Android 17 Beta 2 rolls out to Pixel devices

Google has been doing a lot of great things with Android over the past couple of years, so we’re excited to see what’s next with Android 17. And while we still have some months to go before we get an official release, with an expected arrival date sometime this summer, Google has already started the rollout of its latest Android 17 update with Beta 1, which arrived just a couple of weeks ago.

Despite a small hiccup, Beta 1 came and went, and we’re now seeing Beta 2 arrive for supported Pixel phones. As you can imagine, there are plenty of fixes packed into this release. With that said, you can download Beta 2 if you’re part of the Android Beta Program.

Betas are coming fast

From the looks of it, the update comes in at around 500MB, and is quite snappy according to folks who have already downloaded it. With that said, you’re probably more interested in what the new features are available in the beta. According to Google, Beta 2 features:

User Experience & System UI

• Bubbles: Users can now bubble any app by long-pressing launcher icons. On large screens, a new bubble bar in the taskbar manages organized and anchored bubbles. Apps should follow multi-window guidelines.
• EyeDropper API: A new system API allows apps to capture pixel colors from anywhere on the display without requiring screen capture permissions.
• Contacts Picker: The ACTION_PICK_CONTACTS intent provides a system-level picker. It grants temporary, session-based access to specific fields, reducing the need for full READ_CONTACTS permissions.
• Touchpad Pointer Capture: By default, captured touchpads now behave like mice, reporting relative movement and gestures instead of raw finger coordinates. Legacy absolute mode remains available via POINTER_CAPTURE_MODE_ABSOLUTE.
• Interactive Chooser: Apps can use getInitialRestingBounds on a ChooserSession to identify the final UI position of the Chooser for better layout adjustments.

Connectivity & Cross-Device

• Cross-device Handoff: The new Handoff API enables state resumption across devices (e.g., phone to tablet) via CompanionDeviceManager.
• Advanced Ranging:
  • UWB DL-TDOA: Supports FiRA 4.0 for privacy-preserving indoor navigation.
  • Proximity Detection: Implements WiFi Alliance specs for improved WiFi-based ranging.
• Data Plan Enhancements: Apps can query carrier-allocated downlink/uplink max rates for streaming using getStreamingAppMaxDownlinkKbps and getStreamingAppMaxUplinkKbps.

Core Functionality, Privacy & Performance

• Local Network Access: Android 17 introduces the ACCESS_LOCAL_NETWORK permission (part of the NEARBY_DEVICES group) to protect LAN communication.
• Time Zone Broadcast: A new intent, ACTION_TIMEZONE_OFFSET_CHANGED, triggers specifically on offset changes like DST transitions.
• NPU Management: Apps targeting Android 17 must declare the FEATURE_NEURAL_PROCESSING_UNIT hardware feature to directly access the NPU.
• ICU 78: Updated internationalization libraries support Unicode 17.
• SMS OTP Protection: To prevent hijacking, Android 17 delays programmatic access to OTP messages by three hours for most apps. Developers should transition to SMS Retriever or SMS User Consent APIs.

Bubbles is going to be a huge addition here, allowing users to create separate instances using any app. With foldable phones and larger screen devices becoming the norm, being able to break out apps for better multitasking is a big upgrade. We talked a bit about this when Android 17 Beta 1 was first released, and this new change could really pave the way for future devices. In addition to the above, Beta 2 also features a lot of 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 categorized 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)
• 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 initialization process. (Issue #454647834)
• A GPU shader compiler optimization 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)

If you’re someone who likes to get the latest features and experiment, we recommend updating to Android 17 Beta 2. So long as you have a modern Pixel phone, it’s as easy as joining the Beta Program and downloading the latest update.

If you don’t like it, you can always opt out and revert to the stable version of Android. However, you will want to be careful. If you’re not timing things right, like opting out when a stable version is available, you could wipe your device. So, always back up your information to ensure you won’t lose anything.