According to new beta findings by Mishaal Rahman and Android Authority, major changes may be coming to Android 16 notifications and quick settings.

Android 15 QPR 1 Beta 3 still features the new split notification/quick settings shade identified in previous findings, moving away from the unified screen Android has been using for some time. However, to access the quick settings, users had to swipe down with two fingers instead of one.

In the QPR 1 Beta 3 release, split notifications/settings are not available by default, but Rahman was able to get them to work by doing some work. And there he discovered that he no longer needed to swipe the right side of the display with two fingers to activate the quick settings shade, but could use the familiar one-finger swipe.

You can see how this works in the video below, filmed by Rahman.

Returning access to quick settings to a one-finger gesture makes more sense, and not just because it is familiar. Even if you are using the phone with one hand, you can access notifications with just your thumb, eliminating the need to use the phone with both hands or place it on a stable surface when you want to check settings.

The one major limitation left to the new setup is the inability to swipe sideways to switch between the two screens. This is something that Android skins like OnePlus' OxygenOS and Xiaomi's HyperOS can do, and would be a sensible addition to the base Android version of this feature. That said, this is the way iOS's Control Center and lockscreen have worked since the iPhone X was introduced, so perhaps Google is following Apple's example rather than its own smartphone partner.

Android 16 appears to be an update designed to buck the trend. Not only does it introduce a new notification and settings screen, but its release date is scheduled for the middle of next year, rather than toward the end of the year as we have seen with Android 15 this year. As such, it is expected to be included in the best Android phones much earlier than in previous years.

Besides what we've already mentioned, Android 16 will include the return of single-tap toggles for quick Wi-Fi and Bluetooth settings, new options for keeping regular apps in bubbles like chat windows, and waiting for a cab, You can see further changes like the introduction of rich continuous notifications and another iPhone-inspired change to keep you up-to-date on long-running tasks like using Google Maps for navigation.