Google is experimenting with a horizontal volume slider in Android that appears at the top-center of the screen in landscape, echoing the approach long used on Apple’s iPhone. Evidence of the redesign is buried in the latest Android 16 QPR2 Beta 1, suggesting the company is refining how system UI behaves when you turn the phone sideways.
The change is currently disabled, but its intent is clear: reduce on-screen obstruction during games and video playback while keeping essential controls within reach. If implemented, it would be one of the more practical tweaks to Android’s audio experience in years.
What’s changing and why it matters
Today’s Android volume HUD sits vertically along the right edge, a sensible spot in portrait but clumsy in landscape where it can overlay critical UI elements. Gamers know the pain: a quick volume adjustment can obscure health bars, minimaps, or on-screen controls.
Android’s recent Material 3 updates already modernized the slider with a stream icon, a flatter bar, a waveform animation during playback, and subtle bounce effects. A top-center horizontal layout would build on those changes, focusing on ergonomics and content preservation instead of just aesthetics.
Clues inside Android 16 QPR2
Android researcher Mishaal Rahman found a new SystemUI layout named “volume_dialog_horizontal” in QPR2 Beta 1. It’s not active yet because a flag labeled “isVolumeDialogVertical” is currently set to true, effectively locking the interface to the existing vertical design.
The dormant layout points to a top-centered horizontal slider in landscape with familiar elements: a sound-mode icon (ring/vibrate/silent), the main slider, and a three-dot menu. There’s also accommodation for additional sliders when multiple streams are active—useful for media, calls, and features like Auracast broadcast audio introduced by the Bluetooth SIG.
How it compares to iOS
On iOS, the volume HUD adapts to orientation: a slim vertical bar near the buttons in portrait and a tidy horizontal control at the top in landscape. The goal is to minimize occlusion while keeping your thumb path short.
Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines emphasize avoiding interference with primary content, and this placement accomplishes exactly that. Google appears to be moving toward a similar, orientation-aware behavior rather than copying visuals wholesale.
Ergonomics, aspect ratios, and reachability
Most recent Android flagships ship with tall displays—19.5:9 to 20:9 is common, as reflected in large device databases tracked by industry outlets. In landscape, that geometry leaves ample horizontal room for a top-mounted slider without covering key UI hotspots at the left and right edges.
From a Fitts’s Law perspective, a consistently placed, wide target supports fast, low-effort adjustments, especially when both thumbs rest along the bezel in landscape. It’s a small UX shift with outsized practical benefits for media and gaming.
Phones, tablets, foldables, and exceptions
Don’t expect a one-size-fits-all mandate. On larger screens, such as tablets and many foldables, the top edge can be harder to reach than the sides, especially in keyboard or stand modes. Google could keep the vertical HUD on big displays or offer device-class logic to choose the optimal layout.
Manufacturers also have latitude. OEM skins frequently customize SystemUI, so Samsung, Xiaomi, and others may tune the slider’s placement or behavior based on their own reachability research and customer feedback.
When could this arrive?
Quarterly Platform Releases often incubate features behind flags for weeks or months, and some never ship. If Google greenlights the change, it could surface in a future QPR, a Pixel Feature Drop, or the next platform release—timing that typically aligns with the company’s established Android rollout cadence.
Even as a hidden experiment, the signal is unmistakable: Google is tuning Android’s core controls for landscape use. With growing adoption of Bluetooth LE Audio and scenarios like stadium-wide Auracast broadcasts, a smarter, less obtrusive volume HUD would be a welcome upgrade across the Android ecosystem.