Android 16 QPR2 Beta 2 | What’s New?
The second beta for Android 16’s second Quarterly Platform release is now rolling out with at least a handful of new changes that build on what we saw in Beta 1. Let’s break down what’s new.
Custom Icons
Beta 1 introduced a tweak to the themed icons feature that I have been begging Google to make for years. With Beta 1, all icons are now themed, regardless of whether or not the developer made a grey scale icon for this process. Android will just do it for them. Great. Now with Beta 2, this goes a step further. Icon shape can now be customized with several different options. While I do wish Pixels would natively support icon packs, this does look quite good.
Related to Beta 1's improvement of theming all icons, regardless of developer support, Google is now taking a more aggressive stance with developers too. According to a new Google Play Store policy, developers are legally required to allow users to modify the color of their app icons. This policy, which took effect immediately for new accounts and will apply to all existing accounts on October 15, ensures that users can achieve a more visually consistent home screen without the "terrible" look that resulted from some app icons not supporting the feature.
One wonders if this might encourage some app developers to go ahead and make their icons themeable to make sure things look right rather than letting Android do it automatically making this a win even for older devices.
Health Connect
The Health Connect app can now directly count your steps for you rather than just importing the steps counted by another app or device.
SMS OTP Protection
To combat OTP hijacking, messages that contain an SMS retriever hash will now be delayed for up to three hours. Apps that use the SMS retriever API can still access messages without this delay.
More Efficient Garbage Collection
The Android Runtime now includes a new Generational Concurrent Mark-Compact (CMC) Garbage Collector. This focuses on newly allocated objects that are more likely to be garbage, which can lead to reduced CPU usage from garbage collection, a smoother user experience, and improved battery efficiency.
