Android 17 Beta 2 released: this is new

Android 17 Beta 2

Google released Android 17 Beta in February. Now it is time for the second beta version. This new version includes a series of functionality improvements and bug fixes. As of now, the update is being distributed to participants in the beta programme with a Google Pixel 6 or newer. There are some new features. For instance, you can now choose a tile in the quick settings for satellite communication. Also, backup, accounts and passwords have been combined into one option in settings: 'Accounts and Backup'.

The privacy indicators shown at the top of the screen have been updated slightly and the contacts pager has been updated. On large-screen devices, you can work with bubbles for apps and there is a new Eyedropper API to request a colour. Apart from that, the update also gets a large number of improvements in terms of bug fixes. We list those for you below.

Bug fixes

• A platform stability regression in Android 16 that caused active apps to unexpectedly restart or refresh, preventing lost user progress and intermittent UI flickering during app usage. (Issue #440017096)
• A UI layout regression in the Recent Apps screen for users with German-language settings. (Issue #476830557,__Issue #486511401)
• Improved video streaming reliability by enabling developers to confirm temporal layering support via getOutputFormat after encoder configuration to address missing frame dependency metadata. (Issue #306222291)
• A bug where the Clock screensaver omitted the leading zero in 24-hour format during low-light mode (Issue #444255729).
• An issue where closing a folder blocked immediate subsequent interactions like opening another folder or switching screens (Issue #470541347,_Issue #471533397,__Issue #477848604)._
• A system crash and spontaneous reboot issue that interrupted device usage. (Issue #413562426)
• A critical system instability causing device freezes and reboots during app transitions or service calls. (Issue #419070024,Issue #428572458,__Issue #430393241,Issue #424912278,__Issue #431440391,__Issue #426346396)
• A System UI deadlock that caused lock screen unresponsiveness and display hangs after disconnecting from Android Auto (Issue #457527675).
• A UI typo in the system location permission disclosure dialog where the Back button was incorrectly displayed as 'Bac'. (Issue #460242870,__Issue #477245738)
• An issue where Live Translate and Rules were incorrectly categorised in the System menu. (Issue #476754995)
• A critical System UI crash and subsequent device instability triggered by repeated navigation into Display and Touch settings. (Issue #474486679)
• A persistent crash that prevented users from opening Wallpaper & style settings from the home screen. (Issue #478520173)
• A UI layout issue in the Wireless Debugging QR scanner where the back arrow overlapped the QR icon. (Issue #474769647)
• An issue in the Sound settings where ringtone previews failed to play upon selection. (Issue #355086959,Issue #375840924,__Issue #381007949,Issue #381077928,Issue #419301121,__Issue #452646483,Issue #468837747)
• Fixed a bug that caused redundant notifications to appear following a system update by improving the notification service logic to correctly clear stale alerts during the post-update initialisation process. (Issue #454647834)
• A GPU shader compiler optimisation bug on Pixel 6 Pro that caused specific GLSL mathematical expressions to evaluate incorrectly as constants, resulting in visual rendering artifacts in apps. (Issue #473226715)