Android 15 is here and will be available for Pixel 9 phones in the “coming weeks” We have a good sense of the new features coming with the update, but there are a few things we don't know yet, including changes to notifications and the status bar

Mishaal Rahman of Android Authority has been digging through the code in recent weeks and has unearthed code that may change the way notifications appear on your phone He discovered last week an experimental way to use the quick settings menu with notifications

The experiment discovered by Lerman swaps the main icon of the app with the icon of the app offering that you are normally accustomed to seeing In another version, he replaces them with monochrome icons or, if available, with themed icons

According to what he has found, the current icon fits more aesthetically with the other icons in the status bar However, the version with the main icon seems to draw more attention and allows the user to quickly see what has come in at a glance In the monochrome variant, some icons are black or dark gray and almost unreadable

According to Rahman, these icon variants are also visible in the always-on display when the phone is locked The main difference there, however, is that the main app icon variations appear in black and white instead of color as in the status bar version; some icons, such as Gmail, are harder to read at a glance, whereas the standard icons are much easier to read

Additionally, the icon change appears to apply to the notification shelf, where you can see a small preview of the message you have received

From an aesthetic standpoint, the regular notifications still look much cleaner and pleasing to the eye However, it is easier to see which app is pushing notifications, especially in the main icon variation

Of the three icon notifications available, the standard is still the strongest, with the odd monochrome variant almost unreadable However, the icon version of the main app is interesting and appears to make the notification clearer I think readability depends on the app

For now, these icon changes appear to be merely an experiment However, Google appears to be testing various changes regarding notifications, which could change the way we interact with devices in the future

These code teardowns are the usual, but what we are seeing is a glimpse of the ideas Google is working on They may create features that we will see in the future, or they may be experiments that go nowhere and never see the light of day Or it could be that Google changes the way it implements what we see and the final version changes from what is currently available