You may be able to ditch some Quick Settings tiles in Android 16

Android’s ‘Quick Settings’ could use a name change—because, with so many tiles and icons, finding what you need is anything but quick. Maybe Google caught onto the irony because, in Android 16, you can quickly and easily remove the Quick Settings tiles you don’t need.

Removing Quick Settings tiles

The Telegram channel Mystic Leaks reports that the latest Android 16 beta introduces a change to Quick Settings. Tapping the edit button in Quick Settings now lets users remove unwanted tiles. This will help clean up the interface considerably and allow users to choose what they want or do not want to see in the Quick Settings interface.

Before this, removing tiles from the Quick Settings UI was fiddly. These are just some of the changes Google is working on to Android’s UI. This is just one of several UI tweaks Google is making to Quick Settings.

At the start of the year, we came across a report that hinted that Google could go back to an older design for Quick Settings. Instead of creating floating panels that overlay Quick Settings, tapping on the tiles will expand and fill up the panel. Whether this change is an improvement comes down to personal preference. Perhaps Google realized the original design worked better and is bringing it back.

Taking cues from others

The Android ecosystem is kind of a weird one. You’d think Google, the developer behind Android, would always know what works—but that’s not always the case. That isn’t always the case. Samsung has let users remove Quick Settings tiles easily for years. It uses a method nearly identical to the one leaked for Android 16. It’s surprising that Google is only now catching up.

But don’t get too attached. Google has a habit of testing features in beta only to remove them before the final release. This has been known to happen, where Google introduces new Android features in the Developer Preview or Beta but then removes them for the public release.

If you’re hoping for a truly quick way to manage Quick Settings, let’s just hope Google doesn’t scrap this feature before Android 16’s launch.