• Android 16 will introduce notification cooldown, which gradually decreases the volume of alerts related to repeated app pings.

• It will also hide very old notifications, introduce current rich notifications, and use compact warning messages.

• These features are already in and out of beta and may be available for Pixel devices during the December Feature Drop.

The first Android 16 Developer Preview will bring various achievements over the next few days, and keen investigators have already spotted a practical change currently planned for the December Drop feature limited to Pixel devices. The 2026 version of the ubiquitous operating system could, by default, gradually reduce alert volume when receiving repeated pings from an app, a feature called Notification Cooldown (Mishaal Rahmann via Android Authority).

Minimize annoying pings

And other potential quality of life improvements to come

Nine months after the release of its Android 15 equivalent, Android 16 DP1 was launched today, which many did not expect. Early developer previews don’t usually reveal major, much-desired features, but this one has been a long time coming. Android expert Mishaal Rahmann spotted a new toggle in the notifications settings menu called Notification Cooldown, which gradually reduces alert volume when an individual app sends continuous notifications.

If you have deja vu, it’s because we reported this same feature nine months ago when Android 15 DP1 hit the scene. But this time, inclusion in Android QPR1 beta (expected to be the December feature for Pixel phones) announces the feature’s likely availability for all Android manufacturers in Q2 2025. Unfortunately, it appears to lack any ongoing vibration mitigation at the moment, and the practical “Vibrate when unlocked” function. the feature has yet to resurface after disappearing from the Android 15 QPR1 beta.

Still, notification cooldown is just one potential quality of life update in Android’s notifications pipeline. If you’ve ever completed your daily driver with a secondary Android device, you’ve unlocked it at some point thanks to a barrage of notifications you’ve already seen. Android 16 will combat this problem at least a little by blocking notifications older than two weeks, so you won’t get a whole month of alerts when you move to a tablet or second phone.

Google also continues to test improved ongoing notifications, or persistent and informative notifications in the status bar on the most critical active apps. These might include driving directions or upcoming calendar events, for example. While this could be considered a theft of Apple’s Dynamic Island implementation, Android has allowed dialers to display the duration of the current call in the status bar since Android 12, making it, in some ways, a wise development.

Rahmann’s tinkering also uncovered Android 16’s use of compact heads-up messages, which omit non-critical information such as user profile photos when an app sends a notification while you’re actively looking at something. Cutting out an entire line of text means less distraction when you’re absorbed in the content. This news broke months agowith questions as to whether it would land in a Pixel Feature Drop or wait for the next full release. At the very least, we now know that it’s very likely to be ready for prime time. Android 16 launching on June 3, 2025.