Android 16 Features: Quick Tips and Tricks Right Away for Your Pixel Device
Android 16, the latest iteration of Google's mobile operating system, has been released ahead of schedule in June, bringing a host of significant new features designed to enhance security, battery health, and user experience.
### Security Enhancements
The highlight of Android 16's security suite is the Advanced Protection Mode, a comprehensive security system tailored for users at higher risk of cyberattacks. This mode, available on Android 16, offers robust protection by disabling USB data transfers unless the phone is unlocked, blocking sideloading of apps, deactivating vulnerable 2G networks, and stopping the phone from auto-connecting to insecure Wi-Fi networks, among other features. Advanced Protection Mode also employs AI-powered scam detection in Messages, filters scam calls, provides memory checks to detect harmful apps or attacks, and enforces HTTPS-only browsing for safer web use.
Additionally, Android 16 introduces Real-time Location Access Alerts, notifying users immediately if an app accesses location repeatedly in the background, even if previously granted. The operating system also flags apps trying to infer location through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth signals. These alerts link to a privacy dashboard with a timeline of recent access events, giving users greater insight and control over location privacy.
Furthermore, Android 16 integrates a new credential manager API that centralizes login credentials for passwords, passkeys, and federated logins like Sign in with Google. It supports passkeys by default—a biometric-based, passwordless authentication method stored securely on-device or synced with end-to-end encryption. This reduces phishing risks, simplifies switching devices, and integrates deeply with Google Password Manager, which provides health alerts and breach warnings.
### Battery Health and Device Reliability
Although explicit battery health improvements were not detailed, the inactivity reboot feature in Advanced Protection Mode, which automatically restarts the device after prolonged inactivity, can help maintain device stability and potentially prevent battery drain-related issues from lingering processes.
### User Experience Improvements
Android 16 introduces multitasking and productivity enhancements, including desktop-style windowing in partnership with Samsung. This feature allows users to open, move, and resize multiple app windows on tablets and foldables, facilitating a more PC-like multitasking experience. Future updates will add custom keyboard shortcuts and a taskbar overflow menu, improving productivity on compatible devices.
The update also expands support for LE Audio hearing aids, enhancing the experience for users with hearing aids by routing call audio through the phone’s microphone to reduce background noise, providing native volume controls for hearing devices directly from the phone, and enabling Auracast broadcast audio for sharing sound with nearby devices.
### Other Notable Features
Android 16 includes a dedicated dashboard for Battery Health, similar to iPhones, where users can check the charging health status of their phone's battery. Users can enable charging optimization features, such as adaptive charging and limiting peak charging capacity to 80%, in the Battery Health dashboard to reduce electrochemical stress and the number of full charge-discharge cycles to prolong battery life.
The Notification Cooldown feature can be enabled in the Notifications dashboard within the Settings app, allowing users to control the volume of consecutive notifications from the same app.
The desktop mode in Android 16 resembles ChromeOS but currently lacks some features necessary for serious work. However, it can be accessed with a USB-C cable or an HDMI-USB splitter, offering a Samsung DeX-like large screen environment on a monitor.
Advanced Protection activates safe browsing in Chrome, warns about risky websites, and blocks risky apps. Identity Check, a new safety tool, locks sensitive settings and information behind a biometric lock when the device is in an unfamiliar location. Users can designate trusted or safe locations for Identity Check.
The stable build of Android 16 is available for Google's Pixel smartphones, with QPR builds with experimental features being tested.
Sources: [1] Android Developer Blog:
Gadget enthusiasts will appreciate the integration of a new credential manager API in Android 16, which centralizes login credentials for greater security and seamless switching between devices. Advancements in the operating system's technology also extend to smartphones, as Android 16 now offers robust security features like Advanced Protection Mode, Real-time Location Access Alerts, and AI-powered scam detection, ensuring a safer user experience.
