all the new features that will change your mobile and that you can now try on the Pixel

Just before the end of last year, Google launched the second preview for developers to pave the way for first beta of Android 16which just a few hours ago was deployed to kick off a new and great update.

In this first beta, some new features arrive that close the final drawing of Android 16 to bring new experiences that change how a mobile is used. Google has chosen this day just after the presentation of the Galaxy S25 in which the technological giant was the protagonist thanks to Gemini’s foray into Samsung mobile phones.

Android 16 Beta 1 It was deployed a few hours ago on Pixel phones and Google itself has announced a series of improvements that can be tested starting today. The first of them is Live Updateswhich is a new class of notifications that help users monitor and access important ongoing activities.

This novelty is similar to Live Activities from Apple that was introduced on iPhones with iOS 16. Google’s nuance in it is that live updates are suggested for experiences such as navigation, the arrival of food at home and the transit route in an Uber.

Better app adaptabilitywhich restricts the orientation and resizing of the screen on larger screens such as tablets, foldables and more. It is similar to what certain manufacturers already use in their custom layers and which allows apps to adjust to any size and aspect ratio.

APV codec supporta new professional video codec that aims to offer great video quality while using 20% ​​less storage than other existing professional video formats. Samsung already showed it at the Samsung Developer Conference 2023.

This codec will open the doors to an important advance in video recording as well as playback in better resolutions without making a major impact on the internal memory of the device.

Support for predictive gesture for three-button navigation, which allows a quick look at the app the user is directed to when doing so. It was introduced in Android 13, but wasn’t enabled by default until Android 15. The difference now is that it’s also available for the three-button navigation bar.

Generic APIs like RangingManager including improvements to determining the distance and angle between the device and the remote with a variety of technologies such as BLE channel sounding, BLE RSSI-based, Ultra-Wideband and Wi-Fi round-trip. This will make the device capable of recording the user’s location more accurately.

New API for Camera Night Mode Extensionwhich is responsible for helping apps automatically adjust to low-light environments when recording images or recording video. Another novelty is the vertical text supportdedicated mainly for certain languages ​​such as Japanese with vertical writing systems.

Gemini Extensionsand although it is not yet part of Android 16 Beta 1, Google has mentioned it, since Samsung showed the power of Gemini extensions in the new Galaxy S25; In this way, certain commands can be executed so that Gemini can use the applications for all types of tasks and is related to AI agents (if it could be used by third parties, Perplexity would greatly improve as an assistant).

Android 16 Beta 1 can be tested from the Google website by participating in its program and thus downloading the update on one of the current compatible Pixel phones. As always, it is recommended to wait for an update that still has several phases left to iron out rough edges.