Android 15 has not yet appeared on all smartphones, and Google has already released the second preliminary version of Android 16 for developers. The company has accelerated development, and the final version of the new system may appear several months earlier than usual.
Image source: android.com
Typically, there was relatively little time between the release of a stable build of a previous version and the first build of a new version for developers, but this year Google decided to speed up. In the past few years, the first developer previews of Android were released in February – this time it was pushed back to November; now the second issue has followed. This means that a public beta version is not far off, but this will happen in the new year.
So far, Android 16 offers minimal new features compared to its predecessors. Thus, a built-in search for cloud resources has appeared in the photo gallery – you can prepare an annual summary of publications on Instagram✴ from accounts outside the device, without switching between applications. The work of Health Connect has been improved – it is now possible to record the intensity of activity in fitness applications. There is support for the 802.11az standard, which provides positioning functions using Wi-Fi networks.
Most of the innovations in Android 16 do not yet concern what the average user can pay attention to – the company has focused on changes “under the hood”: new haptic functions, support for adaptive screen refresh rate at the system level, the elimination of outdated code that prevented the development of capabilities for users. More noticeable changes are likely to be expected in the coming releases: the first beta version is planned for January 2025, and the final one in May. Thus, by the traditional spring Google I/O developer conference, we should expect a full release of Android 16, that is, three or four months earlier than usual.
To try out Android 16 in an accessible version, you will need to register as a developer, and you can install it on Google Pixel series devices, starting with Pixel 6 and 6 Pro smartphones.