Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
Tl;
- Google continues to divide Android’s notifications and fast setting panels.
- The media player now appears at the top of the Quick Settings panel, and you can now switch between sides by swipe.
- The new shared notifications and fast setting panels are not yet live in Android 16 Beta 3, and we do not know when this new design will roll out.
The third beta of Android 16 Is finally here. As a platform stability release, Beta 3 will be very close to the stable update we see in June. This means that no major changes are expected between now and then, which is disappointing for those who expect significant design changes. However, Google will restore Android’s user interface, and the latest beta includes several improvements to the new split alerts and fast setting panels. Here’s your last look at Android’s upcoming notification and quick setting panel -Redesign.
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A few weeks ago, however, it became clear to us that this new design would not be ready for Android 16. We came to this conclusion because of the presence of several unfinished aspects. For example, while Google is working on Light mode Compatibility, the panels still suffer from significant text contrast problems. The company also refines how certain fast setting tiles expandedBut this implementation remains incomplete. The media player was still absent from the panels, and there was no intuitive way to switch between them.
However, with the latest code changes in Android 16 Beta 3, Google has addressed several of these problems. The media player is now prominent located at the top of the alerts and fast setting panels, and there are now two new ways to switch between them. First, you can simply tap chips in the upper left and right to open the respective panels. Second, swipe down on the left side opens the notification panel, while sweeping down to the right, opening the quick setting panel.
Personally, I think the new swipe movement is unintuitive. Some people will probably try to switch between panels by swipe left or right, as there are such several other Android-based obligations with shared panels work. As a result, it is possible some people will struggle to adapt to Google’s method.
This, of course, assumes that Google does not make any further changes, which is possible given the shared panel design is still developing. Google is likely to continue to refine the new panels not only to address the problems I described earlier, but also add new features. In Android 16 Beta 3, for example, Google also made the quick setting panel vertically rolling so you could fill up the entire screen with tiles. It also added Clear Plus and the minus buttons to each tile in the editing menu, making it easier to add or remove tiles from the panel.
Although it is very unlikely that Google will publish this new design in the first Android 16 -stable release, it can still arrive later this year in a quarterly update for Android 16. We continue to monitor future Android buildings for further changes in Android’s notification and rapid setting panels.