GoKawiilRita El Khoury / Android Authority
TL;DR Android 17 Beta 4 makes internal reference to an in-development notification tool called Pixel Glow.
Pixel Glow uses “subtle light and color” when your phone is face-down to let you know when things happen.
Requirements for hardware lights might mean that Google’s adding RGB LEDs to upcoming Pixel devices.
Android 17 Beta 4 just landed, bringing us closer than ever to Google’s upcoming stable release. At this late stage, we’re not seeing Google make a ton of user-facing changes — but that doesn’t mean that progress hasn’t been moving swiftly along under the hood. As we dive deeper into the new build, we’ve managed to surface a small mystery that might just hint at a big hardware change for the Pixel 11 series.
Back in Android 17 Beta 2, we first identified development efforts towards a feature for “Light animations.” At the time we weren’t very sure what Google was doing here, and didn’t have many details outside a reference to something called “Orbit,” which felt like a possible codename. But now in Beta 4, the picture is finally starting to come together.
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For starters, we’re finding a new name attached to it. Instead of “Light animations,” Google now calls this Pixel Glow. But much more than just getting that new name, we’re also seeing some text that starts illuminating (no pun intended) exactly what this feature does. First up, we’ve got this screen:
AssembleDebug / Android Authority
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