5 Underrated Android 17 Features You Might 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 folks already have their hands on the newest version with its latest feature improvements. The Android development team also says this newest release marks the start of its transition to an “intelligence system.” Intelligent because of a deep integration established between hardware, software, and AI to deliver a more helpful and contextually aware experience to users.

Google, of course, is making sure its Pixel phones are getting Android 17, but there are also a number of Samsung phones and OnePlus phone models receiving the update. Soon enough, everyone else will have their hands on the latest features, too. Some of those Android 17 features are so cool, people are asking Apple to add them to iOS 27. Android 17 might not bring features that are radically changing the Android landscape, but they are changing, especially with many of its underrated features that not enough people are talking about.

Modern smartphones have slowly become a better platform for multitasking, especially because of larger screens, more powerful hardware, and better software optimizations. Android’s split-screen view lets you open multiple apps simultaneously on your device’s display — if you’ve never used it, or rarely do, it’s seriously a game-changer. However, that’s usually for more active tasks like watching videos or referencing text. When you want to message someone, it’s faster to swipe over to the related app, engage your keyboard, and go. Android 17 is making this process even better and more multi-task-friendly with Bubbles.

Through the new bubbles feature, you can turn any app into a compact, floating window that rests above anything else you have open until you’re done with it. You can long-press app icons to convert them into a bubble, and each one floats at the top until your attention is needed elsewhere. On larger displays, such as tablets, the bubbles are docked in a dedicated bar at the bottom of the screen. That way, you can quickly minimize, maximize, or resize windows. This feature is really going to come in handy when you’re bouncing around between apps and message threads with 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’ve purportedly reduced frame drops and stutters in highly demanding games by making “memory cleanup more efficient” while playing. That should bring some minor performance improvements to any games you’ve been playing lately. Android 17 also introduces a pretty novel — and awesome — new gaming feature for foldable devices.

With the foldable gaming mode, you can use the bottom screen or bottom half as a 50/50 layout with a dynamic gamepad. You can also customize external controllers 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. Now, they’ll 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, per Android Authority, but Google says it will be accessible “in the coming months.”

Look, I’m no fan of reaction videos, and I have a strong aversion to people talking or laughing over more interesting content. I’d rather just watch the original. There’s no denying these types of videos are popular and people love to create them, though. It’s a good thing the Android team doesn’t agree with me there, because they’ve baked an easy way to make these types of videos on your phone into the new update.

You no longer have to download the OG videos, record yourself watching, edit, and reupload — that really is a lot of work. Instead, Android 17 lets you record both your phone’s screen and your reactions or commentary from your device’s front-facing camera, all at the same time. For recordings and annotations, you get a new toolbar and, of course, the improved workflow that doesn’t require you to manage or switch between multiple apps, saving a lot of time in pre- and post-production. I suspect this will make a lot of up-and-coming influencers ecstatic.

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

It pretty much does exactly what you’d expect and allows you to ramble incessantly while the text-to-speech tool dictates and follows your instructions. But that’s just it, it also contextually understands what you’re asking or saying. You could ask it to remove an item you were adding to a shopping list, delete something you decided not to say, or format text, like into a bullet list or by adding emojis. It works similarly to how an AI tool might follow commands while allowing you to talk 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 is part of the Android team’s goal to make the operating system more intelligent and more helpful. I suspect you already heard or know about Gemini intelligence taking over your Android phone, which is a huge part of that change, too. If you haven’t heard about it yet, you might want to take a closer look at some of the things it can do.

Through Google’s Find My Device hub on Android, you can always check in on your connected devices, seeing their current location and interacting with them, like wiping the device remotely if you have that option enabled. Android 17 also introduces some improvements to the entire experience if and when you misplace your phone or if it’s stolen. You can now lock a missing phone with biometrics, that way, even if the thief has your passcode, they can’t access the phone or your data, nor can they disable tracking.

In addition, for better security, the number of times someone can guess a PIN has been reduced with longer wait times between failed attempts. More security improvements have been added via enhanced permissions controls, specifically so you can curb apps using precise location tracking and limit their access to your contacts list. That said, the primary feature to thwart would-be thieves and keep an eye on your misplaced phone is going to be the most helpful when you least expect it, and deserves the spotlight.