This is one Android 16 rumor you’ll be happy to see debunked

Key Takeaways

• Android 16 could separate the notification shade from the Quick Settings panel.
• Google might allow accessing the Quick Settings panel with a one-finger swipe-down gesture, instead of the two-finger swipe-down gesture seen in leaks so far.
• Android 16 is slated to release in Q2 2025.

Google has tweaked Android’s Quick Settings panel with almost every major OS update. Next year’s Android 16 may bring the most significant overhaul yet, separating the notification and Quick Settings panels with new features like resizable Quick Settings tiles and an updated brightness slider with a percentage indicator. The most surprising change was that accessing the Quick Settings panel required a two-finger swipe down, instead of the current one-finger gesture. Thankfully, that won’t be the case.

Android guru Mishaal Rahman managed to activate the new Quick Settings panel on his Pixel running Android 15 QPR1 Beta 3 after a bit of fiddling. As the video he shared shows (embedded below), Google appears to have reverted the change, which required a two-finger swipe-down to access the Quick Settings panel.

Instead, as seen on iPhones and many Chinese Android skins, Mishaal could access the panel by swiping down with one finger from the right side of the notch.

Hopefully, Google will stick to this change and not go back to requiring a two-finger swipe-down gesture to access the Quick Settings panel in Android 16’s final release.

Google needs to fix another issue with Android 16’s Quick Settings panel

There’s another issue with Android 16’s revamped notification and Quick Settings panels in its current iteration. You cannot swipe between the two panels. Instead, to switch from the notification shade to the Quick Settings panel (or vice versa), you must go back to the home screen and swipe from the left or right side of the screen to access the relevant panel.

This is an annoying limitation that slows down access to the Quick Settings panel from the notification shade. In OxygenOS 15, OnePlus lets you swipe left on the notification shade to access the Quick Settings toggle. Google should also take a similar approach and provide a way to swipe between the notification shade and Quick Settings panel.

Admittedly, swiping between the panels can sometimes interfere with unread notifications and Quick Settings tiles, so Google will have to be careful with its implementation.

Google has already confirmed that Android 16 will launch earlier than usual, arriving in Q2 2025. Its beta program should go live in the next few months, so we will know (relatively) soon whether Google will stick with this annoying change or not.