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Android 16 first public beta brings Live Updates and foldables boost

Google has launched the first Android 16 public beta and is introducing a couple of major new features, including a Live Updates feature that’s akin to its iOS counterpart, and better support for full-screen apps on foldable phones.

The Android 16 Beta 1 update, which is available for Pixel phone owners from today, is the first of four public beta versions coming this year ahead of what Google is promising will be a much more prompt release in 2025.

Let’s take a look at the two major consumer-facing features Google is announcing today…

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Live Updates

Live Updates sounds a lot like Apple’s lock screen Live Activities that have been around since iOS 16.1 launched in late 2022

“Live Updates are a new class of notifications that help users monitor and quickly access important ongoing activities,” Google says in the post announcing the release on January 23.

It’s likely that the feature will, like the Apple version, enable users to track sports scores, deliveries, pending arrival of ride share cars, map directions, and more without opening their phones, let alone the requisite app.

Samsung also announced a similar feature called Now Bar during its Galaxy S25 launch on January 22. However, Samsung’s version feels like a more advanced version. It uses Galaxy AI takes note of user’s personal context to predict the information they’d like to see.

We await the opportunity to see Google’s feature in action and whether it too has some Google Gemini magic.

Improved adaptive apps

Google is making it easier for apps to fill the display real estate available to them by “phasing out the ability for apps to restrict screen orientation and resizability on large screens,” which means no more letterboxing.

It’s not yet clear how this is going to work in terms of formatting, but it appears the burden will be on developers to ensure they support more aspect ratios.

Google adds: “…you should check your apps to ensure your existing UIs scale seamlessly, working well across portrait and landscape aspect ratios. We’re providing frameworks, tooling, and libraries to help.”

Just the first step

As the Android 16 beta process continues we’ll see more new features introduced. Early versions tend to focus on the tools developers need to get their apps ready than the consumer focused functionality. We usually don’t hear about the exciting stuff Google has been working on in house until Google I/O, which usually takes place in May.

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