{"id":204446,"date":"2025-10-16T15:22:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T15:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/204446\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T15:22:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T15:22:27","slug":"every-new-feature-for-pixel-phones-in-android-16-qpr2-beta-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/204446\/","title":{"rendered":"Every new feature for Pixel phones in Android 16 QPR2 Beta 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Android<\/p>\n

Mishaal Rahman \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

The second quarterly release of Android 16<\/a> is coming in December, and it\u2019ll bring a whole host of new features to Pixel devices. Pixel users can expect features like auto-themed app icons, an expanded dark theme, icon shape customization, and much more. Since QPR2 is going to be a big update, Google is working to ensure it doesn\u2019t bring a ton of new bugs, so the company rolled out a new beta today to find and fix them before release.<\/p>\n

Google rolled out Android 16 QPR2 Beta 3<\/a> earlier today to all supported Pixel devices, from the Pixel 6 series to the new Pixel 10<\/a> series. In terms of changes, the update doesn\u2019t bring as many new features as QPR2 Beta 1<\/a> or QPR2 Beta 2<\/a>, but it does still fix a ton of bugs and introduces a new security patch level.<\/p>\n

To find out what\u2019s exactly new in Android 16 QPR2 Beta 3, we installed it on our own Pixel devices and will be documenting whatever we find in this article. Read on to find out whether it\u2019s worth installing the beta on your own Pixel or if you should wait for the stable release in December!<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t want to miss the best from Android Authority?<\/p>\n

\"google\"google<\/a>The Android Easter egg now supports Live Updates<\/p>\n

If you start the spaceship game in Android 16 QPR2 Beta 3, you may notice a slight change when initiate the autopilot mode and switch apps. You\u2019ll now see a chip in the status bar indicating the status of the spaceship to its next destination. This is because with QPR2 Beta 3, Google has added Live Updates support to the Android Easter egg<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lock screen widgets lose their customization options<\/p>\n

Android 16 QPR2 is bringing lock screen widgets to Pixel phones<\/a>, but it looks like some of the customization options we saw in the first beta won\u2019t be present in the December stable update. In Android 16 QPR2 Beta 3, the \u201cwhen to automatically show\u201d setting, which controls when the widgets appear automatically, has been removed. This setting allowed you to control whether to show the widgets panel while the phone is charging (wired or wirelessly) or when the phone is upright while charging. Furthermore, the \u201cwidgets on lock screen\u201d setting has been changed from a simple toggle to a new submenu, complete with its own illustration. A \u201cBeta\u201d label is shown prominently on this page as the feature is still experimental, and the page also displays a warning that anyone can view the widgets you add to the lock screen.<\/p>\n

\"Widgets\"WidgetsYou can now easily turn off background blur<\/p>\n

Google has added a new accessibility setting to turn off background blur in Android 16 QPR2 Beta 3. Under Settings > Accessibility > Color & motion,\u00a0there\u2019s a new \u201creduce blur effects\u201d\u00a0that \u201cmake[s] backgrounds and panels easier to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Reduce<\/p>\n

Mishaal Rahman \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

We first spotted this setting in the 2509 Canary release<\/a>, and it works exactly as you\u2019d expect. Toggling it disables background blur in the Quick Settings panel, the notification shade, the lock screen, the app drawer, and the recent apps menu. Basically, anywhere that the Material 3 Expressive<\/a> redesign added background blur, this setting will now disable.<\/p>\n

\"Material\"MaterialThe lock screen clock now fidgets when you tap it<\/p>\n

The big Material 3 Expressive redesign added a ton of fun new animations, such as a new notification dismissal animation that glides with your finger movements. Android 16 QPR2 Beta 3 follows up by adding a new animation that plays when you tap the lock screen clock. When you do so, the clock briefly fidgets before stopping.<\/p>\n

Oddly, this update removed all the other lock screen clock options in the Wallpaper & style app. This may just be a bug, though.<\/p>\n

The Photo Picker gets a date scrubber and voice search support<\/p>\n

Google has updated the Photo Picker<\/a> in Android 16 QPR2 Beta 3 to add a date scrubber and voice search support. The former lets you quickly scroll to a specific month in your phone\u2019s media gallery, while the latter lets you search through your gallery using your voice.<\/p>\n

\"Android\"AndroidMiscellaneous changes<\/p>\n

The media player\u00a0now shows up on the lock screen again. This was a frustrating bug with the previous beta, but it\u2019s been quietly fixed in Android 16 QPR2 Beta 3.
\n\"Media<\/p>\n

Mishaal Rahman \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

The\u00a0app context menu\u00a0that appears when you press and hold on an app\u2019s icon on the home screen now has + buttons next to each shortcut.
\n\"App<\/p>\n

Mishaal Rahman \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

\"Live<\/p>\n

Mishaal Rahman \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

Sliders in the\u00a0vibration & haptics menu now have indicators for each level.
\n\"Vibration<\/p>\n

Mishaal Rahman \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

This article will be updated as we find more information on Android 16 QPR2 Beta 3. Check back later for more details!<\/p>\n

Thank you for being part of our community. Read our\u00a0Comment Policy<\/a> before posting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mishaal Rahman \/ Android Authority The second quarterly release of Android 16 is coming in December, and it\u2019ll…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[7175,13253,2306,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-204446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-android-16","9":"tag-authority-insights","10":"tag-mobile","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}