Joe Maring / Android Authority
TL; DR
- The March update brought down the Recent apps screen on Pixel phones.
- You can no longer save selected images or search with Google Lens.
- There are workarounds, but they aren’t as intuitive as the previous menu options.
Google introduced the stable Android 16 QPR3 update – commonly referred to as March 2026 Pixel update — to Pixel phones earlier this month. If you’re using a Pixel device, you’ve already installed the update. You probably noticed (like these people Reddit) A small but annoying change to the recent apps screen. We actually saw and announced the change in Januarywhen it first appeared in testing, but we can now confirm that Google has rolled it out widely in the latest stable release.
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You will no longer be able to easily save photos from the Recents screen
If you’ve ever long-pressed an image or used the Select tool on the Recents screen, you may already know about one of Android’s lesser-known productivity tricks. These methods allow you to grab text and images directly from app previews. It’s a neat shortcut that can save you from digging through apps or screenshots.
Until recently, selecting an image gave you useful options to save it, share it, or open it with Google Lens. Here’s how it worked:
After the March update, this list was severely cut. You will now only see Copy, Share and Edit options when selecting images. The option to save image to Photos is no longer available.
If you still want to save the image, there is a workaround, but it’s definitely more complicated.
You can find and select the “Upload to Photos” option from the Share sheet. It’s buried there, so you have to pry and look for it. Although this saves the image to Google Photos, it takes more time than tapping the previously available Save button. You can also share with the selected image Files by Google. The image will be saved in Photos, but it ends up in the Downloads folder.
To replace the lens search, you can try the Circle to Search option or the “Google Search Image” option from the share sheet. Again, it was much more convenient with the Lens button in the old UI.
Many people may not realize this feature exists, but once you start using it, it becomes a surprisingly convenient way to grab images or text from apps without taking screenshots.
So, if you’ve updated your Pixel in the past few weeks and think something’s different on the Recents screen, you’re not imagining things.
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