Android 16 may be working on a new way to reorder quick settings tiles

Google released a new Android beta update today. On the surface, it’s a much smaller release than last month’s update, which included big changes like lock screen widgets and desktop window display. We are still looking at the update to see if there are any hints of changes planned for future releases. While doing a little research, I found something that could be added to next year’s Android 16 release. It’s the Quick Settings tile category.

Hidden inside the updated SystemUI app in the latest Android 15 beta is a string that suggests the quick settings panel will organize tiles into up to seven different categories. These categories include Accessibility, Connectivity, Display, Privacy, Provided by App, Unknown, and Utility.

Currently, when you try to edit the Quick Settings panel in the latest Android 15 QPR1 Beta 3 update that Google rolled out today, all tiles that aren’t already part of the panel appear in an unorganized two-column list. This includes both native system-provided tiles and app-provided tiles. On Android, new tiles provided by apps are simply placed at the end of the list, so you may have to scroll up and down a lot to find the right tile to add to your quick settings panel.

However, as part of its efforts to overhaul the notification and quick settings panels in Android 16, Google will also overhaul the quick settings editor. After updating my Pixel to Android 15 QPR1 Beta 3 and activating the improved Quick Settings UI, I noticed that the tiles in the editor view were organized into the aforementioned categories. Here are some screenshots showing what this looks like.

As you can see, tiles like Data Saver and Hotspot are grouped under the “Connectivity” category, while tiles like Color Correction, Color Inversion, Hearing Devices, and One-handed Mode are grouped under the “Accessibility” category.

However, you will notice that my screenshot is missing the “Utilities” and “Unknown” categories.[ユーティリティ]Categories are not displayed if you already have tiles such as Device Control or QR Code Scanner.[クイック設定]Because you’re adding it to the panel. Android does not display categories that have no more tiles to add to the panel. This is not surprising. For unknown categories, any quick settings tile is provided by the system or a third-party app, so you don’t know when it will appear. Therefore, there should be nothing that is not classified into other categories.

However, one thing we don’t know is the launch date for this new feature. We believe this feature won’t arrive until Android 16, as the Quick Settings tile categories are not visible in the existing Quick Settings UI. The reason I’m guessing that way is because the new quick settings UI is too large. The overhaul is reserved for a minor update to Android 15 QPR, but I could be wrong.

In any case, Google is tweaking the quick settings editor menu to be more organized, and it doesn’t matter whether it comes with the Android 15 QPR update or Android 16. This is a long overdue, but welcome change nonetheless, and will hopefully clean up the Quick Settings editor and make it easier to find and add the right tiles to your Quick Settings panel.