Android 16 reduces notification clutter with this simple but needed change

With the new Android 16 update, Google is introducing several major changes to how notifications look and behave. To start, the company is adding “Live Updates,” a feature that prominently displays ongoing notifications on the lock screen and in the status bar, similar to iOS. The update also includes an option to minimize notifications on the lock screen for a less cluttered feel. Today, we learned of another trick up Android 16’s sleeve to keep your notifications tidy.

Google announced that Android 16 will now automatically group notifications from the same app. This means that all alerts from a single app will be bundled together, which you can then expand or collapse with a simple tap.

This behavior might sound familiar as Android has supported grouped notifications since Android 7.0. Before Android 16, though, notification grouping was optional, with app developers deciding whether to group their alerts. While the system would occasionally force-group an app’s notifications, this behavior wasn’t consistent across devices. With Android 16, Google is changing this by forcing all notifications from a single app to be grouped, removing the choice from developers to ensure a more organized notification experience.

This change, though simple, is a welcome upgrade. When an app clutters the notification shade, it can cause users to ignore important alerts altogether. By automatically grouping notifications, Android 16 prevents any single app from dominating the notification panel. Looking ahead, it’s possible Google could leverage AI to take this a step further, grouping similar notifications together even if they originate from different apps.