What’s New in Android Q Beta 5?

Android Q Beta 5 brings us so close to a stable build of Android Q that we’re compiling yet another list of changes. You would think that Google wouldn’t be changing much at this point, but there are already a handful of changes worth noting.

We’ll keep updating this post, so check back! This is what’s new in Android Q Beta 5.

Gestures get corner swipes for Google Assistant

With full gestures in full effect, Google had to get tricky with ways to activate Google Assistant, now that there isn’t a home button to long press on. To give users access in Android Q to Assistant at all times, Google put in place a corner swipe that fires it up. You can see the little handles in each corner in the image above that highlight the areas you need to swipe from.

To perform an Assistant corner swipe, you simply swipe from either corner into the middle of your phone. It works pretty well and could be a fine replacement for the home button long press, once you get used to them. These work from any screen.

Dark boot animation with dark theme active!

The Android boot animation with Google logo and “Powered by Android” text has been a bright white for as long as I can remember. It’s an awful thing to see in a dark room that you’d like to stay dark. In the latest Android Q Beta 5, an optional dark or black version has been introduced!

To trigger it, you’ll need to enable the system dark theme. With that enabled, a reboot should show you the darker boot animation you are seeing above.

Google Search bar theme follows wallpapers, not system theme

3 XL (Q Beta 5) vs. 3 (Q Beta 4)

This could be a Google app thing and not Android Q Beta 5, but right now, the Google Search bar in the Pixel Launcher is listening to your wallpaper to decide to be light or dark rather than the system dark theme toggle. As you can see in the image above, I have the light theme activated, but the Pixel 3 XL on Beta 5 has a dark Search bar. The opposite is the case on the Pixel 3 with Beta 4, even though they have the same wallpaper.

3rd party launcher situation with gestures is a mess

We’ve got more details here, but you probably shouldn’t use a 3rd party launcher with Android Q Beta 5. The gestures will turn off and I also ran into 3-button setup issues too.

Notification snoozing is gone? (Updated: New Toggle!)

Please, Google, bring this back immediately.

• UPDATE: Actually, Google just added a toggle within notification settings to “Allow notification snoozing.” OK, then.

Another change to notification controls

3 XL (Q Beta 5) vs. 3 (Q Beta 4)

I feel like this is the third beta in a row that Google has changed this, but when you long-press on a notification to adjust its settings, the new options are “Alerting” and “Silent.” In Beta 4, they had changed to “Prioritized” and “Gentle.” This new version makes a lot more sense than the previous two choices.

We’re updating, dammit!