Summary
- Android 16 Beta 3 is hiding strings of code that point towards notification summaries.
- It would include options to exclude apps and disable notifications, catering to whatever your preferences are.
- Apple launched a similar feature last year, and it’s not very good.
It’s dark days for Apple Intelligence. Despite an ever-present ad campaign, I’m not sure Apple’s suite of AI tools has caught on with the general public — I certainly don’t know anyone who’s upgraded their iPhone to experience Genmoji — and last week saw the delay of next-gen Siri. Unfortunately, Google might be taking one of the worst pages out of Apple’s playbook for Android 16, as today’s new beta is hiding some hints that point towards one of iOS 18’s worst features coming to your smartphone.
Android 16 Beta 3, like most of Google’s Android 16 builds before it, doesn’t have much new in the way of consumer-facing features, but as our first platform stability release, it’s one step closer to the expected full launch in June. That said, like previous builds, there are plenty of secrets hiding beneath the hood, and not all of them are good. As spotted by 9to5Google, Google is working on summarized notifications that, presumably, utilize AI to deliver summaries of your missed chats and other alerts.
These strings seem to include options for both excluding specific apps and disabling notification summaries altogether, which should come as a relief for anyone who doesn’t like the idea of AI-generated alert groupings. Some of the phrasings seem like this feature could arrive as a way to better manage your incoming notifications, with the ability to group and silence similar alerts “for a quieter experience.” Over at Android Authority, Mishaal Rahman was able to get the feature working manually, with a new “notification summaries” page appearing within Android’s settings menu.
Please Google, don’t screw up my notifications
At least you’ll be able to turn them off
If I sound like I’m dreading this change, it’s because I am. I despised Apple’s notification summaries on the iPhone 16 Pro Max when I reviewed that phone last year, and as I’m wrapping up my incoming review of the iPhone 16e, my feelings have only grown more negative. While I have more faith in Google to get this sort of thing right — notifications have always been Android’s bread and butter, after all — I’ve been so burned by a bad implementation of this feature on iOS, I can’t imagine ever wanting to turn it on, regardless of the platform.
Still, it’s possible Android’s engineers have sat back and learned from the terrible experience Apple delivered in iOS 18 and Apple Intelligence. Knowing that it’s a single toggle to disable these summaries is great news too; while that’s also possible on the iPhone, it’s a relief to know Google didn’t diverge from Apple’s path here.
While these notification summaries could show up in the next Android 16 beta — presumably set for April — I wouldn’t be surprised to see these held back for a grand debut on stage at Google I/O. Thanks to James Peckham’s recent sit down with Android head Sameer Samat, we know some real user-facing changes are coming to Google’s smartphone platform this year, despite how unusually quiet the beta period has been. Combined with the company’s recent adoration of on-stage AI demonstrations, I’d be more shocked if these didn’t get a mention in Mountain View come May 20th.
