You still can’t turn it off, though.
You still can’t turn it off, though.
Screenshot: The Verge / Android
Dominic Preston is a news editor with over a decade’s experience in journalism. He previously worked at Android Police and Tech Advisor.
Google’s new Material 3 Expressive design language includes a welcome surprise for Pixel owners: the mandatory At a Glance home screen widget has shrunk, leaving space for an extra row of apps.
The new look is included in the latest version of the Android 16 beta. Upon installation, Pixel owners are greeted with a pop-up message on the home screen:
Enjoy more space for apps
Good news! Your home screen has a new layout, which means there’s space for more apps & widgets
The new design both shrinks the At a Glance widget and removes some of the dead space between the other rows, compressing the entire screen. It leaves room for a full extra row of apps below the redesigned widget.
Material 3 Expressive is a colorful, bouncy new aesthetic for Android that Google unveiled last week. It was made available in the new Android 16 beta yesterday, and should roll out widely later this year, after the OS update launches in full next month.
