The next Android 16 update has landed here are the 7 biggest features

Date:
Tue, 02 Dec 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Description:
A new version of Android 16 has landed with all sorts of new features and improvements.

FULL STORY ======================================================================

Android 16 only debuted back in June, but another major Android update has just landed.

It still falls under the Android 16 banner, but there's quite a lot in this new software package, including various AI features, new customization options, parental controls, and accessibility improvements.

Below, weve detailed seven of the biggest new features, which, between them, are likely to make this an update worth downloading immediately.

Note, though, that right now, it's only rolling out to eligible Pixel devices
if you have a phone from another brand, youll have to wait longer, and since other companies put their own twists on Android, theres no guarantee youll
get these specific features. 1. AI-powered notification summaries (Image credit: Google)

If you ever feel overwhelmed by messages and other notifications, then Androids new AI-powered notification summaries could be a big help.

This is basically identical to the Summarize Notifications feature on iOS.
So, in other words, it will use AI to condense the content of messages and other notifications, so you can get the gist of them at a glance, without having to read all 50 new messages in that group chat, or a paragraph of text that could have been a single sentence.

Of course, as with the similar feature on iOS, this may sometimes get things wrong or miss context, so how much youll be able to rely on it remains to be seen. But if nothing else, it should give you a clearer idea of how urgently any given notification requires your attention. 2. Notification organization (Image credit: Google)

Those AI-powered summaries arent the only changes coming to notifications, as this update also makes them better organized by grouping and silencing lower-priority notifications like news and promotions.

Youll now see high-priority notifications (such as messages from contacts) at the top of the notification shade, then under that youll see grouped notifications for lower-priority things, which you can tap on to expand and read, or simply ignore. 3. Improved customization (Image credit: Google)

This latest Android 16 update also brings a few improvements to
customization, including custom icon shapes, so you can make the icons on
your home screen stand out and reflect your taste more.

Plus, if you theme your icons, this theming will now automatically be applied across your apps for a more consistent look. And there are changes to the
dark theme, with this now darkening most light apps including those that
dont have a native dark theme. In the process, this should also improve your phones battery life, as the dark theme uses less battery. 4. Parental
controls (Image credit: Google)

Theres also now a parental controls section in the main settings menu of
Pixel phones. You can protect these controls with a PIN, and they allow you
to limit daily screen time, set downtime schedules to ensure kids get a full nights sleep without smartphone distractions, and you can limit the time
spent on specific apps, or completely block apps.

Its also easy to adjust these limits at any time adding extra minutes when a time limit is reached, or extending the time before access to the phone or an app is granted again. 5. Call Reason (Image credit: Google)

Call Reason is a new feature thats currently in beta and will be coming soon, but its worth highlighting now as it sounds useful.

With this, you can flag a call to a saved contact as urgent (when using Googles phone app), and if you do that, the recipient will see that its
urgent on their screen, and if they miss the call, then it will also say urgent in their call history. So, theyll know to answer if possible and to call back as soon as possible if they miss it. 6. Scam checking with Circle
to Search (Image credit: Google)

There are scams everywhere these days, but there are also ever more tools to detect scams, and one such new tool has come to Circle to Search.

Now, if you use Circle to Search on something you suspect might be a scam such as a suspicious text message youll see an AI overview telling you whether its likely to be a scam or not, and advising you on what steps to
take next. 7. Accessibility improvements (Image credit: Google)

This new update also includes various accessibility improvements that could prove enormously useful for some people.

These include things like easier clicking if you have a mouse connected to your Android device; the ability to use Smart Dictation with Gemini to type and edit your text using natural commands, such as make it shorter"; upgrades to Guided Frame, which mean that it can now use Gemini to provide a more descriptive understanding of whats in your cameras view; and the ability to launch Voice Access by asking Gemini to start it.

Plus, Fast Pair is now available for Demant hearing aids, while those made by Starkey will gain Fast Pair in early 2026.

Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the
Follow button!

And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.



======================================================================
Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/phones/android/the-next-android-16-update-has-landed -and-these-are-the-7-biggest-features


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 (Linux/64)
* Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)