5 Underrated Android 17 Features You May Have Missed

To quote Google, “Android 17 is here.” It’s available on most Pixel devices and will roll out to other smartphones in the coming months, which means some people have already got their hands on the latest version with its latest feature improvements. The Android development team also claims that this new version marks the start of its transition to an “intelligence system”. Intelligent through deep integration established between hardware, software and AI to provide users with a more useful and contextual experience.

Google, of course, is making sure its Pixel phones receive Android 17, but a number of Samsung phones and OnePlus phone models are also getting the update. Soon everyone will also have access to the latest features. Some of these Android 17 features are so cool that people are asking Apple to add them to iOS 27. Android 17 may not bring features that radically change the Android landscape, but it does, especially with many of its underrated features that not enough people are talking about.

Modern smartphones have gradually become a better platform for multitasking, thanks in part to larger screens, more powerful hardware and better software optimizations. Android’s split-screen view lets you open multiple apps simultaneously on your device’s screen. If you’ve never used it, or rarely do, it’s a serious game changer. However, this usually concerns more active tasks like watching videos or referencing text. When you want to message someone, it’s quicker to switch to the associated app, activate your keyboard, and go. Android 17 makes this process even better and more user-friendly with Bubbles.

With the new bubbles feature, you can turn any app into a compact, floating window that sits on top of whatever you have open until you’re done with it. You can long-press app icons to convert them into a bubble, and each floats to the top until your attention is needed elsewhere. On larger screens, such as tablets, the bubbles are anchored in a dedicated bar at the bottom of the screen. This way you can quickly minimize, enlarge or resize windows. This feature will really come in handy when you’re navigating between apps and chat threads with your friends or family.

The Android team has made some improvements both under the hood and on top for the mobile gaming experience. For starters, they reportedly reduced frame drops and stutters in very demanding games by making “memory cleaning more efficient” during playback. This should bring some minor performance improvements to any games you’ve played recently. Android 17 also introduces a pretty new – and awesome – new gaming feature for foldable devices.

With foldable gaming mode, you can use the bottom screen or the bottom half as a 50/50 layout with a dynamic gamepad. You can also customize external controllers that you have synced using native controller remapping tools. Most of these features were possible before, but you needed a third-party app or service to make them happen. From now on, they will be part of the native Android system. Unfortunately, Android 17’s foldable gaming mode doesn’t appear to be available in the stable release yet, according to Android Authority, but Google says it will be accessible “in the coming months.”

Look, I’m not a fan of reaction videos and have a strong aversion to people talking or laughing over more interesting content. I’d rather just watch the original. There is no denying that these types of videos are popular and people love creating them. It’s a good thing the Android team disagrees with me, because they’ve come up with an easy way to bring these types of videos to your phone in the new update.

You no longer need to download the OG videos, record yourself watching, edit and re-upload – it’s really a lot of work. Instead, Android 17 lets you record both your phone’s screen and your reactions or comments from your device’s front camera, all at the same time. For recordings and annotations, you get a new toolbar and, of course, an improved workflow that doesn’t require managing or switching between multiple apps, saving a lot of time in pre- and post-production. I suspect this will make many emerging influencers excited.

Usually, when you use a text-to-speech service or tool, you have to make minor adjustments throughout your one-way conversations, and you may even have to go back and change some of the content that the system typed due to errors, misunderstandings, or otherwise. Running Android 17, and with Gboard, Google’s virtual keyboard, you can take full advantage of something called Rambler. What a name, right?

It does pretty much exactly what you’d expect and lets you wander around endlessly while the text-to-speech tool dictates and follows your instructions. But that’s it, it also contextually understands what you are asking or saying. You can ask it to remove an item you were adding to a shopping list, remove something you decided not to say, or format the text, such as in a bulleted list or adding emojis. This works in the same way that an AI tool might follow commands while allowing you to speak more naturally to issue those commands. It will also filter out “ums” and “ahs” and pause words. It’s also language-agnostic, so you can mix languages ​​as you speak.

Technically, Rambler is part of Gboard, but it’s part of the Android team’s goal to make the operating system smarter and more useful. I guess you’ve already heard or heard about Gemini intelligence taking over your Android phone, which is also a big part of this change. If you haven’t heard of it yet, you might want to take a closer look at some of the things it can do.

With Google’s Find My Device hub on Android, you can always check in on your connected devices, see their current location, and interact with them, like wiping the device remotely if that option is enabled. Android 17 also introduces some improvements to the overall experience if and when you misplace your phone or it’s stolen. You can now lock a missing phone with biometrics, that way even if the thief has your password, they can’t access the phone or your data, or disable tracking.

Additionally, for better security, the number of times someone can guess a PIN has been reduced with longer wait times between failed attempts. Further security improvements have been added via improved permissions controls, so you can specifically restrict apps that use precise location tracking and limit their access to your contact list. That said, the main feature for thwarting would-be thieves and keeping tabs on your misplaced phone will be most useful when you least expect it and is worth highlighting.