Google has launched the first Android 16 public beta and is introducing a couple of major new features, including a Live Updates feature that’s akin to its iOS counterpart, and better support for full-screen apps on foldable phones.
The Android 16 Beta 1 update, which is available for Pixel phone owners from today, is the first of four public beta versions coming this year ahead of what Google is promising will be a much more prompt release in 2025.
Let’s take a look at the two major consumer-facing features Google is announcing today…
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Live Updates
The first of those major features Google is outlining today is called Live Updates and it sounds a lot like Apple’s lock screen Live Activities that have been around since iOS 16.1 launched in late 2022
“Live Updates are a new class of notifications that help users monitor and quickly access important ongoing activities,” Google says in the post announcing the release on January 23.
It’s likely that the feature will, like the Apple version, enable users to track sports scores, deliveries, arrival of ride share cars, map directions and more without opening their phone, let alone the requisite app.
Samsung also announced a similar feature called Now Bar during its Galaxy S25 launch on January 22. However, Samsung’s version feels like a more advanced version that users Galaxy AI takes note of user’s personal context to predict the information they’d like to see.
We await the opportunity to see Google’s feature in action and whether it too has some Google Gemini magic.
Improved adaptive apps
Google is making it easier for apps to fill the display real estate available to them by “phasing out the ability for apps to restrict screen orientation and resizability on large screens,” which means no more letterboxing.
It’s not yet clear how this is going to work in terms of formatting, but it appears the burden will be on developers to ensure that they support more aspect ratios.
Google adds: “…you should check your apps to ensure your existing UIs scale seamlessly, working well across portrait and landscape aspect ratios. We’re providing frameworks, tooling, and libraries to help.”
