Android 16 adds AI-powered weather effects that can make it rain on your photos

is a weekend editor who covers the latest in tech and entertainment. He has written news, reviews, and more as a tech journalist since 2020. Google’s latest Android 16 beta adds a bunch of new wallpaper and lock screen options for Pixel phones, including live-updating weather animations and a feature that automatically frames subjects of photos within a variety of bubbly shapes. When you select an image to use as a wallpaper in the beta, you can tap the sparkly collection of starbursts that has become the de facto symbol for AI features to access the new effects. One of them, “Shape,” washes your screen in a solid color, with a punchout frame in the middle centered on the subject of your photo, be it a person, animal, or object. You can choose from five different shape options: a slanted oval, rounded rectangle, an arched opening, a flowery shape, and a hexagon. It’s a little like the iOS “Depth Effect” feature that partially obscures the clock on your lock screen with a person’s hea ... Read full article.