While Google has already disseminated two Android 16 Developer Preview releases to date, Pixel users are waiting for the Android 16 Beta program to kick off especially since the first Android 16 Beta release is supposed to be available this month. Other beta versions of Android 16 are supposed to drop in February and March. A Googler might have accidentally spilled the beans and revealed the actual dates when we would see the first three Android 16 betas released.
According to Assemble Debug, a post written by a Googler on the Android Gerrit let the cat out of the bag and revealed that Android 16 Beta 3 will drop on March 12th (circle your calendar now!). The Android Gerrit provides Android developers with a web-based interface for submitting code changes made to the Git repository, allows them to manage these code changes, and review these changes. Googlers can also use the Gerrit to leave comments about revised code.
The Googler who left what he said was the release date for the third beta version of Android 16, also mentioned two other dates in his comment: January 22nd and February 19th. The Googler doesn’t explicitly state that Android 16 Beta 1 and Beta 2 will be available on those dates but he does link the Android 16 Beta 3 release to March 12th. If the dates thrown out in the post are all legit, we would be just days away from the release of Android 16 Beta 1.
A post written by a Googler on the Android Gerrit reveals the release dates of the first three Android 16 Beta releases. | Image credit-Android Authority
After Google releases the third Android 16 Beta on March 12th, additional Beta builds will probably be pushed out until the final stable version of Android 16 is dropped which is expected to happen during the second quarter of 2025. The final version of Android 15 was released on October 15th. If Google continues with this timeline we will see Android 16 made available well before the 12-month anniversary of the release of Android 15. A previous leak revealed that Android 16 will launch on June 3rd which is just approximately eight months after Google released Android 15.
To reiterate, assuming that the post by the Googler does refer to the release date for Android 16 Beta 1, you can expect the latter to be available in only three days. The update will be available for the Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, and later models.