We know well that Google The aspect of Android is finally ready to upset after several years with the introduction of the new Material 3 Expressive. We have already had the opportunity to see – and try – how the new interface of the green robot will present, but there are still some innovations hidden under the hood and currently being tested: in fact it seems that the Mountain View giant is still working on the quick settings panel, which could be separated from notifications.
The Material 3 Expressive was officially presented during the The Android Show And it is currently available on all smartphones in the Pixel range updated to Beta 1 of Android 16 qpr1released last week. The current version of the quick settings panel already presents many novelties, such as the blur of the background, the reduced tiles, a more orderly editor and a new cursor for the brightness.
The new graphic vision of Android, of which we talked to you in depth in this article, focuses everything on visual consistency and improved features, going to change an interface that has remained substantially the same since the launch of Android 12. However, it seems that Google is still secretly to work on a setting, already present on interfaces of other OEMs, which allows you to separate quick notifications and settings.
In Android 16 QPR1 there is a still hidden setting
The panel of notifications separated from the quick settings panel, or Quick Settingshas been present for some time on smartphones of producers such as Samsung, Xiaomi or OnePlus. In recent months, indiscretions had emerged that suggesting that Google they were working on a similar setting also for his interface, but the fact that he had not been shown during the The Android Show He left many with the doubt that the manufacturer had decided to interrupt the tests.
Some strings of code found inside Android 16 qpr1 beta 1 However, they refer to a new item in the settings, called “notifications and quick settings”, which will allow users to choose whether to use the classic layout or that separate. The first represents what we have substantially already now, i.e. combined notifications and settings that can be called up with a single Swipe in any portion of the display, while the separate one allows you to recall notifications with a swipe at the top left and the quick settings with a swipe at the top right.
The colleagues of Androidauthoritywho found the code strings inside the beta of Android 16 qpr1they also managed to activate the setting, which is currently inaccessible for anyone else. You can take a look at the separate panel in action in the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofqjiuian6q
As can be seen from the video, the panels of separate quick notifications and settings still present some problems, a sign that Google It is still active in development and is not yet ready to release the function in beta version. We don’t even know if it will be present in the stable version of Android 16 qpr1scheduled for September, or if it could arrive in the future quarterly update of Android 16.
Analyzing the same code string on a folding devicea message suggests that the separate layout of the panels can only be used on the external screen of the smartphone. Although at the moment this does not confirm that the new design will be exclusive of the folding, the possibility that it does not arrive on “traditional” smartphones is still in the air.
The positive thing is that this setting seems to be one optional choice And those who want to continue using the classic interface can do it without particular problems. We know well that forcing users to change their habits is not always a good, as has already happened to Samsungaffected by different criticisms when with the One UI 7 He had initially separated the two default panels and without the possibility of modification.
