Android 16 may feature Rich Ongoing Notifications, where developers can maintain the Android status bar for ongoing notifications. Researcher Mishaal Rahman of Android Authority found this during an Android 15 beta code analysis.
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This feature might allow users to see a pill-shaped icon with custom text and background colours in the status bar, giving them live information. For example, it could report an estimated arrival time for an Uber. Android already supports similar functionality to Android 12, such as displaying how long a phone call has been active, but this new feature will make it better at engaging users.
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This is quite similar to how iOS provides updates through Live Activities: showing things like timers, scores of sporting events, or delivery status on the lock screen. The latter two appear as interactive widgets inside Dynamic Island for iPhone 14 Pro models and later.
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This will be very handy to many Android users, as it allows them to keep an eye on remaining time to count down how much longer something is until delivery time at a parking meter, to name two examples. Thus, this new feature makes it even more appealing for some to have Android in a similar regard to some who use iOS because it has the same capabilities.
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Recently, Alex Heath joined a recent episode of The Vergecast to discuss announcements made at Meta Connect, which include advanced Orion glasses and updates to Ray-Ban Smart Glasses, among other innovations using AI. Leadership changes at OpenAI have only recently been confirmed, so this offers a view of some shifts in the world of AI besides those they bring with new tech, like the soon-to-be-released PS5 Pro.
