Android 16 could let apps show Dynamic Island-like notifications

Notifications are one of the most important features of any operating system, especially mobile ones like Android where most apps aren’t always running. That’s why Google is constantly tinkering with notifications to make them more useful, less distracting, or both. In recent releases of Android, for example, Google made every notification dismissible, minimized heads-up notifications while displaying videos, and blocked old notifications. Next year’s Android 16 update could introduce even bigger changes to notifications on Android by letting apps create Rich Ongoing Notifications.

From what I’ve managed to glean from the latest Android 15 QPR1 Beta 3 release, Rich Ongoing Notifications is a new API that lets apps show more than just an icon in the status bar. The API will let apps create chips with their own text and background color that live in the status bar, sort of like the new screen recording chips that Google introduced in the previous Android beta update. It’s likely that tapping these chips will open some sort of dialog provided by the app that shows more information about the ongoing notification, which is, again, similar to the new screen recording system that Google just rolled out.

Google is still working on the Rich Ongoing Notifications API, so there are a lot of details I don’t know about just yet. Since the API isn’t available to Android apps at the moment, I can’t fully demonstrate what Rich Ongoing Notifications will be like. However, Google created a command-line interface so it can prototype what Rich Ongoing Notifications will look like when created by different apps. Using some hidden commands, I was able to create some mock Rich Ongoing Notifications that showed whatever app icon, text, and background color I wanted.

For example, here’s a gallery that shows what the Rich Ongoing Notifications API could be used for in Android 16. I created a mock notification from the Google Clock that says an alarm is about to go off in 10 minutes, a mock notification from the Uber app that says my ride will arrive in 5 minutes, and a mock notification from the United Airlines app that says my flight will board in 9 minutes. As you can see, there’s potentially a lot that Android apps can do with Android 16’s Rich Ongoing Notifications API.

I know what many of you are thinking — Google is just copying the iPhone’s Dynamic Island feature. While it’s possible that Google was inspired by Apple to work on the Rich Ongoing Notifications API, it’s also important to note that status bar chips aren’t new to Android and in fact predate Apple’s Dynamic Island feature. Android 12 added an API that lets dialer apps show the duration of an ongoing call in a status bar chip a full year before Apple introduced its Dynamic Island feature.

Android 16 opening up status bar chips to all apps would be a major expansion of the feature. It’s probably true that this expansion was inspired by Dynamic Island, but it wouldn’t be fair to call Rich Ongoing Notifications itself a clone. My feelings on the feature might change as it evolves, though, since it’s clearly not finished yet. We’re still months away from the potential Android 16 release date, so there’s still a lot of time for Google to make changes. The reason I think Rich Ongoing Notifications will be an Android 16 feature is because it’s tied to a new API and the current release of Android — Android 15 — has already reached Platform Stability.

What do you think of Android 16’s new Rich Ongoing Notifications feature? Let us know in the comments below!