorphic designs with relative ease. Right now, they can't tell what is a button or a field and what isn't.
pazimzadeh
It was less of flat vs. skeuomorphic than dead vs. alive elements (https://vimeo.com/64895205).
While the technology to create 'alive' skeuomorphic elements now exists, that wasn't the case a few years ago.
Older skeuomorphic designs were static/rasters which were clunky to either mix these static elements with animated elements (for example the iOS 7 menu title transitions) or to have transparency (how can you have transparent leather/velvet?).
Liquid Glass is actually an extension of the foundation laid by iOS 7.
Many parts of the iOS 7 transition guide might as well have been written for Liquid Glass:
- "Make sure that app content is discernible through translucent UI elements—such as bars and keyboards—and the transparent status bar"
- "Examine your app for hard-coded UI values—such as sizes and positions—and replace them with those you derive dynamically from system-provided values."
https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Us...
J_McQuade
Not gonna lie, I've been using (and programming) GUIs since the Amiga and even I get thrown askew by "click here to enter your name" (expecting a subsequent GUI element to focus, or worse - a popup) vs. "click here to enter your name" (haha! the prompt text disappears now and this is just where you write it I guess!).
You'd think this is just a little thing, but it can really mess with you if you need to change focus and - of course - every application will 'haha!' you in a different way.
It has nothing to do with skeuomorphism really, but at least skeuomorphism seemed to give everyone an idea of what they were shooting for at least.
kstrauser
It was primarily because skeuomorphic UIs don't scale well with user experience levels. They're easier for novices but don't lend themselves well to expert use, unless you add a bunch of extra affordances that would seem really out of place in a UI meant to look like a real thing. And what does a skeuomorphic web browser or email app look ike? We don't have those in meatspace.
rudedogg
I thought it looks nice, and gives more focus to the content like they intended :/.
The space around a block style tab-bar/navbar is wasted anyway, might as well show some of the content. Most apps were doing it anyway. Seeing a system tabbar/navbar was getting rare in “good” apps.
dmix
Have you tried the beta on iPhone? 75% of the time it seems much nicer with 25% degraded. It's a weird mix but I see why they went in that direction. The only real problem is the religious adherence to the glass design language that is hurting it... because there are very good UX/design improvements via the glass, just not everywhere.
I wouldn't judge the new Android until I tried it on a phone either.
rickdeckard
> The only real problem is the religious adherence to the glass design language that is hurting it
That's also my impression, iOS 26 looks like some UI's were peer-reviewed and thrown back with the note "Not gaudy enough, it's not enough glass! Remember, the theme is 'Liquid Glass', Management wants to see traces of this on every screen!"
dmix
100%, I do love Safari though. I'd almost say it's a good release if the icons weren't so funky
saubeidl
I agree, but that being said, I still think it peaked at the OG Material. I miss elevation shadows.
kevin_thibedeau
More like shouting "Watch me drain your battery all day long".
autoexec
you sell more phones that way.
octo888
"Unfortunately, Android has made changes which will make it much harder for us to port to Android 16 and future releases. It will also make adding support for new Pixels much more difficult. We're likely going to need to focus on making GrapheneOS devices sooner than we expected."
u5wbxrc3
I can not love this development project enough its the peak of Android custom ROM. I am curious though as to what they have changed so much that it is going to be more difficult.
kyrra
Sounds like there are lots of causes: the project losing a senior dev who got conscripted to fight in a war. Not getting access to an OEM rom early on. Google changing a lot of the code around lock screen and other features (which makes porting over their custom changes on top of it take more time).
jaoane
Okay, but what are the changes that made porting more difficult?
andrelaszlo
> Clearer, simpler calling with hearing devices
This is really important for me. Currently, hearing aids will turn to full duplex during calls, and be used as both input and output.
- Audio quality will be much worse, since the bandwidth is split between the two channels. This is obviously bad if you're already struggling to hear.
- Listening to music, for example, the volume controls on the hearing aids simultaneously turn surrounding sounds down and the music up, or vice versa. In "phone-call" mode, however, the phone hijacks the volume control so if you're struggling to hear on a call in a noisy environment there's no way to increase the volume without simultaneously amplifying the surrounding noise to painfully loud levels.
- As mentioned in the article, the microphones are designed to make me hear other people but not myself, making other people complain about my sound a lot. The best I can do is to say "sorry - either you'll hear me like this or I won't hear you at all"
This was designed for people using BT headsets of course, but hearing aids are not headsets.
On Linux I can just pick which microphone I want to use and which mode to use for Bluetooth. It's worked flawlessly for the last decade. To me, that's being "user friendly", good UX, or whatever you want to call it.
On Windows, you can go deep into some ancient, almost hidden, settings and disable the microphone on the BT device. On macOS, you can do the same using the old Audio MIDI Setup tool. It will periodically reset itself of course, like anything related to a11y on macOS. Not sure about iOS, would be interesting to know.
skybrian
It seems LE Audio is required for this feature and there aren’t many hearing aids that support it. Maybe I’ll check again in a year.
adzm
http://android.com/16 for more information rather than just these highlights
nsriv
Was between submitting this and the link I did, but opted for the latter because the redesign is coming later. Thanks for adding this!
nipperkinfeet
The release of Apple's new glass design has made Material Expressive appear aesthetically pleasing. Apple has declined so much, it's unfortunate.
awakeasleep
The first developer-only beta release?
visarga
Maybe Apple thought they need to make a desperate move to deflect from their lack of AI?
anticrymactic
Call me old, but I don't think users want AI. Apple summary's turned out barely helpful and that was the big, simple and easy AI application. Instead of a working voice assistant, what uses does AI (LLM) have on a smartphone?
thecupisblue
It's just that the implementations are shitty and designed for an "email-calendar-zoom" lifecycle corporate humans, and everyone is trying to "create a new frontier!" while ignoring the actual user behaviour - yes, we sure want to hear an LLM describe Kim K's new instagram post instead of seeing it.
TiredOfLife
> Apple summary's turned out barely helpful and that was the big, simple and easy AI application. Instead of a working voice assistant
That's the point. Apple is years behind on that stuff
thecupisblue
Unfortunately, yes. Even tho I find both abhorrent abominations of design.
Glass is a pain in itself and "preparing for a future in spatial computing" is such a bullshit line when the spatial computing future is still 5-10 years away at minimum, and will not be achieved with Apple Vision, at least not in the current shape and form.
Meanwhile, Material Expressive is trying to force a 2020 graphic design trend onto mobile apps. It literally feels like designers at google just wanted to do something new and modern, so they went with a bland corporate "modern design" aesthetic, that reduces UX in name of UI - even tho they are like oooooh users found this button 30% faster, it would be well fucking expected, since highly-paid designers have just redesigned the thing.
Meanwhile, apps will continue to be made in their own style.
Apple will release liquid glass support with 26 and we'll see it appear in new apps. At the same time, Google will probably do a partial release of the new material components for developers, where a giant part of components will lack features described by the design spec, a bunch will be missing, and a bunch will be utterly unusable because Google can't create a good DX to save their lives.
cAtte_
> With Android 16, you can now activate Advanced Protection, Google’s strongest mobile device protection. It enables an array of robust device security features that protect you from online attacks, harmful apps, unsafe websites, scam calls and more. blah blah
let me guess: Advanced Protection will continue to gain features that restrict the freedom of users in the name of security and some time from now it will be mandatorily enabled for everyone. classic google!
jajuuka
To me it seems like Google trying to mirror the iOS Advanced Data Protection and lockdown mode. Just ways to put security front and center to counter Apple's "we're the privacy company" schtick.
edg5000
"Samsung DeX has helped maximize productivity on phones, foldables and tablets for years. In Android 16, we worked closely with Samsung to develop desktop windowing, a new way to interact with your apps and content on large-screen devices." <- What does "working closely" mean for a company with infinite SW dev resources? What do they need from Samsung as far as software goes?
PS Let me make a guess for the future. Android Desktop mode will improve and people will ditch Windows and instead plug their phone into a USB-C dock that connects it to keyboard, mouse and display. (I'm on Linux myself, but I see people moving to Android from Windows)
rickdeckard
> What does "working closely" mean for a company with infinite SW dev resources? What do they need from Samsung as far as software goes?
Samsung already learned lessons from that journey, Google did not.
Also, the Android strategy is to not compete with Android vendors on OS features, they rather collaborate to make them contribute improvements back to the OS.
This strategy makes the project faster, cheaper, reduces fragmentation, removes a competitor (!), and most of all reduces brand-stickiness within the Android ecosystem (--> if Samsung DeX gets merged into Android, Samsung users can switch brands easier).
colorman
> most of all reduces brand-stickiness within the Android ecosystem (--> if Samsung DeX gets merged into Android, Samsung users can switch brands easier).
Why would Samsung want this? Why would they actively reduce their own competitiveness by giving away distinguished features?
rickdeckard
Because this strategy is not sustainable in the Android ecosystem, not even for Samsung.
Google applies different levers here:
1. Google is making your feature a commodity: Samsung is aware that Google plans to implement a native version of the feature, with or without Samsung. Google will make the feature available to ALL competitors of Samsung. Samsung get's the chance to shape it WITH Google or will later be forced to ensure compatibility with it (because it's not sustainable for Samsung to coexist with AND compete against an ecosystem used by ALL other Android vendors)
2. Google offers to take over some tasks: Google creates media attention for OS-Upgrades, creating pressure for Device-Vendors to adopt the new OS-version as soon as possible. The more a vendor deviates from the generic implementation, the more time & resources (and money) will be needed to adopt a new OS-version. So it's in the interest of Samsung to contribute as much of their fundamentals back upstream, so Google themselves takes care of maintaining it.
3. Google may make it mandatory at some point: The Android Compatibility Definition Document (CDD) defines the mandatory requirements for a device to be granted into the Android Ecosystem. Google is in control of this document and may at some point add specific behavior or features as a condition for Android compliance. This "Desktop Mode" has the potential to become the default behavior for Tablets, so Samsung may be required to adopt it for devices classified as Tablet by the CDD [0]
4. Google returns the favor: Samsung can trade collaboration on this feature for business opportunities with Google in other areas (i.e. Mixed Reality, B2B, Chromebooks,...), which potentially allows Samsung to be first in an entirely new market...
[0] https://source.android.com/docs/compatibility/16/android-16-...
rep_wex
To reduce disparency between the Samsung fork and the upstream. Google will implement this feature anyway, then why not agree on implementation details to have less merge conflicts in the future?
nashashmi
This is the future that can’t be more ignored. It is like finally bringing call interrupt feature in internet dial up modems but only after everyone migrated to DSL. Windows Lumia was the first device to bring this functionality from an OS developer. Samsung had this for premium hardware. Apple came up with stage manager for iPad but left it out of iPhone. And no one really cares about this feature enough.
What is this feature in reality? It is just a projected screen with a certain resolution. And then it has apps that appear and open as resizable windows. Android had a downloadable app called something like Sense that did this but the app developers didn’t make apps with resizable windows at the time.
I guess part of the working closely is to cause developers to display apps that can be resized. And resize it for them in the event they refuse.
RamRodification
> a guess for the future. Android Desktop mode will improve and people will ditch Windows and instead plug their phone into a USB-C dock that connects it to keyboard, mouse and display
This seems like such a killer feature to me. And every time I watch a video of someone trying out DeX it seems to work so well.
Yet it never seems to take off. I don't understand why. What am I missing? App ecosystem not good enough for business use?
"This is the year of mobile docking replacing workstations" has kind of become my "This is the year of Linux on the desktop.
bombcar
Because Microsoft is the one who needs to do it - or maybe Apple.
Both have an ecosystem that operates in both worlds (though Microsoft keeps killing their phones and doesn't currently have one) - so they could do it.
It's obvious that the iPad could be a Mac now, there's no technical limitation. So the iPhone could be, too.
leakycap
> for a company with infinite SW dev resources
No such thing.
> Android Desktop mode will improve and people will ditch Windows
I agree; I would have switched from a desktop PC to my tablet in 2017 using DeX on my Samsung Tab S3 if enough websites would have worked with the DeX browser. I bet it's fine now, nearly a decade later.
Good on Google for not just stealing Samsung's work.
nikanj
My guess for the future is that no app maker dares to put efforts into Android Desktop mode because they worry Google will leave them high and dry, and in two-three releases the desktop mode will be abandoned because it has no app support
nsonha
what does this have to do with Samsung? Google just can't make a standard Dex mode on their own?
mrweasel
The notification feature looks nice. I've pretty much exclusively used iOS, but honestly notifications is a weak point for iOS, in my opinion. I frequently have the 1 notification on my home screen, but once unlocked notifications are pretty much impossible to find again.
Groxx
I'm certainly happy to see "force grouping". Grouping is a great opt-in enhancement, but it never should've been wholly in apps' control to begin with - apps in general cannot be trusted to not be dumb, gotta have user control to override them.
argsnd
I agree that Android notifications are broadly better than iOS but the live activities feature was a good idea and I’m quite glad that’s been added to Android now
gorbypark
Yeah, I've not quite figured out what I'm doing wrong, but sometimes iOS notifications just disappear after clicking on them. I think it's when iOS decides my face isn't good enough (I have an iPhone 11 where the FaceID isn't as good as the newer phones), and then it tries three times and fails...then the notification is dismissed because I clicked on it but I haven't actually unlocked the phone? Then it's gone forever seemingly.
robertoandred
Once unlocked, swipe down from the top of the screen to open Notification Center.
walthamstow
With a case on the phone, my success rate of swiping downwards like that is about 60%
mrweasel
Seems about right and the missing ones are the ones you're most likely to be the ones you don't understand.
The swiping downward is also fairly dumb. There zero discoverability and triggering it seems hit in miss.
If you have no notification swiping down also locks your phone, rather than telling you that you have zero notification... WHY?
throwaway314155
From my perspective they merely added features Apple has had in notifications for years.
azinman2
Agreed. I was surprised to see this, given the constant meme that iOS notifications are just copying Android.
sudomateo
The more I compare Material 3 Expressive to Liquid Glass the more I'm excited to switch back to a Pixel. I'm a fan of the use of color, motions, and different shapes versus transparency, minimal contrast, and little color.
I'm on a iPhone 13 Pro Max right now that's still doing well but starting to show battery capacity age. Plus, it's the only non-USB-C device I own so I'd be happy to get rid of it.
jajuuka
This WWDC was the nail in the coffin for me. Apple has lost the plot and is back to self indulgent projects. Picked up a Pixel again and glad I don't have to deal with liquid glass in the future.
sudomateo
I feel similarly. This iPhone is the only Apple device I own outside of a shared Apple TV. I'm not in the Apple ecosystem so moving back to Pixel for me would be easy.
I'm not impressed with Apple as of late.
ChocolateGod
I'd move to a pixel if it was the same hardware value as the corresponding Samsung or OnePlus, they always just seem to be a year or two behind.
sudomateo
I'm going to wait for the Pixel 10 to see what specs it has. I believe you're right though it's a bit behind on other manufacturers in terms of hardware. It would still be a jump for me coming from an iPhone 13.
villedespommes
I'm really excited about the Desktop mode, now I can finally break free of Samsung!
ZuLuuuuuu
I was also very excited about it and that's why I immediately upgraded to Android 16. But it turns out that it is not part of this update. The same with the new Material design, it doesn't come with Android 16 update. So weird that they announced both of these features as if they are part of Android 16.
villedespommes
They actually say in the announcement, it's supposed to be rolled out "later this year."
I really hope it won't be delayed
NiekvdMaas
It's not part of the stable release yet, but the beta version that was released today has an option to enable this: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2025/06/developer-...
I tried it and it works great - Dex-like experience with mouse and keyboard, on a stock Pixel phone.
nogridbag
That looks pretty amazing. I hope this means Google is committed to releasing a Pixel Tablet 2.
nfriedly
FWIW, Motorola has also had this feature for years, but they call it "Ready For", which is a terrible name.
That said, I'm also looking forward to the official Google version coming to the rest of the Android devices
villedespommes
Each year, fewer and fewer Motorola phones actually support this feature over usb-c and it looks like they renamed it to "Smart Connect."
https://en-emea.support.motorola.com/app/answers/detail/a_id...
Shame, I liked it very much since Samsung phones are expensive
nfriedly
Wow, they are terrible at naming things!
culopatin
I remember my Atrix had a desktop mode back in… 2011? Something like that.
ankurdhama
I wish they move the clock and notification area to the taskbar instead of top bar. That top bar doesn't make sense in desktop mode.
nashashmi
Is this something windows phone app can’t do?
null
2OEH8eoCRo0
As am I though it's not in this release.
smusamashah
Not available for Pixel/XL, Pixel 2/XL, Pixel 3/XL, Pixel 3a/XL, Pixel 4/XL, Pixel 4a, Pixel 4a 5G, Pixel 5, or Pixel 5a.
I have Pixel 4a and I wanted to get Android 16 to get the smaller notification tile buttons back.
sambf
Is the 4a still supported with security updates? What OS are you running? GrapheneOS stopped support so I scored a cheap 8a but I really dislike it. Had to boot my 4a again for some reason the other day and I realized I really missed it, it's so small and lightweight compared to the 8a.
yencabulator
You haven't been getting even security updates for almost two years. The last Android version that supported 4a was Android 13, this is 16.
pulkitanand
Nice to see someone still using a 4a. I'm still rocking a 3a XL with lineage (massively resisting the urge to upgrade to a Pixel 9). I'm quite certain they'll do a lineage release for our phones for Android 16, hoping to use my phone for as much longer as possible!
walthamstow
How's the battery? Have you ever replaced it?
smusamashah
I am using second-hand 4a which I bought more than year ago off eBay. On low to medium use, it still manages ~1-1.5 day on average. Battery is solid. My wife has Pixel 4, I like camera result of that one slightly better. 4a is a bit blurry in comparison.
flyinghamster
Oh great, I get to learn how to use my phone all over again. We need a "leave this the $EXPLETIVE alone" setting for our user interfaces.
demosthanos
This knee-jerk reaction is correct more often than not (see the terrible iOS redesign announced earlier), but in this case it seems like it might be incorrect?
I looked through the highlights linked here and the full "What's New" page [0] and am pleasantly surprised to see a few new features but no major overhauls of existing ones.
petee
But thats also just what they're trying to advertise. They always make more changes than listed.
And its the sneaky ones that get through...like when I upgraded to 15 my home button no longer exists when the screen is locked, which effectively makes google maps navigation stuck on the screen unless you stop navigation by pressing back repeatedly
demosthanos
This is never how the marketing around the big UI overhauls that OP is worried about works. A sneaky UI overhaul that's launched with no fanfare doesn't get anyone promoted, so why bother?
> like when I upgraded to 15 my home button no longer exists when the screen is locked, which effectively makes google maps navigation stuck on the screen unless you stop navigation by pressing back repeatedly
Smaller things like this, sure.
FYI, swiping up from the bottom will get into the lock screen and then once unlocked into the home screen.
danieldk
Yep, I just installed on my Pixel 9 and it looks barely different from Android 15. Most of the changes seem to be in the plumbing. Material Design Expressive will only arrive in the next quarterly release.
nsriv
Yeah I think this is being lost in this rollout (and a little bit in these comments). Expressive is in the next update, since this year is a big hike up in the calendar for phone release.
butlike
The issue is this reaction never sticks. Everyone's up in arms, but would you really want to go back to Android KitKat or iOS 2? Probably not for more than novelty, right?
layer8
I would really want to go back to something like the look of iOS 1-6, with clearly discernible UI controls vs. content and labels. Not the real-world-mimicry skeuomorphism, but the look of the standard UI controls.
bigstrat2003
Yes, of course I would. Android UI has been horrible ever since 12.
AndroidKitKat
If it was usable with the apps I need today, I would switch back to Android 4.4.2 or iOS 6.1.3 in a heartbeat. Not sure how long I would stay before the rose tint in my glasses returns to normal, but I would certainly love to try.
pas
yes, who cares, let me launch apps and put widgets on the screen, what else?
I like a lot of the new features, but the visual (mis)communication language is terrible.
dzikimarian
While I like new notification management or control buttons on top of the drawer, I really wouldn't have problem using them in Holo design.
justsomehnguy
I can live another decade without an app what groups three options (one of it is "About") under a hamburger menu on a completely blank screen.
unethical_ban
The interface of Kitkat and the UI design is fine! It looks like what Apple is moving to.
Of course I want accessibility, security and technical improvements.
voidfunc
UI engineers need to justify their existence.
hadlock
I genuinely think this is the case, and why products don't have a LTS interface, even though they ought to. Sign me right up for the 10 year LTS interface. I can't recall any features in gmail that were added that I actually use besides labels, which was an early launch feature. But it's been redesigned about 9 times in the last 20 years, each time with increasing white space and/or a slightly different font.
lupire
LTS interface is expensive for minimal benefit.
SchemaLoad
If you need an LTS interface you might be best with one of those old people smartphones with the big numberpad.
Lerc
UI engineers should be like vaccines. If they do their job well, you should never see why they were needed.
jrgaston
That so many do not see why vaccines are needed is a serious problem.
nawgz
Definitely. Those pesky UI engineers are always rewriting and refactoring and reworking stuff. Me, a talented backend engineer? I would never. My code was perfect initially and there's no pressure to show deliverables from my manager since they know I'm the best.
stackskipton
Huh? Sure, UI code can change, no one is arguing that but API changes, just like for backend, need to be extremely thought out and slow. For UI Engineers, UI is API to the user and for some reason, when they blow up their API, they get praised for it. Most backend engineers are change API at much much slower rate.
null
rezonant
Are you speaking in general, or is there anything specific about this update that has you upset?
eurekin
I think this topic returns with some regularity... It often ends with justification about the need for a promotion of a particular executive that is involved with that inevitably undeniable success
legitster
None of the changes have actually been that crazy. And at least on my Pixel Google has made new features opt-in after major updates.
johannes1234321
Bo worries, Gemini AI will take care of that! The phone will now what you want (and show more ads)
echelon
I wish we had a dozen phone companies instead of just two.
Please write your legislators and demand antitrust action against Apple and Google for the following:
- Lack of One-Tap Web Installs (without scare walls or buried settings menus). This is the biggest stranglehold they have. Web installs can be done safely and securely via app signing, permissions, and signature blacklists.
- First-party defaults for all the platform pieces: Messaging, Payments, Photos, Music, Media, Navigation, etc. Every single one of these lets Apple and Google squeeze another industry and forces us into a pit of no-innovation.
- Default search, in the case of Google, which ropes you into their search / ads funnel. They've also bought it out on Apple's end.
- Default browser tech, in the case of Apple. It prevents innovation on app runtimes and deployment and forces you to develop using Apple technologies.
Winning the mobile rights battle will not only liberate us from the "promo cycle" plague, it'll stop the tax on innovation and introduce healthy competition.
If American legislators and the DOJ / FTC won't act, then every other country should. If enough countries put pressure on Apple and Google, we'll start to see competition reemerge. Right now it's impossible to develop a new smartphone entrant. Even Meta and Microsoft with their nearly-unlimited capital couldn't fight off Apple and Google.
YCombinator would probably be happy if smartphones became open platforms. They'd see healthier margins for startups and less direct platform competition. a16z is pushing for this. Just because Apple and Google were there first twenty years ago shouldn't give them an eternity to rule the entire category.
legitster
As someone who owned a Symbian, a Palm OS, and a Windows phone - I kind of refuse to listen to this argument anymore. I voted with my wallet and all I have to show for it were years of mockery from my peers and a drawerful of bricked devices.
rawling
> - First-party defaults for all the platform pieces: Messaging, Payments, Photos, Music, Media, Navigation, etc. Every single one of these lets Apple and Google squeeze another industry and forces us into a pit of no-innovation.
Don't/can't Android manufacturers provide alternative defaults here?
jsight
Yes, and most people hate it when they do that.
diffeomorphism
Wasn't that what all the 2015 antitrust stuff was about?
Manufacturers were contractually forbidden from doing that.
crazygringo
> I wish we had a dozen phone companies instead of just two.
Counterpoint: the resources currently dedicated to Apple and Android would then be spread across a dozen operating systems, assuming constant consumer spending.
Maybe you think stasis is a good thing, but I (mostly) appreciate the progress iOS and Android have made over the past nearly two decades. I wouldn't want to currently be stuck at iOS 3 or 4 as opposed to iOS 18.
Assuming you actually mean a dozen phone operating systems. Because we already do have lots of phone companies, but they mostly all use Android.
rjsw
You can buy phones now that are not from Apple or Google, I have a Nokia KaiOS one.
lupire
What you want is a government sponsored phone OS. We had competition but software has economy of scale. No one wants to pay the cost of developing a phone OS used by a small fraction of users. Windows and Palm proved that.
And Samsung does sell phones with customized UI and apps.
charcircuit
There are more than a dozen phone companies: Google, Samsung, Motorola, Apple, HTC, Xiaomi, Huawei, LG, etc.
delfinom
HTC is dead. LG has exited the phone market.
Motorola is barely hanging out.
Turns out people tend to gravitate to a few choices....
Xioami/Huawei are in essence banned from the US.
kabdib
bring back the Windows phone! (srsly, they were pretty nice to develop for)
ozim
It is good for your brain, it is an excellent exercise. /s
SchemaLoad
Unironically think a lot of HN users brains have hardened up after using the same shitty linux DE from the 90s for too long, to the point a slightly changed border radius or color leaves them unable to function.
I like their Material Expressive design a lot more now after Apple's big reveal. While it's still a bit too colorful and whimsical for my liking, it does stay much closer to what I think should be the top UX design ideal - be clear, legible, and get out of the way. On the new iOS every screen feels like some UX designer is shouting "look how amazing I am at this!!" at me.