Mishal Rahman / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Learn more about Google’s efforts to revamp Do Not Disturb in next year’s Android 16 update.
- In the latest Android beta, we’ve discovered that a feature in development is no longer called Priority Mode, but simply Mode.
- Additionally, we found that Android shows separate icons for the modes you enable in the status bar, lock screen, and AOD.
Developing the next major release of Android. Android 16 is well under development, but with more than six months until stable release, many new features aren’t ready yet. However, you can get a glimpse of some of the new features in Android 16 by taking a peek at the Android beta releases that Google is pushing. Following the release of yet another new Android beta earlier today, we’re now able to reveal more details about one of Android 16’s biggest new features: Modes.
Modes is the new name for the Preferred Modes feature, which we thoroughly documented earlier this month. This upcoming feature is essentially an enhanced version of Android’s Do Not Disturb mode. The reason we need to overhaul Do Not Disturb is because it is currently quite limited. You can activate it manually or set it to activate between specific times or during specific calendar events on specific calendars. However, if you want to set multiple schedules based on other times or calendars, you will have to change the mode each time. You cannot create another copy of Do Not Disturb using your own settings. Thankfully, that’s resolved with Android 16’s new Modes feature.
Android 16 lets you create different modes, each with its own name, icon, activation trigger, display settings, and notification settings. You can manually toggle the mode from the Settings app or from the new Quick Settings tile that Google is developing. In our previous report on Android 16’s new mode feature (previously known as Preferred Mode), we showed you the UI for creating new modes as well as how to switch between them in case you’re interested. did.
With the release of Android 15 QPR1 Beta 3 earlier today, Google has not only rebranded Priority Mode to just a mode as mentioned above, but also updated the OS to display icons in the status bar, lock screen, and AOD. I noticed you updated it. Corresponds to the current mode enabled. This makes it easy to see at a glance which mode is currently enabled.
In Android 15 QPR1 Beta 3, Google also made slight UI adjustments to the dialog that appears when you tap the quick settings tile. Modes are now displayed in a one-column vertically scrolling list instead of a two-column list. Personally, I prefer the old two-column list because it makes better use of the available space, but perhaps Google will give you more space to add more information, such as a short description of each mode. I switched to a single column list to keep it.
Mishal Rahman / Android Authority
Another small tweak is that the Quick Settings tile itself now displays an icon for the first mode you enable. It also displays the name of the first mode, but if multiple modes are enabled, it switches to show the number of active modes. Speaking of which, if you have multiple modes enabled, only the first mode’s icon will be displayed in the status bar, lock screen, and AOD.
Currently, you can choose from over 40 unique icons using the Modes feature, but that number is likely to increase before the release of Android 16. I don’t know if Google intends to allow you to use your own icons, but I’m starting to suspect they do it for stability reasons. If you can’t choose your own icon, the 40 existing icons are very wide and different, so you should have no trouble finding the right icon for your custom mode.
