Google is giving early testers a glimpse at subsequent 12 months’s Android 16 with a restricted preview of the upcoming working system replace. It is all a part of the corporate’s plan to get Android updates out quicker to customers.
That is the primary Android 16 developer preview, arriving three months forward of schedule in comparison with final 12 months’s related first preview of Android 15. Beginning this early means the ultimate model of Android 16 is anticipated to be launched within the second quarter of 2025, a window that will be forward of the working system’s typical full launch within the third quarter (Android 15 launched in late October).
“We’re planning the most important launch 1 / 4 earlier (Q2 relatively than Q3 in prior years) to raised align with the schedule of machine launches throughout our ecosystem,” Android developer vp of product administration Matthew McCullough wrote in a blog post saying the developer preview.
Google launched its Pixel 9 series in August this 12 months relatively than in October. Consequently, Android 15 was notably absent from the telephones once they went on sale. If Google plans to launch the subsequent Pixel lineup in the identical timeframe in 2025, it ought to overlap with the Android 16’s earlier drop.
Learn extra: Android 16 Will Launch Earlier Than Usual. Google’s Android VP Explains Why
This Android 16 developer preview has new options in its software program launch: the aptitude to be extra selective wherein pictures an app has entry to and an early model of an app’s means to learn and write medical data with person consent. As this preview is extra for app makers than app customers, it provides builders time to tinker with and combine the brand new options into their very own apps well-before an eventual Android 16 launch.
This preview resets the Android pre-release schedule to be a minor software program replace within the final quarter of 2024, then a characteristic launch within the first quarter of 2025 adopted by the complete launch within the second quarter. Extra granularly, this breaks all the way down to this primary developer preview in November adopted by a second in December, then beta releases for customers enrolled within the Android Beta program each month from January by April (or into Could) earlier than a remaining launch thereafter, in line with the official Android 16 overview page.
Google didn’t give a remaining listing of which telephones can be appropriate with Android 16, however did observe that the Android 16 developer preview can be utilized with the corporate’s Pixel 6 collection of telephones (together with the Pixel 6a) and newer gadgets as much as the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro Fold. This baseline of Pixel 6 telephones is identical threshold of compatibility as final 12 months’s Android 15 developer beta.
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