Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Android will quickly have the ability to provide you with a warning when your gadget’s time zone has been robotically up to date.
- This alert will come within the type of a notification.
- The characteristic isn’t reside but within the newest Android 16 preview, however when it does go reside, it’ll be opt-in.
Telling you what time it’s is likely one of the essential features of a cellular gadget, and thankfully, they’re all actually good at it. Utilizing location information derived out of your cellphone’s cellular community, Wi-Fi, or GPS, your cellphone may even robotically alter the time while you enter a brand new time zone. Typically, although, you might have considered trying a heads up when your cellphone’s time zone has been robotically up to date, which is why Google is engaged on a brand new characteristic for Android 16 that does simply that.
You’re studying an Authority Insights story. Uncover Authority Insights for extra unique studies, app teardowns, leaks, and in-depth tech protection you received’t discover wherever else.
Whereas I used to be digging by means of Android 16 Beta 1, I discovered some strings for a brand new “time zone change” characteristic that’s supposed to point out up underneath Settings > System > Date & time. The outline says that the characteristic will allow you to “obtain a notification when your time zone is robotically up to date.”
Code
<string title="time_zone_change_notifications_toggle_summary">Obtain a notification when your time zone is robotically up to date</string>
<string title="time_zone_change_notifications_toggle_title">Time zone change</string>With some tinkering, I managed to get the “time zone change” toggle to look within the Settings app. Right here’s a screenshot:
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
Nevertheless, I don’t have a screenshot of the notification itself that may seem, as I haven’t been capable of journey outdoors of my time zone since enabling the characteristic. Happily, I do know what it would say, as Android 16 Beta 1 additionally added strings pertaining to that. The title of the notification will clarify that “your time zone modified” and the physique of the notification will embody precisely what time zone you’re now in.
Code
<string title="time_zone_change_notification_body">"You are now in %1$s (%2$s)"</string>
<string title="time_zone_change_notification_title">Your time zone modified</string>It is a fairly simple characteristic that may make Android even higher at timekeeping, because it’ll allow the OS to proactively provide you with a warning to time zone adjustments. Understanding that your cellphone’s time zone has modified and what time zone it has particularly modified to may be helpful for making appointments or plans with different folks, and it will probably additionally prevent from digging into the Settings app when it’s essential to manually change the time zone in apps like Outlook.
Whereas the characteristic itself is fairly easy, it builds upon one thing that’s truly fairly advanced underneath the hood: time zone updates. Time zones are a multitude to handle, however because of Google Play System Updates, Google can push out adjustments to the time zone database on Android units quickly after the Web Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) releases an replace. This functionality, mixed with the a number of location choices accessible on most Android {hardware}, makes Android units a few of the finest round for holding time.
Though I noticed this characteristic in Android 16 Beta 1, I don’t know if it would seem within the steady launch of Android 16. Code for brand new options usually seems properly earlier than their debut, so it’s not at all times clear if a characteristic that Google is engaged on is deliberate for the upcoming launch or a future one. Since Google plans to launch Android 16 in Q2 of this yr, we’ll quickly discover out if this one makes the lower.
