💻 Vulkan is becoming the official graphics driver for Android!

Android is moving to a "modern, unified rendering stack with Vulkan at its core."

Here's what you should know about this big change, including details Google didn't mention👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/porting-pc-games-to-android-3534575/

By the way, if you're hungry for some Android 17 news ... here's an important tidbit:

New SoCs launching with support for Android 17 will be required to fully support Vulkan 1.4! Android 17 will also require new devices to use ANGLE for most applications.

Read the full article on Android Authority for more details.

🤖 New features are coming to Google Gemini, including:

- Gemini can reference your Google Search history
- Deep Research now uses 2.0 Flash Thinking model
- Enhancements to 2.0 Flash Thinking, including new app support
- General availability for Gems

💻 Google just released a new Gemini feature in Android Studio!

The update adds multimodal support to Gemini in Android Studio. You can now attach images directly to Gemini prompts to get insights on technical diagrams or generate code skeletons from design mocks.

🚨It's HERE: Android 16 Beta 3 is rolling out!

With Beta 3, Android 16 has reached Platform Stability! This means APIs & system behaviors are finalized, and developers can publish Android 16-targeting apps on Google Play.

One beta left!

Details👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-beta-3-3534590/

🛜❌Android 16 Beta 3 introduces a new Local Network Protection feature.

Currently, any app with the Internet permission can communicate with devices on your local network. With LNP, apps will need permission to do so.

More details on how this works 👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-beta-3-3534590/

🎧 Android 16 adds support for Auracast, ie. audio streaming over Bluetooth LE Audio!

This feature is already live in the DPs/Betas, but Google is finally talking about it today.

More info on what Auracast support means for you can be found 👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/pixel-9-auracast-support-3534869

Factory images are now available for Android 16 Beta 3. The build ID is BP22.250221.010.

🥚The Android 16 Easter egg hints at Android's new Live Updates feature

The Easter egg in Android 16 adds support for Live Updates, a new type of notification for ongoing activities. Sadly, the Live Updates feature is disabled in Beta 3.

Details👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-easter-egg-3533677/

🔔Oh boy: Android could soon summarize your notifications for you, similar to iOS

One of the most controversial Apple Intelligence features is coming to Android, but thankfully with more limitations out of the box.

Full details👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/android-notification-summaries-3533720/

🖥 This could be HUGE: Google is working on a new desktop mode for Android phones called Desktop View

Desktop View may be a full desktop mode experience for Android phones, and a new developer option is in the works that'll let you test it.

Details👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/android-desktop-view-3533755/

⚙️ Google is preparing a big redesign of Android’s Settings app

The new design brings proper Material Design 3 switches, places each item in cards, adds carets, and more.

Screenshots + more details👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/android-expressive-settings-3533796/

⚙️ Android’s new Quick Settings panel is looking better than ever in Android 16 Beta 3

Yes, Google's still working on a split notifications/Quick Settings panel - it's not dead, just not sure when it'll go live.

Here's our latest look at the feature👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-quick-settings-redesign-hands-on-3534161/

The issue preventing scrcpy from creating virtual displays has been resolved in Android 16 Beta 3!

For context, Android 15 QPR2 Beta 1 broke the ability for scrcpy to create virtual displays, as the requisite permissions were removed from shell.

Google added these permissions back in Beta 3, but it warns these permissions are only held by shell for testing purposes and may be removed again in the future without notice.

🔋You can now view your Pixel 9's battery health in Android 16 Beta 3!

A new Battery Health page has been added under Settings > Battery, where you can view the remaining battery capacity, adjust charging optimization, and see battery tips.

Screenshots👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-battery-health-3534961/

🕜 Android could put your beautiful lock screen clock in the notifications panel

Google is experimenting with putting the lock screen clock in more surfaces, including the top of the notifications panel

Click 👇 for a first look at this new feature

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/lock-screen-clock-in-notifications-3535046/

🔋🪫Android may soon make the battery icon a whole lot more colorful

Google is testing new background colors for the battery icon.

These aren't live in Beta 3 but are part of Google's continued efforts to revamp the status bar icons.

Screenshots 👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-new-battery-icon-3534047/

🥚Here's a first look at the new Easter egg in Android 16!

Yesterday, we only got a partial look because the Live Updates feature is disabled in Beta 3.

Here's what the new Android 16 Easter egg looks like with Live Updates enabled👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-easter-egg-3533677/

📱Hands-on: Google will soon let you customize icon shapes on your Pixel's home screen

Miss the icon shape customization feature from Android 11? Google is working on bringing it back with the updated Pixel wallpaper app.

Demo + details👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/icon-shape-customization-for-pixel-demo-3535248/

Google made some super adorable, custom Android Bot figures for its meeting rooms at MWC, and they shared a bunch of photos of them with me!

Some of these will make for great wallpapers, IMO.

Here's an overview of every photo. The original photos can be downloaded from the zip file.