Google's latest Android Canary build includes a social-media-friendly surprise

Google recently announced a new feature called Screen Reactions that aims to make creating reaction videos much easier. Now, we’ve spotted the feature rolling out in the latest Android Canary release, giving testers an early look at how it works.

Reaction videos have become very popular on social media, but creating them often requires complicated setups involving multiple devices, third-party apps, or video editing tools. Google wants to simplify that process with Screen Reactions, a built-in feature that lets you record your screen and yourself simultaneously.

In Android Canary 2606, the feature doesn’t appear under the Screen Reactions branding. Instead, it’s currently labeled “Selfie camera” within Android’s native screen recording interface.

The option appears when you start a screen recording and select “Entire screen.” Once enabled, your front-facing camera feed is captured alongside the screen recording and overlaid directly onto the final video. Interestingly, the option disappears when you choose to record a single app rather than the entire screen.

The feature also offers several customization options.  While the selfie overlay uses a transparent background by default, users can also choose from six different background colors.

When the Screen Reactions feature rolls out widely, it’ll first be available on Pixel phones. While it’s now present in the latest Android Canary build, it’s still under development and could change before Google rolls it out more broadly.