Android 16 could borrow a key notification trick from the iPhone
- Work on Android in beta form continues
- Android 16 could include a new notification trick
- For now it’s called Rich Ongoing Notifications
Now that Android 15 is rolling out to Pixel phones, we can start turning our attention to what’s going to happen with Android 16 – and some research into the latest beta code for the operating system has revealed a Dynamic Island-style notification system.
This comes from Mishaal Rahman of Android Authorityand the feature is called Rich Ongoing Notifications. That gives you an idea of what’s involved: persistent notifications that appear in the status bar at the top of the screen.
On newer iPhone models, there’s a Dynamic Island notification bar that expands to show information such as sports scores, media being played, or the arrival time for a taxi pick-up. It looks like Rich Ongoing Notifications will offer something similar.
Evidence of the notification tweak has been found in the Android 15 QPR1 Beta 3 release, although as usual with betas, there’s no guarantee the feature will become a final release or be released in its current form.
Phone chips
Here’s how it works: Apps can place a notification alert or “chip” in the status bar, with custom text and a custom background color. That chip could then show live information, for example about the arrival time of a flight.
For now, the Rich Ongoing Notifications feature isn’t enabled, although Rahman managed to get it working and created a few mockups showing what the chips would look like in action (you can see one embedded above).
While this certainly has a Dynamic Island vibe to it, the Android Authority report doesn’t say that these chips have been around since Android 12, although they have been limited to handling calls until now.
Expanding the feature to apps and notifications of any kind would mean more flexibility for developers and users alike when it comes to getting important information on screen. It’s something to keep an eye on in 2025, ahead of the launch of Android 16.