Android 16’s new Pockets shortcut is lacking on some Pixels, and Google received’t say why

Whereas Android 16 is gentle on new user-facing options, it delivers a number of genuinely helpful additions for Pixel homeowners. Now you can double-press the facility button to open Google Pockets (or your default pockets app), making it faster to modify your energetic bank card or transit go on the go. It is a easy quality-of-life enchancment for frequent Google Pockets customers, however unusually, Google has restricted the function to newer Pixels solely.

On my Pixel 8 Professional working Android 16 QPR2 Beta 1, a “Double press energy button” web page beneath Settings > System > Gestures lets me select between launching the Pixel Digicam app and Google Pockets. On my Pixel 7 Professional working the identical software program model, nevertheless, this web page is absent. As an alternative, it solely has the older “Rapidly open digicam” web page, with a easy toggle for the digicam shortcut.

This doesn’t seem like remoted to my Pixel 7 Professional. My colleague, Hadlee Simons, can also be lacking the shortcut on his machine, as are a number of customers on Reddit and Telegram. When Hadlee reached out to Google, a spokesperson mentioned the “new Pockets shortcut expertise” is rolling out “within the coming weeks to Pixel 8 telephones and up with Android 16 outdoors of India and Russia.” Whereas the response didn’t clarify why the function is lacking on the Pixel 7 Professional, it did affirm that it’s unique to the Pixel 8 and newer gadgets.

As for the odd timing talked about in Google’s assertion — telling us a function is rolling out “within the coming weeks” when it’s been reside in Android 16 for months — it’s as a result of the corporate was referring to the new Pockets shortcut UI that was noticed final week. Curiously, this new UI received’t be obtainable in India or Russia, although the shortcut itself capabilities there. We are able to solely speculate on the explanations, however they might vary from market-specific selections in India to ongoing points with Google companies in Russia.

Whereas Google’s assertion confirmed the omission on older Pixels isn’t a bug, it didn’t rule out a technical limitation. Nonetheless, my very own investigation suggests there isn’t one. The open-source model of Android, AOSP, doesn’t cover the Pockets shortcut by default. Google deliberately disabled it on older Pixels by altering a configuration worth (config_doubleTapPowerGestureMode) to limit the double-press gesture to the digicam app solely.

Once I manually overrode this worth on my Pixel 7 Professional, the Pockets shortcut instantly grew to become obtainable and labored flawlessly in my testing. In spite of everything, if the {hardware} can deal with launching the digicam with a double-press, why not the Pockets app? We are able to’t consider any good technical cause for this limitation, and since Google didn’t present one, your guess is pretty much as good as ours.