Google is now rolling out a non-trivial Android update, and its most important aspect is not its contents but its spot on the calendar.
With its latest bundle of new features for Android 16, Google shifts its practice of shipping one big batch of new releases each year to delivering smaller but more frequent updates. Think of it as Google expanding its Pixel Drop model of periodic updates to all Android phones, a change it telegraphed when it shipped Android 16’s first developer preview in November 2024 and forecast “an intermediate update combining new features and APIs planned for Q4.”
However, as with Google’s traditional OS updates, this one will initially be available on Pixel phones. And because the first two features the company highlights—automated sorting of notifications into such categories as Promotions and News, plus AI-generated summaries of chat threads—debuted in last month’s Pixel Drop, they may not feel like news to those users.
What’s New in Android 16?
That’s not the case with this update’s expansion of Android’s parental controls, which elevates them from their current spot under the Settings app’s Digital Wellbeing category. Parents can use these to set screen-time limits, schedule blocks of downtime, place per-app usage limits, and set up Family Link supervision of a child’s phone via their own devices.
Finally, if the shape of app icons has bothered you, this update will let you choose between the default round shapes and square, scalloped, and tunnel-shaped outlines, then apply additional themes to those icons. For example, a new dark-mode option will darken even apps that don’t directly support Android’s existing dark mode.
And for Everyone Else…
It’s kind of weird it took Google this long to add pinned tabs to Chrome for Android. (Credit: Google)
A second bundle of new features announced on Tuesday won’t require Android 16. Most focus on calling and messaging; for example, a caller can label a call to an existing contact as “urgent” and have that advisory appear in the call recipient’s copy of Google’s Phone app.
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Android will also now highlight basic details about new group chats, such as how many other people are in the group and if any are in your contacts, then let you use the Circle to Search shortcut for a quick scam check. And in group chats you actually want, Android’s Emoji Kitchen feature will let you generate a set of stickers to share.
This additional pack of updates also fixes a longstanding feature gap in Chrome for Android, letting you pin tabs for quicker access in the way you can in Chrome’s Windows and macOS apps on the desktop (not to mention in Mozilla Firefox or Apple’s Safari).
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A new way to save yourself a click (Credit: Google)
‘Hey Google, Start Voice Access’
A third group of updates focuses on lowering accessibility obstacles for people with reduced eyesight or hearing. For example, it expands Google’s Expressive Captions to “detect and display the emotional tone of speech” in audio on a device and upgrades the Guided Frame feature in the Pixel camera app to generate more detailed audio descriptions of what’s in the field of view.
You’ll also soon be able to invoke TalkBack voice dictation with a two-finger double-tap gesture in the Gboard app, then order up edits with plain-language voice commands. And you’ll get the option to start hands-free Voice Access control with your voice alone: “Hey Google, start Voice Access.”
Two types of external accessibility hardware get their own improvements in this bundle. A new Fast Pair option allows single-tap pairing of some Bluetooth LE Audio hearing aids (Demant models now, Starkey-based models “in early 2026”). And you’ll be able to set a “dwell cursor” interval for an external mouse paired with an Android phone or tablet, meaning it will automatically click if paused over something for long enough.
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Rob Pegoraro writes about interesting problems and possibilities in computers, gadgets, apps, services, telecom, and other things that beep or blink. He’s covered such developments as the evolution of the cell phone from 1G to 5G, the fall and rise of Apple, Google’s growth from obscure Yahoo rival to verb status, and the transformation of social media from CompuServe forums to Facebook’s billions of users. Pegoraro has met most of the founders of the internet and once received a single-word email reply from Steve Jobs.
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