Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
I don’t know about you, but on any given week, I manually check for new Google Play System updates, new betas, new monthly patches, or new QPRs at least a few times. But dropping down the notifications shade or opening the app drawer to tap Settings, scrolling down, finding System, and then the Software updates section gets tedious and annoying time after time.
This is especially true when a hot new Android 17 beta is supposedly being released right away, and I have to keep checking for the OTA every few minutes to see if it’s available — well, uh, before Google pulls the rug and tells us the beta will be a bit delayed. But I digress. The point is: I wanted a faster shortcut to get to updates, and I found two tricks to get it.
How often do you check for new updates on your phone? 0 votes Once a day. (More, if I know an update is coming soon.) NaN % Once a week. NaN % Once every few weeks. NaN % Every few months. NaN % I don't check for updates, I just wait for the notification. NaN %
The easy way: Use the Settings widget The most obvious solution to my update mania came to me yesterday. I remembered that Android has had, since time immemorial, a Settings widget that lets you transform different settings sub-menus into shortcuts. Thankfully, this widget is still there in Android 16, and it still does the job. So, here’s what I did: Add a new home screen widget.
Pick the Settings widget and drop it on my home screen.
widget and drop it on my home screen. A menu pops up with a choice to make between all the available settings menus.
Scroll down, find System, and choose it.
Done. This transforms the new widget icon into a direct shortcut to the System settings menu, where I can easily pick Software updates. I know it sounds silly, and maybe I’m in the minority here, but this saves me a couple of taps and swipes each time I want to check for a new update, and I absolutely love anything that can save me the teeniest amount of time. When your job revolves around checking for and downloading updates on multiple phones, it’s also a crucial productivity hack.
Create a direct shortcut to Software updates The solution above has one tiny flaw: It only opens the System settings menu and still requires me to tap once to get to the actual software updates section. And as I said, I love anything that can save me time, so I decided to check if Android surfaces an “activity” for that section. Yes, it did.
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