Key Takeaways
- Android 16 might separate the notification shade from the Fast Settings panel.
- Google may enable accessing the Fast Settings panel with a one-finger swipe-down gesture, as a substitute of the two-finger swipe-down gesture seen in leaks to date.
- Android 16 is slated to launch in Q2 2025.
Google has tweaked Android’s Fast Settings panel with virtually each main OS replace. Subsequent 12 months’s Android 16 might convey essentially the most vital overhaul but, separating the notification and Fast Settings panels with new options like resizable Quick Settings tiles and an updated brightness slider with a percentage indicator. Essentially the most shocking change was that accessing the Quick Settings panel required a two-finger swipe down, as a substitute of the present one-finger gesture. Fortunately, that will not be the case.
Android guru Mishaal Rahman managed to activate the brand new Fast Settings panel on his Pixel operating Android 15 QPR1 Beta 3 after a little bit of fiddling. Because the video he shared exhibits (embedded beneath), Google seems to have reverted the change, which required a two-finger swipe-down to entry the Fast Settings panel.
As an alternative, as seen on iPhones and plenty of Chinese language Android skins, Mishaal might entry the panel by swiping down with one finger from the fitting aspect of the notch.
Hopefully, Google will stick with this variation and never return to requiring a two-finger swipe-down gesture to entry the Fast Settings panel in Android 16’s ultimate launch.
Google wants to repair one other problem with Android 16’s Fast Settings panel
Jules Wang / AP
There’s one other problem with Android 16’s revamped notification and Fast Settings panels in its present iteration. You can’t swipe between the 2 panels. As an alternative, to modify from the notification shade to the Fast Settings panel (or vice versa), you have to return to the house display screen and swipe from the left or proper aspect of the display screen to entry the related panel.
That is an annoying limitation that slows down entry to the Fast Settings panel from the notification shade. In OxygenOS 15, OnePlus allows you to swipe left on the notification shade to entry the Fast Settings toggle. Google must also take an identical method and supply a approach to swipe between the notification shade and Fast Settings panel.
Admittedly, swiping between the panels can typically intervene with unread notifications and Fast Settings tiles, so Google should watch out with its implementation.
Google has already confirmed that Android 16 will launch earlier than usual, arriving in Q2 2025. Its beta program ought to go dwell within the subsequent few months, so we’ll know (comparatively) quickly whether or not Google will follow this annoying change or not.
