For the release of Android 16, Google has revised its schedule and is moving ahead. Here's everything you need to know about Android's next major update.
Android 16 is the next major version of the operating system for smartphones, tablets, televisions and connected objects.
On November 18, 2024, Google released the first Developer Preview (DP1) of Android 16 for app developers.
When will Android 16 be released?
Google has published a forecast schedule for the development of Android 16.
We learn that the first beta version is planned for the beginning of 2025 and that we will have to wait until spring 2025 for a stable version to be released.
Google is therefore well ahead of the release schedule for a major version of Android. For comparison, the first Developer Preview of Android 15 was released in February and the stable version was released in October.
Two versions of Android in 2025?
If Google is getting ahead of the launch of Android 16 it is because the giant has decided to release two updates in the same year.
Indeed, after the launch of Android 16 scheduled for spring 2025, Google is also preparing another update for the end of 2025.
Google calls this update “ minor SDK upgrade “. We do not yet know how Google will commercially qualify this update. This could be a version ” Android 16.1 » or « Android 16L » rather than going directly to Android 17.
What's new
Here are the new features to remember from Android 16. Google is adding more throughout the Developer Preview and Beta version news.
Material Design Update
Google continues to harmonize the Android interface around the latest version of its Material Design.
Wi-Fi sharing by QR Code, for example, has the right to a new design on Google Pixel smartphones.
New photo picker
Android 16 introduces something new for developers which will be backward compatible up to Android 4.4 through a Google Play Services update.
It allows developers to better integrate the image picker into their applications.
To be more precise, developers will now be able to integrate this photo selector into a view, and therefore give the impression that it is perfectly integrated into the application while leaving control to Google and the user over the access to images.
Bluetooth audio sharing
Have you ever taken the train or the plane and regretted not being able to listen to the sound of a film or TV series with your companion without going through a double jack cable?
With Android 16, Google finally integrates audio sharing via Bluetooth Auracast. It will therefore be possible to pair two wireless headsets at the same time to the same tablet or the same smartphone. Practical !
Health data
Google is evolving Android's Health Connect module, which allows you to save your health, fitness and well-being data on your Android device.
It will be possible for developers to read and record medical data in FHIR format (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources), an interoperable standard used in the professional healthcare world.
In other words, it should be easier to share data stored on our Android devices with healthcare professionals.
A low light mode
Looking at a smartphone at night means being dazzled by the screen, even at minimum brightness. Android 16 offers an “even lower brightness” mode to lower the brightness to the lowest possible level in certain conditions.
This new feature discovered in Android 16 DP1 is only compatible with the Google Pixel 9.
A new version for tablet and PC?
Here, we are still at the rumor stage, but the sources d’Android Authority are formal: Google would work to merge Chrome OS directly into Android.
This project would aim to compete more strongly with Apple's iPad with a more competent system on the large screen diagonals of tablets and computers, a market in which Android has historically been less convincing than its rival.
Without confirming this project at this stage, Google did indeed indicate during Google I/O that elements of Android would be integrated into ChromeOS in the future, starting with the Android Linux kernel.
This project may not be completed for several years, and therefore much later than the launch of Android 16. We also learned that Google had abandoned its project for a new Google Pixel tablet.
Compatible smartphones
Google smartphones benefit from the primacy of Android 16 from version DP1 for the following devices:
- Google Pixel 6a, Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro ;
- Google Pixel 7a, Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro ;
- Google Pixel Fold et Google Pixel Tablet ;
- Google Pixel 8a, Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro ;
- Google Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL et Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
Of course, most smartphones launched in 2024 and 2025 should also benefit from an update to Android 16. This is also the case for older smartphones whose manufacturers offer a good software tracking guarantee.
We are thinking in particular of Samsung, which has promised 4 years of updating for the Galaxy S22 launched in 2022. It should therefore easily benefit from an update to Android 16 in 2025.
At this point, we do not recommend installing Android 16. The installation also deletes data from the phone.
However, if you understand the risks of installing an unstable version of an operating system on your device, it is possible to download and install the update.
The operation requires a compatible smartphone and a computer.
To go further
How to install Android 16 DP1 on your smartphone?
The shadow of the Google trial
The year 2025 may not be a year like any other for Google. The tech giant faces a historic trial in the United States. In August 2024, the American courts ruled: Google is in a dominant position, but the consequences of this situation are still to be defined.
Google could, for example, be forced to resell its Google Chrome browser to another company. We then imagine that the browser integrated into Android could completely change.
Google might even have to part ways with Android altogether. The future of the mobile operating system would then be completely changed.
But all this might also never happen. In January 2025, Donald Trump becomes President of the United States again and the government, which controls the prosecution in this case, the Department of Justice, will therefore change sides. The unpredictable president could then decide to abandon the attacks against Google, particularly if he wishes to encourage his American giants against the Chinese.
If the case proceeds, the courts should render their decision in the spring of 2025.
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