Android 17: Leaked features, codename, release date, and everything else we know so far
Stable Android 16 (https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-features-3484159/) has been rolling out to Pixel devices and the rest of the Android clan, and Google has already confirmed all the features coming with the stable platform release. We’ve also gotten our hands on Android 16 QPR betas (https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-qpr3-beta-2-rollout-3632561/) and even Android 16 QPR2 stable (https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-qpr2-features-3621204/) , which give us a peek at the features expected with the next platform release, Android 17. These spotted features, along with the other features that weren’t confirmed for Android 16, help us paint a picture of what’s possibly coming with Android 17. Here’s what we know so far about the next big platform update for Android!
Android 17: Name
Google used to name Android versions with dessert codenames, but it abandoned that tradition with the release of Android 10, sticking to only the version number for all future releases. Consequently, Android 17 will most likely be known simply as “Android 17,” with no dessert codename officially used for public-facing branding.
However, Google still uses the dessert codename internally. Android 15’s codename was Vanilla Ice Cream, while Android 16 jumped all the way back to “B” with Baklava (https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-codename-3486221/) . Google has chosen “Cinnamon Bun” as the dessert codename for Android 17 (https://www.androidauthority.com/android-17-codename-3585116/) . A trusted source within Google shared evidence with us that clearly shows the company using “CinnamonBun” as the internal codename for API level 37.0, i.e., for Android 17. Code within the Android Canary release also confirmed the Cinnamon Bun dessert codename (https://www.androidauthority.com/android-17-codename-confirmed-3616448/) .
A cinnamon bun — also called a cinnamon roll or swirl — is a sweet, baked pastry made with rolled dough, filled with a cinnamon-sugar mixture, and often topped with glaze or icing. It’s a popular dessert in northern Europe and North America, with several well-known chains specializing in its creation.
Android 17: Expected release date
Google has been switching things up with the Android 15 and Android 16 releases. Android 15 decoupled the platform update from the Pixel 9 series, giving the software release its independent timeline. Android 16 gave the platform a new timetable, with a major SDK release in Q2 and a minor SDK release promised for Q4.
For Android 17, we presume Google will continue on the path it set for itself with Android 16. Thus, unless things change for Android 17, we expect a major SDK release in Q2 2026 and a minor SDK release in Q4 2026.
There are some changes expected for Android 17 Developer Previews, though. Google has replaced Developer Previews with Android Canary builds (https://www.androidauthority.com/android-canary-3576430/) :
Moving forward, the Android platform will have a Canary release channel, which will replace the previous developer preview program. This Canary release channel will function alongside the existing beta program.
This change is designed to provide a more streamlined and continuous opportunity for you to try out new platform capabilities and provide feedback throughout the entire year, not just in the early months of a new release cycle.
For the stable release, you might have to wait quite a while. Google released the stable version of Android 16 on June 10, 2025, so you will have to wait about a year before you can expect another major Android release. Presuming Google doesn’t change its timelines, we expect stable Android 17 to be released sometime in June 2026, based on historical trends.
Android 17: Confirmed features and changes
Google has added features to Android 16 after the initial stable release, primarily through the Android 16 QPR1 and QPR2 releases. These features are live on Pixel phones running Android 16, but Android OEMs could adopt them either as part of a minor Android 16 update or wait until the Android 17 platform update. As such, we’re labelling these features as “carry over features” as they technically went live with Android 16, but will most likely reach the wider Android platform with Android 17.
Here are the features that Google has announced or confirmed are coming with the official Android 17 platform update:
Carry over from Android 16 QPR1:
- Material 3 Expressive
- Desktop Mode and related changes
- Live Updates
- Improvements to Factory Reset Protection
- Customizable keyboard shortcuts
Carry over from Android 16 QPR2:
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- Expanded Dark theme
- Low light mode
- Enhanced HDR brightness
- Disable background blur
- 90:10 split-screen multitasking on phones
- Built-in Parental Controls
- Identity Check expands to apps and watches
- Secure Lock Device
- Disable Failed Authentication Lock
- Time zone change notification
- Updated UI for sideloading apps
- Graphical app support in the Linux Terminal
- Enhanced support for touchpads and mice
Intrusion Logging
Better app adaptability
Vulkan 1.4 support and mandatory ANGLE support
Material 3 Expressive
Google has officially announced Material 3 Expressive (https://www.androidauthority.com/google-material-3-expressive-features-changes-availability-supported-devices-3556392/) as the next evolution of Material Design. This UX update is set to arrive with Android 16, but not the first stable release. Instead, it has arrived with the Android 16 QPR1 update to Pixels (https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-qpr1-features-3594123/) . Most non-Pixels will get access to this with Android 17, albeit individual apps could have their own redesign on Android 16.
This sweeping UI update is a significant step in Google’s ongoing effort to make Android and Wear OS more visually engaging, emotionally resonant, and interactive. Some of its highlights include:
- Springier, natural-feeling animations that enhance touch interactions
- New icon shapes and refreshed typography
- Background blur effects for depth and focus
- Updated color themes
- Home screen and Quick Settings enhancements for a more dynamic layout
- Visual redesigns for many Google apps, bringing them in line with the new expressive aesthetic
You can learn more about Material 3 Expressive in our deep dive article (https://www.androidauthority.com/google-material-3-expressive-features-changes-availability-supported-devices-3556392/) .
Desktop Mode and related changes
Google has been working on developing its own DeX-like Desktop Mode experience for Android (https://www.androidauthority.com/android-desktop-mode-leak-3550321/) . This feature offers an intuitive, desktop-like interface on external displays, complete with a taskbar for launching pinned or recent apps in freeform windows.
Google announced this Desktop Mode as an Android 16 feature. However, the first stable Android 16 release does not include this feature, not even for Pixel devices. Instead, Pixel phones got this feature with Android 16 QPR1. We expect Android OEMs to bake in the feature for their phones with Android 17.
Compared to the current, barebones desktop interface that appears when you connect a Pixel device to an external display, Android’s new desktop mode actually displays the taskbar and status bar. The taskbar is a big addition, as it provides access to your pinned apps and a better version of the app drawer. The taskbar can also show recent apps while in desktop mode, making it easier to multitask.
It’s also possible to launch multiple apps in floating windows simultaneously using the new desktop mode. Further, you can freely move, resize, or snap windows to the side, just like on desktop operating systems. This makes it easy to drag and drop content from one app to another, provided the apps you’re using support drag-and-drop.
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
Android 16 QPR1 Beta 3 includes shortcuts to quickly pin or unpin apps from the taskbar (https://www.androidauthority.com/android-desktop-mode-pin-to-taskbar-3577417/) . When long-pressing an app icon in the app drawer, you’ll see a “pin to taskbar” shortcut in the context menu, while you’ll see an “unpin from taskbar” shortcut when long-pressing an app icon on the taskbar.
Desktop Mode is enabled by default on tablets, where it extends the desktop windowing feature introduced in Android 15 QPR1. The tablet screen can act as a second monitor, allowing you to seamlessly move app windows and the mouse cursor between it and the external display.
When desktop windowing is active on a tablet, Android displays the icons of recently opened apps in the taskbar. If many apps have recently been opened, the taskbar will be full of icons, which can feel overwhelming. To address this, Google added the taskbar overflow button (https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-taskbar-overflow-3565405/) with the release of Android 16 QPR1 Beta 2 (https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-qpr1-beta-2-3565627/) . The taskbar overflow feature provides “a simple, visual way for you to find the app you need when the taskbar is full.” Tapping the overflow button opens a horizontally scrolling carousel that shows previews of your recent apps.
You can see a gray, circular button located after the divider separating pinned and recent apps. Tapping it opens the overflow menu.
Android 16 QPR1 allows users to configure what happens when they tap the touchpad with three fingers (https://www.androidauthority.com/android-touchpad-new-features-canary-3583504/) . They can set it to perform a middle click, launch the assistant, go home, go back, or view recent apps.
Live Updates
Live Updates is one of the highlight features of Android 16, but it’s absent from the first stable Android 16 release (https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-live-updates-2-3566234/) . Instead, the first release supports progress-centric notifications, a new type of notification that merely displays progress and milestones on ride-share and food delivery apps.
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
In the first Android 16 stable release, the Android system treats these notifications just like other notifications. These are intended to save developers from building a custom solution to display progress in the notifications, giving them a standard format that is easier to adopt for their apps.
The full Live Updates experience includes Live Updates notifications appearing on the Always On Display, at the top of the notification list on the lock screen, in the Heads-Up display, and as a chip in the Status Bar. This experience resembles Apple’s Live Activities introduced in iOS 16, though Android’s implementation excludes media player apps (https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-live-updates-music-player-3573487/) from its scope.
An example of Live Updates from the Uber Eats app on the AOD (left), lock screen (left middle), status bar (right middle), and heads-up notification (right).
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
Managing Live Updates is also straightforward. You can press and hold a notification and tap “Turn off,” or disable the feature from the app’s main notification settings page.
The full Live Updates experience is live on Android 16 QPR1 stable for Pixel devices, though it also needs apps to support the feature.
Improvements to Factory Reset Protection
At The Android Show: I/O Edition, Google announced (https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-factory-reset-protection-upgrades-3556859/) that Android’s existing Factory Reset Protection mechanisms will become even more powerful later in the year. While Android already has several mechanisms to deter bypassing the setup screen after triggering a factory reset, these new protections will restrict all functionalities on devices that are reset without the owner’s authorization.
Android will likely detect if someone bypassed the setup wizard (to bypass previous factory reset protection mechanisms), and will thus force another factory reset cyclically, preventing unauthorized use until the user proves ownership.
Since these upgrades are coming later in the year, they will not be part of the first stable release of Android 16. Instead, we expect this update to come with the Android 16 QPR1 update for Pixel devices and then to the wider platform with Android 17.
Customizable keyboard shortcuts
Android has many keyboard shortcuts for system actions and launching apps. In past releases, these were not customizable. Android 16 now lets you edit them (https://www.androidauthority.com/custom-keyboard-shortcuts-android-16-3527394/) , so for example, you could add “Meta + Shift + B” as an alternative key combination to launch the Chrome browser.
Auto-themed icons
With Android 16 QPR 2 Beta 1 introduced automatic theming of icons (https://www.androidauthority.com/android-icon-colors-3589663/) into your selected palette color, even when the developer has not provided a monochrome version of the icon for Android to work with. The operating system uses a color filtering algorithm to render existing icons in a monochromatic style, allowing them to be tinted to match the system theme.
Expanded Dark theme
With Android 16 QPR2 Beta 1, Google added a new “expanded option under dark theme” that allows the system to “intelligently invert the UI of apps that appear light despite users having selected the dark theme.” With the Android 16 QPR2 stable release, this feature went live.
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
The expanded dark theme aims to create a “more consistent user experience for users who have low vision, photosensitivity, or simply those who prefer a dark system-wide appearance.” When enabled, the system uses the app’s isLightTheme attribute to determine whether to apply inversion. “If your app inherits from one of the standard DayNight themes, this is done automatically for you; otherwise, make sure to declare isLightTheme=”false” in your dark theme to ensure your app is not inadvertently inverted.”
This is intended only as an accessibility feature; hence, Google recommends developers implement a native dark theme if they haven’t already. You can toggle this setting by navigating to Settings > Display & touch > Dark theme on your Pixel.
Low light mode
Android’s screen saver function allows apps to display useful info when your device is idle, but until now, you could only enable one at a time. This meant that if you wanted to use the Home Controls screen saver (https://www.androidauthority.com/home-controls-screensaver-3489628/) during the day but switch to the Clock at night, you had to toggle between them manually.
Android 16 QPR2 addresses this with a new Low light mode. Found at the bottom of Settings > Display & touch > Screen saver, this option automatically switches to a dimmed clock when the ambient light drops, regardless of which screen saver you have selected. This effectively gives you the best of both worlds: your preferred screen saver during the day and a subtle night clock after dark — similar to the experience on the Pixel Tablet.
Additionally, you can now prevent the screen saver from activating unless the device is wirelessly charging. To do so, toggle “restrict to wireless charging” under Settings > Display & touch > Screen saver > When to show.
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
It’s worth noting that these screen saver features are only new to older models, as they have been available on the Pixel 10 series since launch, complementing the lineup’s Pixelsnap wireless charging accessories.
Enhanced HDR brightness
Google was testing an “Enhanced HDR brightness (https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-qpr1-enhanced-hdr-brightness-setting-3563653/) ” setting in Android 16 QPR1 Beta 1 that allows you to control how much HDR content brightens your Pixel phone’s screen. This setting, located under Settings > Display & touch > Enhanced HDR brightness, includes both a toggle to disable HDR support entirely and a slider to adjust the intensity of the HDR effect.
With the feature disabled, a “standard” (SDR) image and an HDR image will look the same on screen. When enabled, adjusting the slider will dynamically alter the brightness of specific elements within an HDR image, such as the sky or water
