7 best Android 17 upgrades announced at The Android Show from 3D emojis to Screen Reactions

Date:
Tue, 12 May 2026 17:00:00 +0000

Description:
The Android Show 2026 contained numerous major Android 17 announcements
these are the seven biggest upcoming features.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Google s pre-I/O Android Show for 2026 has now concluded, and it was packed full of announcements surrounding new features and upgrades to existing Android tools.

Many of these upgrades are related to AI, as you might expect, but we also
saw Google announce new emojis, improvements to Android security, and a whole lot more. So, below, weve rounded up seven of the biggest and best Android 17 upgrades that were announced at The Android Show. Latest Videos From You may like 5 features to get excited about in Android 17 Google to host 'The
Android Show' on May 12 ahead of I/O Google's Android Show: start times and expected Android 17 updates 1. Gemini Intelligence (Image credit: Google) Gemini Intelligence is perhaps the biggest single announcement we saw at The Android Show it's essentially an upgrade to Gemini that makes it a lot more capable and more of an agentic AI.

With this upgrade, Gemini can seamlessly move between apps to carry out tasks for you, with minimal oversight on your part. One example given was long-pressing the power button when a grocery list is visible on your phone, and then asking Gemini to build a shopping cart with all those items for delivery.

Another was taking a photo of a travel brochure and asking it to find a similar trip for six people on Expedia. You can then track Geminis progress with the task via notifications.

Plus, Gemini Intelligence also allows you to build custom widgets with a new Create My Widget feature. You could, for example, ask it to suggest a new vegetarian meal recipe every day, and it will then create a resizable home screen widget for that specific request. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

These tools will be rolling out from this summer, starting with the latest Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy phones . For the full list of features, check out our dedicated Gemini Intelligence features roundup. 2. Rambler (Image credit: Google) Using speech-to-text can massively speed up your
communication in messaging apps, but its not perfect in its current state. In recent years, it has generally gotten better at understanding what youre saying, but presenting an exact one-to-one version of your speech in text means youll probably see various uhms and ahs or repeated statements, as
tends to happen in speech where youre thinking about what youre saying as you say it.

But Googles new Rambler feature (which technically falls under the aforementioned Google Intelligence umbrella) will simply identify and extract the important parts of what youve said, and translate them into a clear and concise message. What to read next Android 17 beta 1 is here, with some big changes and small surprises Android Show 2026 live all the big news on Android 17 and more The 6 best Google Pixel 10 upgrades coming in the next Pixel Drop update

For the multilingual among you, Rambler can also handle seamless switches between languages in a single message, and it doesnt store or save the
message data, so you shouldnt need to worry about privacy. 3. Gemini in
Chrome (Image credit: Google) Geminis Chrome implementation is also getting smarter and more agentic, as starting in late June, it will have an auto browse feature that can do things like book appointments or reserve parking spots for you via Chrome. This isnt a totally new feature, but it is new to Android.

Gemini in Chrome is also getting better at providing contextual assistance,
as it will be able to provide responses that are tailored to your hobbies, interests, and life (assuming you opt into Personal Intelligence).

And it can work beyond Chrome by, for example, adding things to your
calendar, searching your Gmail, or adding to-do lists to Keep.

Plus, there will soon be Nano Banana integration, allowing you to create new images and customize ones youve found online directly in Chrome. 4. 3D emojis Emojis are also getting an upgrade, as Google has announced a new range of 3D emojis, dubbed Noto 3D.

Google claims these icons will add more physicality to your online communication, so your feelings still have weight even when expressed through messages.

Those are some lofty claims, but if nothing else, its always nice to have
some new emojis to choose from, and these new ones will be landing later this year, starting with Pixel phones. 5. Pause Point (Image credit: Google) Pause Point is a new tool designed to help you spend less time on your phone or at least, less time scrolling apps that are more addictive than additive.

It does this by letting you choose which apps you want it to be enabled for, and then presenting you with a 10-second pause before you can access one of those apps. During this time, it will give you the option to do a breathing exercise, set a timer to limit how long you spend in the app, look at some of your favorite photos, or switch to an alternative suggested app one that you perhaps consider more worthy of your time.

Plus, Pause Point requires you to restart your phone to turn it off, so youre less likely to disable it in a moment of weakness. 6. New creator tools
(Image credit: Google / Meta) Google is also introducing new ways to create and share with Android 17. These include Screen Reactions, which make it a breeze to record both yourself and your screen at the same time.

There are also improvements to how your photos and videos look on Instagram when using an Android phone, with Google working with Meta to enable ultra
HDR capture and playback, built-in video stabilization, and improved low
light performance.

Plus, Google and Meta are rolling out some Android-exclusive tools for Instagrams Edits app. These include smart enhance, which uses on-device AI to upscale your photos and videos with a single tap, and sound separation, meaning that the Edits app can automatically identify and separate audio tracks, so you can more easily boost the sounds you want and reduce or remove those that you dont. 7. Major security upgrades (Image credit: Google) Finally, as far as the big updates go, there is a wealth of security upgrades coming to Android. These include a new spoofing protection feature, which
will automatically end calls that are coming from a spoofed number.

Google is doing this by partnering with select banks and financial institutions, and then asking that institutions app (if its installed on your phone) whether a call that appears to be coming from them really is. If the app says its not, then the call is automatically terminated.

This isnt an Android 17 feature, per se in fact, it will be rolling out to phones on Android 11 onwards in the coming weeks, but initially it only works with Revolut, Ita, and Nubank, though Google has promised more banks will be added later this year.

Google is also upgrading Live Threat Detection an existing feature that alerts you to suspicious apps on your device by expanding the types of behavior that it considers suspicious and alerts you to. Its also gaining dynamic signal monitoring, which will help it more immediately spot
suspicious app behaviors, so your device will never be at risk for long.

Plus, Android 17 will allow you to lock a lost phone with biometric authentication meaning even if someone has both stolen it and somehow knows your password or PIN, they still wont be able to unlock it. Today's best Android phone deals Contract Deals Sim Free Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 (White) Samsung Galaxy S26 36 months Unlimited mins Unlimited texts 1GB data 40 upfront 45.50 /mth View at Vodafone Ltd See all prices gift Samsung Galaxy
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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/phones/android/7-best-android-17-upgrades-announced- at-the-android-show-from-3d-emojis-to-screen-reactions


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