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Google just released a new version of Android Canary to its more advanced beta testers, and along with a ton of features we hope to launch with Android 17, we also get a brand new UI for capturing what’s happening on your screen.
As we saw in first Android 17 leaksGoogle is preparing a complete overhaul of its screen recording controls, ditching the previous pop-up menu for a pill-shaped design that takes up less space. While the current UI disappears after you start recording (with the ability to end an existing recording in your notifications tray or by tapping the Live Update card in the top left corner), this redesign reappears every time you select it in the status bar.
This new menu gives you some familiar settings depending on whether you’re recording the entire screen or just an app. Full screen recordings contain options to record device audio, record external audio through your microphone, and display screen taps. Recording with a single app lets you select the app you want to record along with those first two audio switches, but it doesn’t contain a setting to include touch indicators. You can adjust these settings by tapping the status bar indicator to bring back the floating Google UI, which is also how you’ll end recordings now.
In fact, the changes continue to appear even after you have pressed the red “Stop” button. Google has added a new post-recording playback preview screen that lets you quickly dive into a new edit, share your video with a friend or loved one, delete it entirely, or start a new recording entirely. It’s a more comprehensive system than previous notification-based systems, allowing you to quickly share or edit in Photos, but without many more options.
There are a couple of small changes between the initial Android 17 leak that was first seen two months ago and the version of this feature that was first rolled out via Canary. By far the missing drawing tool is the most impactful change; Early leaks showed that, during recording, the pill-shaped icon would include a pen tool along with the typical settings and stop buttons for on-screen drawings. That no longer exists, and it’s unclear if it will resurface before an eventual widespread release. Likewise, Google has added contextual information about privacy to this menu,
It’s not a completely complete app experience for Google’s built-in screen recorder (for example, you’re still activating it from the quick settings menu), but compared to previous iterations, it’s a big change.
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