Android 17 QPR2 Beta 4 adds status bar controls and private data logging

The update adds two new entries in the Settings page that let users control the visibility of status bar icons. The options can be accessed either through Settings > Notifications or Settings > System, with identical functionality in both locations. The Status bar page is divided into Notification icons and System icons.

For notification icons, users can choose to show All, Priority only, or None. For system icons, users can hide or display the mute and vibration icons, as well as the battery percentage. The vibration and battery percentage icons were already hideable on Pixel phones through the Sound & vibration and Battery settings pages, respectively.

While this granular control is new to Pixel phones, smartphone makers such as Samsung and OnePlus already offer similar options to hide status bar icons. The feature allows Pixel users to achieve a cleaner status bar by removing common icons.

The same beta also introduces a dedicated "Data logging" section for the Private Compute Core inside the Privacy Dashboard. Private Compute Core is Android's isolated sandbox that powers machine learning features such as Live Caption, Now Playing, and Smart Reply without exposing user data directly to the cloud or other apps. The new menu lets users toggle logging between Limited (up to three days or 100MB) and Detailed (up to 12 hours or 100MB) tiers, download logs, or delete them. This provides a major transparency upgrade for how the OS handles sensitive on-device data.