Android 17 Beta 2 Released for Pixel Devices!

Android 17 Beta 2 has been released for Pixel devices. You’ll find support for the build all the way back to the Pixel 6 lineup. Inside Beta 2, there are plenty of noteworthy things.

There’s a section in the changelog dedicated to User Experience and System UI. Google highlights Bubbles, which provide the ability to bubble “any app” by long-pressing launcher icons. The new EyeDropper API allows apps to capture pixel colors from anywhere on the display without the new for screen capture permissions, plus there is an absolute ton of bug fixes included in Beta 2.

• Release date: February 26, 2026
• Builds:
  • CP21.260206.011
  • CP21.260206.011.A1 (Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 6, Pixel 6a, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 7)
• Emulator support: x86 (64-bit), ARM (v8-A)
• Security patch level: 2026-02-05
• Google Play services: 25.49.33

Below you can view the entire changelog. Warning, it’s long. To get Android 17 Beta 2 up and running on your supported Pixel device, you’ll want to be enrolled in the Android Beta Program. You can find OTA files here and factory images here.

What’s New in Android 17 Beta 2

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.

Issues Fixed in Beta 2

• 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)
  

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// Android Developers