7 of the best Android 17 features available now — from Bubbles to Screen Reactions

Android 17 is rolling out now

Initially, it's only available for Pixel phones

New features include Screen Reactions, Bubbles, a foldable gaming mode, and more

Following months of betas, Android 17 is finally available in finished form — though initially only to Google Pixel phones, with devices from other brands set to get it throughout 2026, as manufacturers put their own spin on the software.

But if you have a Google Pixel 6 or newer, you can grab Android 17 now (or at least soon, if it hasn’t yet been pushed to your phone).

Sadly, what you won’t get right now is Gemini Intelligence or most of the other related AI stuff announced at the recent Android Show, with Google saying these features will launch “later this summer”.

But there’s still a lot to get stuck into, from Screen Reactions to multitasking bubbles and beyond. Below, we’ve detailed the seven best new features you’ll find in the Android 17 update.

1. Multitasking bubbles

If you like having multiple windows open at once, then you’ll probably appreciate Android 17’s new ‘Bubbles’ feature, which lets you turn any app into a floating bubble that stays on top of other apps.

This is probably most useful on large-screen devices like foldable phones and tablets — which even get a dedicated ‘Bubble bar’ at the bottom of the screen for quickly resizing and switching between apps — but it works with standard phones too, and with every app.

2. Screen Reactions

Screen Reactions is a feature that Google has already heavily advertised, but it’s available now in finished form.

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This lets you capture your phone’s screen and record yourself with the front-facing camera simultaneously, with the video from the selfie camera appearing in a small window on top of the screen recording.

This makes it easy to record reaction videos or tutorials without having to use multiple apps or a green screen.

3. Android Parental Controls for all devices

Android Parental Controls rolled out last year for Pixel phones, but now they’re expanding to all Android 17 devices.

Since Pixels are the only phones getting Android 17 currently, this won’t actually be a new feature for anyone yet, but once other brands roll out Android 17, it will be.

With these new controls, parents will be able to set screen time limits, downtime schedules, control usage of specific apps, and set up app store filters to limit what children can download.

4. Foldable gaming mode

If you’re a gamer with a foldable phone, then Android 17 has exactly the tool you’ve probably been waiting for, as Google has developed an “optimized 50/50 layout” that lets you use your phone like a Nintendo DS, with a view of the game itself on the top screen and a dynamic gamepad below. With this new mode enabled, there are no buttons obscuring your view of the game.

That said, Google says this feature will be “available in the coming months”, so even though it’s part of Android 17, you won’t be able to access it yet (this is the last not-yet-available feature in our list — we promise!).

5. Contact Picker

Contact Picker is a small but potentially very useful new feature that lets you choose to just share specific contacts with apps.

Previously, if an app needed access to a contact, you’d have to give it access to all of your contacts, which, from a privacy perspective, is far from ideal, so now you can be selective.

This is one of several new privacy and security features in Android 17, with others including the ability to grant apps temporary access to your precise location and improvements to Live Threat Detection, so your phone can block more scams and suspicious apps.

6. Continue On

With Continue On, you can start a task — such as editing a document or composing a message — on one device and seamlessly continue it on another, similarly to how Apple’s Handoff feature works.

Initially, this only works between phones and tablets, but Google has plans to extend it to the web, so you’ll be able to continue using apps on larger devices too.

It also requires developers to implement the feature, so it won’t work at all for every app, but it could be very useful where it is supported.

7. Hide app labels

Another small feature, but one that could drastically change the look of your home screens, is the option now to hide app labels, so there’s less text on the screen, potentially making it look less cluttered.

Of course, the downside is you’ll need to be able to recognize apps from their icons, or just be left guessing which app is which, but for some people this feature could be a big deal.

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James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.