Google is ending 2025 with a bang. Rolling out a number of new Android features that aren’t only exclusive to Pixel devices, either. There are a number of Android 16 updates, as well as updates that are not exclusive to Android 16. Let’s go over them.
For Android 16, we have the AI-powered Notification Summary and Notification Organizer. These should really help with controlling your notifications better. There are also custom icon shapes, themed icons are now auto-applied across all apps, and an expanded dark mode. So Dark Mode will now offer reduced brightness to help save battery and save your eyes.
Android gains Expressive Captions, additional Emoji Kitchen Stickers and more
Moving onto those updates that are not part of Android 16, Google is rolling out Expressive Captions with emotion tags. These will now show the full emotion of how someone is speaking with emotion tags. Google is also adding more Emoji Kitchen options, so you can express yourself in even more ways.
For phone calls, Google is also rolling out Call Reason, which will be coming to the Phone by Google app. This will allow you to flag your call to a saved contact as “urgent”. So if they miss your call, you’ll still see the “urgent” note on their call history.
You can now leave and report group chats in Google Messages, and Circle to Search is also getting the ability to check for scams. This will be very helpful for those who are often gullible and can fall victim to scams very easily.
One last update for Android, which is really cool, Fast Pair for Hearing Aids. Now with just a tap, you can easily connect your Bluetooth LE Audio-enabled hearing aids directly to your compatible Android device. Fast Pair is available now on Demant hearing aids and will expand to Starkey hearing technology in early 2026.
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