Android 16 Could Let Apps Stuff Your Settings Menu — Just Like IOS

The Settings app on any phone is pretty important. It’s where you go to make your phone, truly yours. And over the years, that app has gotten pretty bloated, no matter what platform you’re on. And well, Android’s might just get even more bloated.

Android Authority found a new API inside the latest Android 16 beta called SettingsPreferenceService. This is going to allow apps to add their preferences to the Android Settings app. This would make the Android Settings app similar to the iOS Settings app. For those unaware, any app on iOS that has settings or preferences are shown in the Settings app. Though some do have their settings in the app themself.

This could make the already fairly bloated Settings app on Android even more bloating. But then again, on the flip side, it would make it easier to find the app you want to change settings for. Instead of hunting for it in the app itself.

This feature is unlikely to be adopted by developers

While this might sound cool, it’s unlikely that this feature would be widely adopted. In fact, it’s not even widely adopted on iOS. Most of the apps that have their settings in the iOS Settings app are actually first-party apps. While many others are listed in the Settings app, with no real settings worth changing.

APIs are final for Android 16 now, and the update is expected to roll out to everyone in June. So this API is likely here to stay, though it’s unlikely to be used. Google may not even talk about it, in its Developers’ blog post.

Android 16 is expected to be pushed to AOSP on June 3, with the update hitting Pixel devices shortly after that. That would be just about two weeks after Google I/O takes place. Though we’re not expecting to hear much about Android 16 at Google I/O, we expect it to be mostly about AI.