TL;DR
- Android Canary 2607 reveals that Google is working on a new “Status bar” settings section to let users show or hide specific system and notification icons.
- Users will be able to toggle off the upcoming Android Halo AI assistant icon, which requires an unannounced “Agent Task” device feature to function.
- A separate toggle is in development to hide the mute icon, similar to the existing vibration icon toggle.
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Android Halo, in its current avatar, is the leftmost spot in your status bar where an AI app can display an icon when an AI agent needs your attention, or simply to show its progress. Here’s what Google showed it off as:
If you’d rather not have Android Halo appear in your status bar, we’ve spotted strings in Android Canary 2607 that suggest the icon can be turned off.
Google appears to be working on adding a new “Status bar” section in the Settings app where users can control the visibility of this icon and other system and notification icons.
Code
Status bar
Control system and notification icons on status bar This sub-section will house the option to show or hide the AI assistant agent icon in the status bar. This icon will allow the assistant agent to display task progress and updates in the status bar.
Code
Show assistant agent in status bar
Allow assistant agent to display task progress and updates in the status bar
Allows users to allow or disallow the assistant agent showing updates for state and tasks in the Status Bar. However, the Android Halo icon will only appear if the phone supports the Agent Task feature.
Code
Requires that the Agent Task feature be supported by the device.
The Agent Task feature is not supported on this device. Google hasn’t yet officially detailed the “Agent Task” feature. It appears to differ from Gemini Intelligence, as Android Halo doesn’t require Gemini Intelligence for its baseline capabilities (which we presume is referring to the status bar icon). Google did say that Gemini Intelligence will allow Android Halo to “offer additional capabilities,” and the company promised to share this detail later this year, so we’ll have to wait for Google to clear the air on this.
Alongside the toggle for Android Halo, Google is also working to add an option to show or hide the mute icon from the status bar:
Code
Show when device is muted
Mute
Control visibility of the mute icon, which indicates if the phone is set to silent or mute. Google already provides an option to hide the vibration icon, located in Settings > Sound and vibration. A separate toggle to hide the mute icon would be appreciated by those who want a cleaner status bar.
Neither of these changes is live yet. We’ll keep you updated when we learn more.
⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
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