The second Android P Developer Preview was released last week at Google I/O, and users are still finding some new features within the latest version of Android. This includes the fact that only four notification icons are shown in the status bar, with dots indicating more notifications. This is clearly part of Android P getting ready for notches on future Android smartphones. Where a number of Android devices already sport a notch, it’s not surprising to see Google adding support in the next version of Android.
After four icons are in the notification bar, you will see one, two or three dots, depending on how many notifications are there. You’ll see one if there are five notifications, two for six and three for seven or more. Pretty simple, but this is so that notification icons won’t be covered by the notch on some newer phones. It also means that manufacturers won’t need to make changes to Android on a notched device. It does give Android P a rather clean look, with just four icons plus the extra dots for more notifications, instead of having a ton of notification icons across the top of the device.
As always with Android developer previews, this feature may not be present in the final version of Android. It is also possible that Google could make this feature only work on devices with a notch, like the LG G7 ThinQ, and on devices like the Pixel 2 XL that don’t have a notch, it wouldn’t exist and notification icons would be the same as they have always been. Of course, there’s about four more developer previews or betas between now and when the final version of Android P is rolled out, so plenty could change between now and then. And as we’ve seen in the past few years, plenty of things will change. So this may be in the final version or it might not be, it’ll depend on the feedback Google gets.
