The next Android 16 update has landed – here are the 7 biggest features

Android 16 only debuted back in June, but another major Android update has just landed.

It still falls under the Android 16 banner, but there's quite a lot in this new software package, including various AI features, new customization options, parental controls, and accessibility improvements.

Below, we’ve detailed seven of the biggest new features, which, between them, are likely to make this an update worth downloading immediately.

Note, though, that right now, it's only rolling out to eligible Pixel devices – if you have a phone from another brand, you’ll have to wait longer, and since other companies put their own twists on Android, there’s no guarantee you’ll get these specific features.

1. AI-powered notification summaries

If you ever feel overwhelmed by messages and other notifications, then Android’s new AI-powered notification summaries could be a big help.

This is basically identical to the ‘Summarize Notifications’ feature on iOS. So, in other words, it will use AI to condense the content of messages and other notifications, so you can get the gist of them at a glance, without having to read all 50 new messages in that group chat, or a paragraph of text that could have been a single sentence.

Of course, as with the similar feature on iOS, this may sometimes get things wrong or miss context, so how much you’ll be able to rely on it remains to be seen. But if nothing else, it should give you a clearer idea of how urgently any given notification requires your attention.

2. Notification organization

Those AI-powered summaries aren’t the only changes coming to notifications, as this update also makes them better organized by grouping and silencing lower-priority notifications like news and promotions.

You’ll now see high-priority notifications (such as messages from contacts) at the top of the notification shade, then under that you’ll see grouped notifications for lower-priority things, which you can tap on to expand and read, or simply ignore.

3. Improved customization

This latest Android 16 update also brings a few improvements to customization, including custom icon shapes, so you can make the icons on your home screen stand out and reflect your taste more.

Plus, if you theme your icons, this theming will now automatically be applied across your apps for a more consistent look. And there are changes to the dark theme, with this now darkening most light apps – including those that don’t have a native dark theme. In the process, this should also improve your phone’s battery life, as the dark theme uses less battery.

4. Parental controls

There’s also now a parental controls section in the main settings menu of Pixel phones. You can protect these controls with a PIN, and they allow you to limit daily screen time, set downtime schedules to ensure kids get a full night’s sleep without smartphone distractions, and you can limit the time spent on specific apps, or completely block apps.

It’s also easy to adjust these limits at any time – adding extra minutes when a time limit is reached, or extending the time before access to the phone or an app is granted again.

5. Call Reason

Call Reason is a new feature that’s currently in beta and will be coming soon, but it’s worth highlighting now as it sounds useful.

With this, you can flag a call to a saved contact as ‘urgent’ (when using Google’s phone app), and if you do that, the recipient will see that it’s urgent on their screen, and if they miss the call, then it will also say ‘urgent’ in their call history. So, they’ll know to answer if possible and to call back as soon as possible if they miss it.

6. Scam checking with Circle to Search

There are scams everywhere these days, but there are also ever more tools to detect scams, and one such new tool has come to Circle to Search.

Now, if you use Circle to Search on something you suspect might be a scam – such as a suspicious text message – you’ll see an AI overview telling you whether it’s likely to be a scam or not, and advising you on what steps to take next.

7. Accessibility improvements

This new update also includes various accessibility improvements that could prove enormously useful for some people.

These include things like easier clicking if you have a mouse connected to your Android device; the ability to use Smart Dictation with Gemini to type and edit your text using natural commands, such as “make it shorter"; upgrades to Guided Frame, which mean that it can now use Gemini to provide a more descriptive understanding of what’s in your camera’s view; and the ability to launch Voice Access by asking Gemini to start it.

Plus, Fast Pair is now available for Demant hearing aids, while those made by Starkey will gain Fast Pair in early 2026.

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