Android 15 recently arrived on AOSP and Google Pixel devices will soon receive it, followed by other manufacturers. It shouldn't be surprising to assume that Google has already started working on Android 16, and one of the biggest changes that the giant company has planned is a complete redesign of Android's notifications and quick settings panel.
Android 12's Quick Settings change was terrible
For those unaware of why Google is changing the Quick Settings experience, when it was first rolled out in Android 12, a large number of users initially hated the panel (and some still do). This was because Enlarged 1×2 Tile that take up a lot of space, are missing features, and Removing useful tiles Like mobile data.
Some highly requested features like extended Bluetooth settings weren't added until Android 14! Same is the case with the mobile data toggle, which is still integrated into the Internet tile, and will likely remain unchanged with Android 16. However, the overall aesthetic of the Quick Settings and Notifications panel is changing.
Android 16 Quick Settings in action
Android Expert Mishal Rehman Enabled the new Quick Settings panel in Android 15 QPR1 and shared it via Android Authority. The new panel looks quite different from Android 15. They claim that this change Will likely launch with Android 16 Android 15 instead of QPR cycles.
Although this is still an early design, the first change is that the panel will now appear as an overlay and the dark shade below the quick settings is no longer present.
Another big and much-awaited change is in the QS tiles. While there are still four 1×2 tiles, the rest will all be 1×1 sized tiles; this is how you Fit 12 tiles total (four 1×2 and eight 1×1) instead of the current 8 1×2 tiles. This will allow users to have more tiles in Quick Settings.
Finally, Google's Working in light modeThe quick settings on Android 15 still look dark on the Pixel UI and that is a welcome change. The best change by far is the new edit options.
Editing tiles will no longer be a hassle
Editing and adding tiles to the existing quick settings menu is a pain, as the enlarged tiles take up extra space. Drag-and-drop actions take time as you have to drag the tiles to the top.
Editing sections will be just as easy in Android 16 Dragging and adjusting icons As you do with app icons on the home screen. This is all due to the very small icons in both the main QS section and the tiles selection menu.
But here is a new issue
The new implementation has one drawback that people may not like, and that is accessing the new quick settings. Android 16's quick settings panel Two-finger swipe requiredand partial QS has essentially been eliminated.
there are No partial quick setting tiles You can now access notifications with just a single swipe. Instead, a single swipe will only show pending notifications. We hope Google doesn't push this change, as it takes away the essence of the “quick” setting.
One reason behind this change could be the inability to access partial quick settings when using a tall phone with one hand. Since people with such phones use two hands anyway, the two-finger swipe won't take much effort, just to get familiar with it in the early days.
Also, notifications don't appear below the new expanded quick settings panel, at least not in the demo shared by Mishal, which is a tad disappointing. If this is true, here's what you need to do Close the panel first Do more Swipe again to access notificationsWhich wouldn’t be “quick” by any means.
The conclusion is that Quick Settings and Notification panel will be separate, just like Apple separates Notification Center and Control Center on iOS. This change reminds me of Quick Settings on Android Jellybean, where you had to swipe up to see notifications and swipe left to access Quick Settings.
Android 16 Quick Settings looks promising
And that brings us to the end of all the changes. So far, the new Quick Settings looks like a great change, and may please many Android users. However, having a separate notification panel and eliminating a partial Quick Settings panel may upset some users.
We recently saw Nothing improving Quick Settings in its latest Android 15-based version Nothing OS 3.0 beta, and it shows just how important Quick Settings is to Android users.
What are your thoughts on Android 16's new quick settings panel? What other changes do you think Google should make in Android 16? Let us know in the comments.
