Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google’s Phone app could soon get a redesigned Settings menu that resembles the new Settings home page UI expected to roll out with Android 16.
- The updated design adds a background to menu items within each header, which should improve visibility.
- The background is split into rectangular sections for each menu item, making their touch targets more obvious.
Google is prepping a Settings page redesign for its Phone app that resembles the new segmented Settings menu UI expected to roll out with Android 16. We’ve managed to enable the updated design in the latest Phone app beta release to give you an early look.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
The Android 15 Beta 3 update included evidence pointing towards a redesigned Settings home page that was removed from subsequent releases. Google enabled it with the Android 15 QPR1 Beta 2 release, suggesting it could reach users with the Android 16 update.
Redesigned Settings home page in Android 15 QPR1 Beta 2
This redesigned Settings home page grouped similar menu items for easy access and added backgrounds to each group for improved visibility. Google now seems to be prepping a similar layout, codenamed aurora preference, for the Phone app’s settings.
As you can see in the attached screenshots, the redesigned Phone app settings menu adds a background to menu items listed within each header. The background is split into rectangular sections for each menu item, making the touch targets more obvious.
When using the light theme, the settings page has a light gray background with the menu items getting a white background. Meanwhile, in dark mode, the settings page has a dark gray background and a black background for menu items. The new design appears to support wallpaper-based theming, changing the color of the background and other UI elements based on the current wallpaper.
This new design is not live in the latest Phone app beta build and will likely roll out with a future update. Given that Android’s Settings page is expected to get the segmented redesign in Android 16, Google might release the updated settings menu for the Phone app with the platform upgrade.
Other Google apps could get the same treatment in the months leading up to the Android 16 rollout. We’ll keep an eye out for further developments and update this post as soon as we have more details.
