Android 15 still hasn’t rolled out to any phones yet – though it will be coming to Pixel handsets very soon – but already we’re hearing about Android 16, and specifically a major change it could bring to the notifications and Quick Settings screens.
Digging around in the latest Android 15 QPR beta, Mishaal Rahman – writing for Android Authority – has managed to activate a new version of these screens, which they believe is intended to launch as part of Android 16.
Currently, if you have a Pixel handset then swiping down from the top of the screen will display all of your notifications, along with four Quick Settings tiles. This dropdown will also fully cover whatever app is running underneath.
If you want to access the rest of your Quick Settings tiles, then you’d have to swipe down a second time.
But with this new version that Rahman has found, swiping down with one finger will once again show the notifications panel, but this time you won’t see any Quick Settings, and the dropdown will only cover the top half of your phone’s screen, so you can still see whatever app you’re running beneath it.
To access the Quick Settings panel, you’d instead use a two-finger swipe, and then swipe left or right to access additional Quick Settings tiles.
You can see how this all looks in the video above, though note that this is an unfinished version of the feature, which for example doesn’t handle light mode well, since it makes the white text impossible to see. So if and when this change launches, it will presumably do so in a more polished form.
The gist in any case is that getting to Quick Settings no longer requires two swipes, but it instead requires a two-finger swipe. Whether that’s better or worse is rather subjective, but it could prove quite divisive, with Rahman for example describing the change as “annoying.”
A Pixel-specific change
It also remains to be seen whether this change will launch at all, because while it’s clearly something Google is experimenting with, that doesn’t mean the company will decide to go ahead with it.
If we do see this, the most likely launch timing is with Android 16, which isn’t likely to be finished for around a year, though it’s always possible the change could come as part of a smaller software update in the meantime.
Oh, and if you don’t have a Pixel phone then you probably won’t get this change regardless, since most other manufacturers make their own tweaks to the notifications and Quick Settings screens anyway.