Yes, Android 16 Beta 4 Tweaked The Pixel's Status Bar Clock

In addition to Dynamic Color for some of the always-on display (AOD) clocks, Android 16 Beta 4 tweaks the time in the status bar.

The font has changed, with most numbers — 1 and 2 — wider than before. However, the 0 is slightly narrower to my eye. (The screenshots below are from a pair of Pixel 9 units.)

Additionally, spacing has been tweaked with a larger gap between the 1 and 2. As of this release, Google has not modified the font/spacing for the battery percentage at the right. There are no other changes to the status bar icons.

Overall, everything looks just a bit wider in a change that you’ll definitely notice after updating, but the difference eventually recedes.

It remains to be seen whether this clock change will make its way to the stable Android 16 release in June. This is presumably a modernization push on Google’s part.

Overall, Android 16 Beta 4 has been pretty stable. Following the Thursday launch, I installed it on my daily driver (Pixel 9a — to get 15 QPR2 features like Modes, the removal of the globe icon when the keyboard is open, etc.) and have not noticed any issues. It’s a pretty good time to join the beta, with Beta 4.1 presumably coming in May to deliver the latest monthly security patch and other bug fixes, like for lockscreen shortcuts on some devices.