The Future of Android Will Look a Lot Different Than You Think

We’ve glimpsed the future, and the future is sleeker, thinner, and a lot less bloaty. Hidden within Android 16 are a slew of user interface (UI) changes that’ll shake up Android’s design language when they go live. Whenever that is.

nothing’s concrete yet

On the whole, the look is less cartoonishly bubbly than the current Android UI and sleeker. It looks like the current Android bloated up a long time ago, and a few bottles of Pepto-Bismol later, it’s beginning to de-gas.

The volume slider and notification shelf have been slimmed down, and the lock screen gains dynamic color, which is when colors can change to better match your device’s chosen color scheme (theme). The Settings app gains color icons, too.

Up top, the status bar picks up newly designed icons for things like Wi-Fi status and battery level, and the Quick Settings panel gains a blurred background and tweaks regarding the look of the icons and sliders.

“Before we begin, a word of caution,” hedged Android Authority in reporting the news. “What we’re about to show you are hidden design changes found in Android 16 Beta 4. None of these are enabled by default in Beta 4, and we don’t know for certain when Google will activate them.”

Introducing the Future of Android

Beta refers to beta testing, a boilerplate process for software in which changes are given real-world testing on a limited basis to check for usability, performance, bugs, and all sorts of hidden problems that could cause chaos or inoperability.

Once beta testing uncovers any flaws, which are then fixed, that phase of development concludes, and all the necessary changes are packaged into a stable release of the software, which is then pushed out to everybody.

Beta 4 is the final beta of Android 16, after which the stable release of Android 16 will be pushed live to Android devices. Although these design features were found hidden within Android 16 Beta 4, there’s no guarantee that Google (developer of Android) will feel the UI changes are ready to go live in the stable release of Android 16.

“While it’s highly likely we won’t see this full redesign in the stable release of Android 16, parts or all of it could appear in a future quarterly update,” Android Authority mused.

Google’s been known to go far down a path before calling the whole plan off, but having made it to the penultimate step before a stable release, it looks far more likely these changes are coming than not. When that is, we can’t say for certain. Nobody outside of Google knows.

They may go live at some point during Android 16’s lifespan after release day, or maybe Google will wait until Android 17. My personal guess is the former, but I’m basically pinning the tail on the donkey with that guess.