The latest Android 16 beta is hiding a significant UI overhaul

Google has been releasing various beta versions of Android 16 for a while now, but the juicy stuff is often hidden away. We have confirmation that Google is going to show us new design changes at I/O this month, and some of those changes can already be seen in the latest and final beta release.

Android Authority has done the work to enable the hidden design features in Beta 4, showcasing a range of subtle and not-so-subtle changes to the UI. Because these changes are still “off” even in the final beta, it’s likely that they won’t be included in the first stable release of Android 16. Instead, Google might activate them in a quarterly update sometime down the line. With any luck, they’ll give us some more information during the upcoming developer conference.

The design changes highlighted by Android Authority include font changes, icon changes, and added blur effects. The Settings app and Quick Settings panel are getting major updates to make them more “expressive,” and the lock screen has also been shuffled around to make it more compact.

One of the most fun features hidden in the beta is the new icon shape options. Alongside the default circular app icon shape, it looks like we’ll also be able to choose from “square,” “four-sided cookie,” “seven-sided cookie,” “arch,” and “complex clover” shapes. Whichever shape you select will be visible on both the home screen and the app drawer. Since the shape names are a little odd, I’ll borrow Android Authority’s comparison photo to illustrate what they actually look like.

Since we don’t know when Google plans to launch this new design theme, it’s hard to say how close these hidden changes are to the final product. We also don’t know if there are more changes to come that didn’t make it into this beta at all. It’s just 20 days now until Google I/O 2025, so we can look forward to finding out more in just a couple of weeks.