This might be a minor change for most people, but it is something new in Android N’s third developer preview. In the battery stats (it does appear in other areas of the OS, but this is where it is most commonly seen), there is an icon next to “Android System” depicting the Android System. This usually covers all sorts of things in the OS like the Key Chain, Settings, Fused Location, and much more. Since Android 5.0 Lollipop, we got a new icon for this, which was just a gray Android guy. Not to bad looking, but it wasn’t the best looking icon either. Well now in the new developer preview for Android N which launched this week, we have a new icon. And it looks pretty spiffy.
Basically the new icon is a settings gear in white with a green background. It’s one of only two icons in the battery stats page that isn’t gray (other than apps). With the other being Google Services. It’s a nice change to Android Services, and one that has been needed for a few years now. It was one of the last remaining parts of the Holo design (even though it was not the same icon from the Holo era) which was retired with Android 5.0 Lollipop, that update marked the beginning of Material Design.
This is something that many of you probably won’t notice, especially if you don’t spend a lot of time looking at your battery stats – and why should you? But it is here. It likely won’t go anywhere before the final release of Android N comes in a few months. We’ll likely see a few other subtle design changes coming in the update as well. Android N is expected to see two more developer previews before it rolls out to the Nexus line up, along with the Pixel C. In which case, we should also have some new Nexus devices available as well. There isn’t yet a version number for this version of Android, although many are leaning towards it being Android 7.0. We’ll know more in about 3-4 months, however. This third developer preview is classified as a “beta” so it should be bug-free enough to use as a daily driver, for those that want to take it for a spin.
