As expected, Android 17 has officially gone stable, and that includes Wear OS 7.The update is rolling out today to Pixel phones and Pixel Watch devices—expect Samsung Galaxy and other Android phones to start getting the update next month.Let’s take a look at what’s included.
Advanced multitasking with “Bubbles” Bringing smarter app-windowing to Android One of the most interesting new features in Android 17 is called “Bubbles.” Essentially, it brings apps into the existing messaging bubbles.When an app is “bubbled,” it floats on top of other apps.You can open and close it by simply tapping the app icon, which can be dragged around the screen.
The extra cool thing is you can bubble multiple apps together.They all appear as icons at the top of the floating window, allowing you to quickly switch between them.Bubbles are especially useful on larger screen devices, like foldables and tablets, but the feature is pretty nice on phones, too.
I have a full hands-on with bubbles here.Even more granular location and contact access Give apps a small crumb Android has slowly gotten better and better about restricting apps’ access to your personal information.For a while now, we’ve been able to grant apps access to “precise” and “approximate” location.
Sounds good in theory, but in reality, many apps refuse to work without “precise” location granted.Now, Android will let you grant temporary access to your precise location.In addition, you can share only specific contacts instead of your entire list, similar to how Android already worked for files and media access.
Live Updates on Wear OS Glancable info on your glancable device Live Updates rolled out last year with Android 16.These are special notifications that show real-time progress for things like food delivery orders, timers, and fitness tracking.Wear OS 7 supports Live Updates, making it even easier to track progress.
They look essentially the same as they do on a phone, just condensed to the smaller screen.Control devices from your watch Your watch as a universal remote Wear OS 7 includes some new features for controlling connected devices around you.Google specifically mentions this will work with intelligent eyewear that “launches this fall,” but it’s also for smart devices in your home.
For example, if you’re listening to music, you can choose where the audio is playing from the media player on your watch.Move the music from your Bluetooth headphones to your bedroom speaker or the living room TV with the output switcher.This seems genuinely pretty useful as a way to avoid voice commands.
Gemini Intelligence...coming soon Some big features are missing At Google I/O last month, the company talked about how Android is now an “intelligence system.” Unfortunately, some of the biggest “intelligence” announcements aren’t coming to Android 17 just yet.Google says Gemini Intelligence will arrive on “select advanced devices” later this summer.Gemini Intelligence will allow for deeper integration with apps and services on your phone.
The days of manually using apps to order food and buy tickets are coming to an end, or at least that’s Google’s hope.Gemini can already order food for you—expect a lot more of that this year.Subscribe to our newsletter for Android 17 insights Want hands-on tips, deep dives, and device compatibility guides for Android 17 and Wear OS 7? Subscribe to the newsletter for in-depth analysis, step-by-step how-tos, and coverage of Gemini integration plans and features.
Get Updates By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.You can unsubscribe anytime.One big feature that people are excited about is generative AI “Create My Widget.” The idea is you can literally just ask Gemini to create a widget with specific information, and it will happen.
Then, that widget can be synced to your Wear OS watch as a Tile.Pretty nifty.Anyway, there’s a bunch of other smaller things headed to Android 17.
Check out the full landing page for all the details.Source: Google, Google Related The 7 best new features coming to Android 17, ranked Android 17 is a massive overhaul bringing tons of new features and changes—but some matter far more than others.Posts 18 By Dibakar Ghosh
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