The Pixel’s Material 3 Expressive update fixes my biggest Android bugbear

It was a long time coming, but Google finally brought its Material 3 Expressive redesign to Pixel phones running Android 16 earlier this month. This style brings bolder text, more prominent toggles, and new animations.

I really like the more customizable quick settings menu too, which allows you to change the size of quick setting tiles. However, my favorite change has to be the revised Bluetooth tile behavior.

You can toggle Bluetooth with a single tap once again

The redesigned Bluetooth tile, as part of the Material 3 Expressive overhaul, now lets me toggle Bluetooth connectivity with a single tap. This addresses a pet peeve I’ve had with recent Android versions, and comes after we first spotted this potential change a year ago.

Prior to Android 14’s release in 2023, Google let you simply tap the Bluetooth tile to enable or disable Bluetooth connectivity. Meanwhile, a long-press would take you to the Bluetooth section of your phone’s settings menu. So far, so good. Then Android 14 arrived.

Much to my chagrin, Android 14 changed the behavior of the Bluetooth tile. Tapping the tile no longer toggled Bluetooth connectivity. Instead, it opened a pop-up menu containing the actual connectivity toggle and a list of recently paired devices. In other words, you needed two taps to toggle Bluetooth.

This doesn’t sound like a big deal, and it’s not the end of the world, but it still annoyed me after Android 14’s release. This was particularly irksome if you’re like me and have multiple devices. So if I want to connect my earphones to a tablet or second phone while doing chores, I’ll need to tap twice to disable Bluetooth on my primary phone. Keen to play Steam Deck after supper? Well, I have to tap twice to disable Bluetooth connectivity on any phones that still have it enabled. Yes, multi-point connectivity exists, but I’m not going to buy a pair of new earphones when my old ones work fine.

Thankfully, Android 16’s Expressive update effectively restores the one-tap toggle for Bluetooth. All you have to do is tap the Bluetooth tile to quickly enable or disable connectivity. Meanwhile, holding the tile results in that now familiar pop-up menu. If you’ve got a larger Bluetooth tile (as seen in the second screenshot above), then you can specifically tap the Bluetooth icon to toggle connectivity, while tapping the area outside the icon will summon the pop-up menu.

In a neat touch, holding any part of the large tile takes you to the Connected devices section of your settings menu for even more connectivity options. I also quite like seeing the paired accessory’s name and battery percentage within the tile. By contrast, Android skins typically show the accessory name but display its battery level in the status bar (if they show it at all).

I’m really glad to see this change, though, as it already makes for a less annoying experience when I’m juggling Bluetooth earphones on various devices. Now, my next hope is for Google to split the internet tile and give us separate Wi-Fi and mobile data toggles once again. But I might be in the minority with this request.