Google is aggressively rolling out its AI capabilities and working on improving its platform experience, including accelerating its operating systems development cycle. While the company has already confirmed that the Android 16 update will be coming out in the second quarter of 2025, it will do developer previews and betas before the full release. As the tech giant intends to bring the update soon, it has already announced the Android 16 Developer Preview 1.
Google has officially launched the first Android 16 Developer Preview, highlighting the company’s plan to roll out the update sooner than usual
Google has taken everyone by surprise by launching the Android 16 Developer Preview 1 today, as usually it opts for the February launch window for its Android releases. The pattern has remained the same for the past four years, with the developer preview of major Android updates coming out in February. Now, with the company opting for an earlier release, we see it pivoting in a different direction when it comes to its OS rolling-out strategy.
The intention of an early release schedule for the developer preview is to better align it with market trends and hardware. The company could also be trying to reduce the gap between the OS announcement and its arrival on the devices. The earlier schedule would also bring it closer to Apple’s schedule for iOS and allow the company to compete better by introducing new features and capabilities simultaneously.
If we look at the general release schedule of Android 16, there would be two developer previews and four betas before the full release.
| DATE | RELEASE SCHEDULE |
|---|---|
| Today | Android 16 Developer Preview 1 |
| December 2024 | Android 16 Developer Preview 2 |
| January 2025 | Android 16 Beta 1 |
| February 2025 | Android 16 Beta 2 |
| March 2025 | Android 16 Beta 3 |
| April 2025 | Android 16 Beta 4 |
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Keeping the schedule in view, the Platform Stability phase would be in March 2025, when the APIs would be finalized and cannot be changed as the developers have to test and optimize apps for the final release. Compared with Android 15, it is still earlier than usual as the previous update reached the Platform Stability point in June 2024.
Android 16 Developer Preview 1 brings some significant upgrades that include an embedded photo picker experience, an enhanced Privacy Sandbox on Android, more support for the Health Connect app, and a new API to help distinguish Android 16 from other minor releases. Many apps did not adopt the photo picker option earlier due to its lack of direct integration, which would now be resolved in Android 16. The Health Connect app is also receiving a major upgrade, which is the ability to write medical records.
We have limited information on the Privacy Sandbox, but we know it will get an upgraded version with Android 16. Additionally, Google is introducing a new constant for users to see if the device is running a minor or major Android release to keep the two distinct. Since this is the first preview for developers, it currently offers only a few features, and we will see more features with Android 16 Beta 1 and later releases.