- Android 17 QPR1 beta 4 is now available
- This includes the Screen Reactions feature that Google recently announced.
- Beyond that, it mostly contains bug fixes.
Android 17 QPR1 beta 4 has started rolling out, and while it’s not as feature-rich as the previous beta, it includes a major addition, along with numerous bug fixes.
The feature in question is Screen Reactions, a new tool that was introduced at the Android Show that allows you to record yourself and your phone’s screen at the same time.
It’ll turn on your selfie camera and record you in a moving, resizable window on top of whatever’s on your screen, so it’s a really convenient way to record reaction videos without having to manually combine two pieces of footage.
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But even if reaction videos aren’t your thing, this beta is still worth trying out as it also fixes several bugs, such as one that would cause the mouse pointer to become invisible on external displays, one that causes the Settings app to crash, one that causes recording with the 5x camera to show frame skips and jitter, and one that causes “severe drops in 3D performance,” among others.
Of course, these are fixes for issues from the previous beta, so if you’re not already running an Android 17 beta, you may be introducing more bugs by downloading it, rather than fixing any, but you’ll also get new features, like the one above.
If you want to get this beta, you’ll need a Google Pixel 6a or newer; The standard Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are currently not eligible for it, although they can get earlier beta versions of Android 17.
But unless you have a spare phone to install it on, we recommend waiting for the final version, which will surely be more stable and will probably arrive very soon, maybe even this month.
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