What you must know
- Android 17 beta 1 features a few refined UI adjustments.
- The house display search bar now has a slimmer design and is now customizable, letting customers swap AI Mode for instruments like Gemini Stay or Translate.
- Customers can lastly take away the At a Look widget from the Pixel residence display.
- Minor UI tweaks embody a refreshed brightness icon in Fast Settings and clearer quantity panel settings entry.
Whereas Android 17 might not look drastically totally different from Android 16 at first look, Google has quietly launched two small UI tweaks to the Pixel Launcher.
After some preliminary confusion, Google lastly rolled out Android 17 beta 1 February 13, 2026. The replace focuses totally on bigger adjustments, resembling enhancing the large-screen expertise and boosting efficiency. Nevertheless, it additionally features a few refined UI adjustments throughout the Pixel Launcher.
Probably the most noticeable change facilities across the residence display search bar. On Android 16, the search bar featured thick coloured borders. With Android 17, Google seems to have reverted to a slimmer design that carefully resembles the older model many customers had been aware of.
One small however significant replace is that the shortcut now sits contained in the search bar reasonably than exterior it. Extra importantly, the shortcut is now customizable. Whereas it defaults to an AI Mode shortcut, you possibly can swap it for instruments like Gemini Stay, Translate, Tune Search, Climate, Dictionary, and extra.
Tapping a shortcut updates the search bar immediately, and choosing it launches the chosen characteristic. In the mean time, there would not look like an possibility to exchange the voice search or Google Lens shortcuts.
As well as, Android 17 beta 1 introduces the flexibility to take away the At a Look widget from the house display. Though Google beforehand examined this with choose customers within the Android 16 QPR3 betas, it now appears broadly accessible in Android 17 beta 1. You may take away it by long-pressing the widget after which eradicating the widget from Pixel Launcher settings.
There are just a few different minor UI tweaks as effectively. The quantity panel now features a settings icon on the backside for clearer entry to quantity controls, and the brightness icon in Fast Settings seems to have been refreshed. As all the time, these adjustments might change or disappear in future beta builds.
Android Central’s Take
The flexibility to customise the search bar is a genuinely welcome addition. Whereas I take pleasure in utilizing AI Mode, I additionally steadily use Google for sports activities updates and Tune Search, so with the ability to swap the shortcut makes the expertise extra versatile. I simply hope Google ultimately lets us customise extra of the shortcuts sooner or later.
