Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Accessing the Fast Settings panel in Android 16 gained’t require swiping down with two fingers as feared.
- As a substitute, you’ll solely should swipe down with one finger on the appropriate half of the standing bar.
- Nonetheless, there’s nonetheless no technique to swipe between the notifications and Fast Settings panels, however hopefully Google will repair that.
Again in September, I reported that Google is making ready an enormous revamp of the notifications and Fast Settings panels in Android 16 that concerned splitting the 2 panels into separate pages. One of many extra controversial points of the revamped Fast Settings panel is that you just now needed to swipe down with two fingers to convey down the panel. Fortunately, although, Google is seemingly dropping this facet of its Fast Settings redesign, that means that Android 16 gained’t require two fingers to tug down the brand new Fast Settings panel in any case.
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That’s not all, although, as I not too long ago found that Google modified how the brand new Fast Settings panel is accessed in Android 15 QPR1 Beta 3. Understand that the brand new Fast Settings panel continues to be not enabled by default, so I nonetheless needed to do a little bit of tinkering to allow it. Anyhow, I observed that I’m now in a position to pull down the brand new Fast Settings panel by swiping down on the appropriate aspect of the standing bar with a single finger, versus two fingers. Right here’s a brief video that demonstrates this modification:
This can be a quite simple change that brings Google’s upcoming Fast Settings panel extra in step with how different Android OEMs have carried out it. After I first reported on Google’s plan to overhaul the notifications and Fast Settings panels in Android 16, folks hated the two-finger swipe down requirement, and for good motive. Having to make use of two fingers to tug down the Fast Settings panel would have made it actually inconvenient to entry tiles, however fortunately, it appears like Google has executed away with that.
Nonetheless, Google nonetheless hasn’t carried out a technique to swipe between the notifications and Fast Settings panels, a characteristic that different Android-based working programs like Xiaomi’s HyperOS and OnePlus’ OxygenOS 15 already provide. Hopefully Google works on this characteristic subsequent, as I believe many individuals will discover it annoying that they should particularly swipe down on one aspect of the display to entry both the notification or the Fast Settings panel.
Whereas I don’t know precisely when Google will roll out this new design, I’m guessing that it’s going to arrive in the Android 16 launch in Q2 of 2025. That’s as a result of many points of the brand new design are nonetheless unfinished, reminiscent of assist for mild mode and the varied buttons that used to dwell within the notification/Fast Settings dropdown. If Google does make any additional enhancements within the upcoming Android 15 QPR2 beta, then I’ll observe up with extra articles right here on Android Authority.
