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Android 15 hasn’t been officially released on any phones yet, though it’s expected to arrive on Pixel devices soon. But even before that happens, rumors about Android 16 are already circulating, particularly regarding a significant change to the notifications and Quick Settings panels.
Tech expert Mishaal Rahman, writing for *Android Authority*, dug into the latest beta version of Android 15 and discovered a new layout for these screens, which is believed to be a sneak peek of a feature planned for Android 16.
Currently, if you use a Pixel phone, swiping down from the top shows your notifications along with four Quick Settings options (like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.). This panel takes up the entire screen, covering whatever app you have open. To see all your Quick Settings tiles, you need to swipe down again.
However, in this new design Rahman found, swiping down with one finger still brings up the notifications, but now without showing any Quick Settings. Plus, the panel only takes up half the screen, meaning you can still see the app running underneath. To access Quick Settings, you’d need to swipe down with two fingers instead, and swipe left or right to see more options.
Rahman shared a video showing how this might look (though it’s still a work-in-progress and has some visual issues, like white text being hard to read in light mode). When and if Google rolls this out, the final version will likely be more refined.
The key change here is that instead of needing two separate swipes to access Quick Settings, you’ll just need one two-finger swipe. Whether this is an improvement or not is debatable. Rahman, for example, found it a bit “annoying.”
It’s also worth noting that this feature might not even make it to the final version of Android. Google is clearly testing the waters, and it could decide to scrap the idea. If it does roll out, it will probably be part of Android 16, which is about a year away. And if you don’t have a Pixel phone, you might not see this change at all, as other manufacturers tend to customize these panels for their own devices.