First Android 17 Screenshots Allegedly Leak, Showcase Transparency and Blur

Photo credit: Android Authority
A leak from an early build of Android 17 has surfaced, giving us a much better picture of what to expect from the impending major upgrade. Screenshots of the half-finished operating system are making the rounds, thanks to developers and fans who were able to obtain early internal builds. One of the first places these images appeared was on Telegram, courtesy of RKBDI, a well-known person in the Android community, posted them online, and they took off from there.

Typically, formal developer previews and stable versions don’t surface until midway through the year. However, this early leak provides our first proper look at how Google intends to address interface transparency. Some essential system features may now be seen in all their translucent splendor, such as the volume slider, which sits on a transparent background and allows your wallpaper to shine through.

When you expand the panel, you’ll see that the blur effect keeps your app icons visible at the bottom while softly blurring whatever is underneath. That’s not new; we saw something similar in Android 16 in a few places like quick settings and the app drawer, but it’s clear that Android 17 is taking this trick to the next level, using it in even more places like the power menu, which overlays the current screen with a nice blurred layer that takes some lovely color cues from your device’s accent palette to keep it all looking super cohesive.

Android 17 also ups the ante with the blur effect, which is no longer limited to a few menus and the app drawer, but is now visible everywhere, creating a layered, glass-like sensation that nicely balances information while keeping you focused on what you’re doing without being distracting. And the Dynamic Color tie-in really helps things stand out, providing a lot more personalized experience.

Screen recording has been significantly overhauled in Android 17. When you press to activate it, a floating “pill” with all of the controls emerges, allowing you to view your fast settings in the background rather from being obstructed by a solid overlay. When you select “record the entire screen,” you can capture device audio, just the microphone, or even show where your touches are on the screen. When you’re recording, a timer shows in the status bar, and a single press on the screen brings up the control pill. You can now doodle on your recording in a number of colors, view settings as it’s being recorded, and even watch a preview when it’s finished, which you can modify or share. Everything feels far less clumsy than previously.

A few more things appear in the leaked screenshots, such as the ability to long press an app icon to access a built-in lock option for particular apps, which adds a layer of privacy. A few more icons receive a facelift, but don’t expect too many specifics just yet. We’ve also heard that fast settings and alerts may use a split layout in a few more locations, however this was previously suggested in January, so we’ll have to see if it appears again in the final version. All of these changes build directly on what we saw in Material 3 Expressive, as Google simply refined their existing ideas. The end product looks good, especially when the wallpaper on your home screen shines out.
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