Android phones come with a handy tool to record what’s on your screen. Normally, this works great for the phone itself, but if you hook your phone up to a bigger screen—like a monitor—it’s been tricky to capture what’s happening there. The built-in recorder just didn’t support external displays. Good news, though: Android 16 is bringing a fix for that.

I tried this out by plugging my Pixel phone, running Android 16 Beta 3, into a monitor. When I opened the screen recorder, I spotted a new choice in the menu: “Capture HDMI Display.” It wasn’t there when I unplugged the monitor—then it just showed the usual “Record one app” or “Record phone screen” options.

This new “Capture HDMI Display” feature let me record whatever was on the monitor, not the phone’s own screen. The video saved just like a regular phone recording, though the file name included a little tag with the monitor’s ID. It’s a small difference, but it helps you know which screen you captured. Still, there are a couple of catches.

For one, this only works with Android’s own recorder. If I used a third-party app to mirror my screen or tried casting it with the Cast option, the “Capture HDMI Display” choice disappeared. That’s a bummer because some apps could really use this trick. I hope Google opens it up more later.

This ties into something Android 15 started—taking screenshots of external screens. Since that update, the phone saves a separate picture for each connected display, tagged with its ID. Google’s also cooking up a Desktop View mode, so letting apps record or share external screens could make that even better.

In short, Android 16’s new feature is a step forward. It’s not perfect yet—third-party apps can’t join in, and I couldn’t trigger tools like Gemini or Circle to Search on the monitor. But for anyone who uses a bigger screen with their phone, it’s a nice upgrade worth trying out.

Google recently launched the Android Auto 14.0 beta update, giving testers a sneak peek at what’s coming. While it doesn’t bring big changes you can see right away, the update hints at some handy features being built behind the scenes, like temperature controls and better alert settings.

Back in early March, we spotted clues in Android Auto 13.9—now available to everyone—that pointed to built-in temperature controls. The latest 14.0 beta keeps this going by adding options for front and rear defrost buttons. These aren’t active yet, but the code shows Google is working on it:

<string name=”control_defrost_front”>FRONT</string>

<string name=”control_defrost_rear”>REAR</string>

It’s still unclear how these will fit into the app, but they could make adjusting your car’s climate easier while driving. The update also hints at a new way to manage alerts from Google Maps in Android Auto. Specifically, it looks like you’ll soon be able to turn incident report notifications on or off. New code mentions an “Alerts” section in the settings, with a line saying:

<string name=”NAVIGATION_ALERT_SETTING”>Get alerts for reported incidents and other conditions that may impact your drive</string>

This could be Google’s fix for complaints about annoying pop-up alerts. People didn’t love how these notifications got in the way when they rolled out on Android Auto and CarPlay. A simple on/off switch might give drivers more control.

Android Auto 14.0 should hit the stable version soon—probably in a few weeks—reaching all users. Since there’s nothing major to notice right now, it seems Google is using this update to quietly fix bugs or set up bigger features for later. For now, beta testers get the first look at what’s cooking!

Google dropped a fresh Android 16 beta this week, and while it might not seem like much at first glance, there are some cool things brewing under the hood. Think custom app icon shapes, a redesigned notification area, and more!

So far, the early versions of Android 16 haven’t brought many obvious changes for users. There are small updates here and there, but nothing to get super excited about yet. However, digging deeper into Android 16 Beta 3, some big stuff is in progress.

One neat addition is notification summaries—little hints of this popped up in Beta 3’s code. Plus, Google seems to be giving the whole notification panel a makeover, as Android Authority noticed. The new design puts the time front and center at the top, styled like your lock screen clock.

There’s also a handy bar with buttons to clear all notifications, tweak settings, or check your notification history. It’s a big shift from what we have now, with a solid background behind everything. They’ve added new swipe moves too—swipe down from the top left for notifications, or from the top right for Quick Settings. No swipe to flip between them, though—just shortcut buttons at the top.

None of this is active yet, but it’s clear Google’s cooking up something big for Android. On top of that, there’s talk of bringing back custom app icon shapes for your home screen. Google had this feature years ago but dropped it in Android 12. Now, it looks like it’s making a comeback, pretty much the same as before.

Mystic Leaks on Telegram also hinted that Google might add shapes to the lock screen, like what Samsung’s One UI 7 or OxygenOS do. You might even get weather animations as an option. For now, these features aren’t live in Android 16 Beta 3, and we don’t know when they’ll show up. Google plans to roll out the final Android 16 around May or June, but that’s not the end. Android 16 QPR1 will bring lock screen widgets to more people, and another decent-sized update is set for later in 2025.