We’re just abuzz with excitement
Over the last couple of weeks, we got a chance to try out everything new in Android 13’s first beta. For the most part, it feels like an upgrade built to improve on Android 12’s total overhaul, while also rolling back a couple of controversial moves made by Android 12 last year. One of those changes brings the vibration icon back to your status bar, and with the latest QPR3 beta, you can check it out right now.
Currently, phones running Android 12 only display an icon for when the device is set to silent, changing how the OS has worked for most of its existence. In earlier versions, Android would show icons for silent and vibrate modes — only when the ringer was enabled would the status bar no longer show a corresponding status icon.
As spotted by Mishaal Rahman at Esper.io, Android 13’s first beta contained code hinting that Google was bringing back the vibration symbol, this time with a bundled toggle to allow users to turn it on or off at will. Although it wasn’t active, the release of last week’s Android 12 QPR3 Beta 3 for Pixels means we don’t have to wait to try it out — or, likely, have to wait for the release of Android 13’s table build at all. The new setting, “Always show icon when in vibrate mode,” is located in the Sounds & vibration menu.
Chalk this up as another confusing element of Google’s current beta strategy for Android — should we consider this an Android 13 feature, where Rahman first spotted underlying code, or an Android 12 feature once it hits stable builds? Either way, it’s clear the vibrate icon is set up for a comeback later this year. If you’re running QPR3 Beta 3, you can enable it right now. Android 13 users will have to wait for a future beta release.
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