Android 16 QPR2 Beta 2 secretly updates the Setup Wizard with Google’s Material 3 Expressive design style. Image: Follow / XDA-Developers. Android has a common wizard for all platforms, and this quietly gave it a fresh coat of paint to use Google’s Material 3 Expressive language. It’s a small but significant change that almost no one will notice unless they are setting up a new phone or wiping an old one. Yet those opening seconds after a boot are when the platform stakes its first impression — and this refresh brings it with intention.
A personality-driven first-run experience
The updated flow features a more striking visual look and friendlier touch targets. The Welcome screen (now “Hello”) has bigger, easier to hit buttons for that stuff and the Accessibility control is larger and more clearly off on its own. This goes hand-in-hand with Material Design suggestions of visible hierarchy and glanceable UI.
On the language picker, that old dense list now makes room for a card-like layout with slightly softened surfaces and better distinction between options. It’s a small intuitive tweak that minimizes cognitive load — your eyes don’t have to do so much heavy lifting when it comes to parsing choices. The device transition screen is noticeably more coherent too, with less copy and controls fighting for attention.
Biometric setup is no different. In the details, Fingerprint and Face Unlock prompts have uniform button styling and spacing roll onto a general design language instead of having these tiny areas where things didn’t quite match up. Consistency between these screens is important because it establishes trust in a flow where the user is volunteering deep permissions.
Elsewhere, there are playful flourishes that aficionados of Material You’s design DNA will recognize, like a squiggly progress bar that provides motion without being distracting. The update leans into “filled tonal” buttons and cleaner surfaces — Material 3 Expressive’s bread-and-butter, so to speak — while still allowing for dynamic color.
Why this change matters for Android’s setup flow
The most Android experience is setup. The base AOSP and Pixel flows (although often OEM customized) set the tone of the ecosystem UX language. Buffing such a path minimizes friction at a time when users are making snap judgments about speed, clarity and care. This is not news that should surprise anyone, but studies from usability groups have demonstrated for years that first-run flows influence perceived quality as well as cost of support.
There’s also a pragmatic accessibility angle, they said. Material Design recommends a touch target size of at least 48dp on all sides for interactive elements; the larger buttons and clean layouts here come closer to meeting those targets. All users benefit — not just people with motor or vision disabilities — from controls that are larger and more obvious.
Where to find it and who can try the new flow
This new Setup Wizard rears its head during first boot or after a factory reset on devices that are running Android 16 QPR2 Beta 2. Testers on supported Pixel phones — and presumably the Pixel Fold and the upcoming Pixel Tablet for which the beta is applicable — will see that if they start from scratch. It is obscured for the majority of people updating in place, by design.
If you are curious but not ready to wipe your device, here’s what we found in the logs: Be aware that the upgrade still doesn’t add an actual visible shortcut into the flow.
Developers may mock up parts of the experience, but they would rather stay along that straight and narrow path. And remember, backing up before any reset is key.
A key part of the wider Android 16 QPR2 drive
QPRs are periodic platform updates providing polish, feature drops, and under-the-hood fixes between major Android releases. In addition to the revamped Setup Wizard, this beta includes testing for icon shape customization and step count ported in through Health Connect as well as protection against one-time-password theft from a hijacked SMS, all of which are signs Google is balancing delight, wellness, and security with equal care.
Here, the Setup Wizard update links these through tone. Ties the OS experience together from day one, setting a precedent for how buttons should look, how spacing should breathe and how motion should direct attention. That continuity of UI pays dividends when users move into the home screen and system apps, which are already ‘Material 3’ through and through.
What it means for OEMs and the ecosystem
Manufacturers will still ship their own onboarding experiences, but platform-level design inspiration tends to radiate. You should expect to see more stylized, but still readable elements in vendor setup flows as Android’s reference implementation leans this way. Developers can take it as another reminder that app onboarding should stand with modern Material patterns — less chrome, bigger touch targets, clearer copy.
It’s easy to write off a setup refresh as skin-deep. But first impressions are what form how the rest of the OS feels. In Android 16 QPR2 Beta 2, Google is taking that moment seriously — making it easier to understand, act and even adding a bit more fun.
