The third and final Beta release for the first Android 16 Quarterly Platform Release has been pushed out by Google. Also known as Android 16 QPR1 Beta 3, if you’re subscribed to the QPR Beta channel, you should be able to install the update by going to Settings > System > Software updates > System update. When you see the page showing the information about the update, follow the directions to install it.
One of the new features found in the update include a keyboard magnifier. This can be found by going to Settings > Accessibility > Magnification. The accessibility feature will allow those who have full-screen magnification enabled to get a really close look at emojis and letters on their keyboard. For those with vision issues, it should help make their typing less stressful and more accurate.
Remember the other day when we told you that the weather condition icons on the Pixel At a Glance feature had been drained of their color? In other words, instead of appearing in yellow, the icon of the sun showed up in white. The good news is that with Android 16 QPR1 Beta 3, the weather condition icons used with the At a Glance widget have their color back. Fans of the At a Glance widget will be happy about this.
The update also returns information about the underlying health of your battery and adds Dynamic Color Theming for Pixel Launcher shortcuts. This draws the color theme for the icons, and the ring around the lozenge that houses them, from the main color of the Wallpaper you are using.
The update also resolves the following issues:
- An issue around RTOS task list corruption that was causing restarts. (Issue #420999948, Issue #426316038)
- Launcher not completely displaying (Issue #428088033, Issue #428405658, Issue #429817851)
- Notification display issues (Issue #421792538, Issue #422749237, Issue #420418750, Issue #428896474)
- The media player in the notification pulldown fails to fully display and function. (Issue #419184923, Issue #421879049, Issue #421810067, Issue #423172198, Issue #422560004, Issue #424116279)
- Full phone restart due to class loader issues (Issue #427676713)
- Kernel issue causing restarts (Issue #408888279, Issue #409949346, Issue #409960197, Issue #410624610, Issue #407373090, Issue #430095518)
- Camera non-functional at startup with black screen (Issue #421870862, Issue #420725698)
- Status bar icons missing corner padding (Issue #419573315, Issue #419134909)
- Notification shade message folding breaks (Issue #421366916)
The entire Android 16 QPR1 Beta program, which includes the third Beta release, is compatible with Pixel 6 models and later.
