The Pixel 6 might get Android 16 after all

When Google announced the Pixel 6 series back in 2021, it said that it would provide software updates for at least 5 years from when the device went on sale. However, there was an important caveat to that announcement. The Pixel 6 series was only guaranteed to receive 3 years of Android OS updates — the remaining 2 years of updates would only include security fixes. It’s been over 3 years since the Pixel 6 series launched, which means it isn’t guaranteed to receive Android OS updates anymore. However, it’s looking like the Pixel 6 might get next year’s Android 16 update regardless.

According to Google’s official support documentation, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro were guaranteed to receive Android OS updates until at least October 2024. We’re now well into November 2024, which is months before Google will release the next major version of Android. Google doesn’t plan to release Android 16 until Q2 of 2025, which means either April, May, or June of next year. Thus, it’s reasonable to assume that the Google Pixel 6 is out of Android version updates.

The Pixel 6a, on the other hand, was released a few months after the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. It’s guaranteed to receive Android OS updates until at least July 2025, which is after the window of Android 16’s release date. In the past, the later release date of the A-series Pixel phone meant that it would receive quarterly platform releases (QPRs) not pushed out to the main phones in the lineup. For example, the Pixel 5a received an update to Android 14’s third QPR, whereas the Pixel 4a (5G) and Pixel 5 stopped at the initial release of Android 14.

Going by this, it’s reasonable to assume that the Pixel 6a might receive Android 16 while the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro won’t. However, it seems that won’t be the case, and it doesn’t make sense for Google to do, for multiple reasons. For one, the Pixel 6a is powered by the same chipset as the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro (the first-generation Google Tensor chip), so a lot of the work that Google would have to do to bring up Android 16 onto the Pixel 6a would also carry over to the rest of the Pixel 6 series.

Security updates are easier without backporting

More importantly, though, porting Android 16 (and later Android 17) to the Pixel 6 series will help Google maintain its commitment to delivering 5 years of security updates. That’s because, while Google does backport security patches for a little over 3 years after the AOSP release of a new Android version (e.g., Android 11 received security patch backports until March of this year), it still recommends that manufacturers migrate their devices to the latest version of the Android platform when possible. The reason for this is the same reason that it’s recommended to always keep your device’s Linux kernel up-to-date with the latest fixes. It’s not always immediately clear that a bug fix is actually a security fix, so it’s risky to leave a device on an outdated version of Android or Linux, as manufacturers would have to hope for those fixes to eventually be identified as security fixes and then later backported.

That’s why some observers believed that Google had always planned to extend Android OS support beyond its guarantee, and it’s looking like they might be right. Google just announced the release of Android 16 Developer Preview 1 earlier today, and ahead of the announcement, we asked the company what devices will be eligible to install DP1. A spokesperson for Google told us that the following devices will be able to get Android 16 DP1:

• Pixel 6 and 6 Pro
• Pixel 6a
• Pixel 7 and 7 Pro
• Pixel 7a
• Pixel Fold
• Pixel Tablet
• Pixel 8 and 8 Pro
• Pixel 8a
• Pixel 9, 9 Pro, 9 Pro XL, and 9 Pro Fold

Given that the Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, and Pixel 6a are getting Android 16 DP1, I’d be shocked if they didn’t receive the stable release of Android 16 next year. And if they do receive it, I’d be shocked if the updates end there — I can see Google pushing Android 17 out as the final OS update for the Pixel 6 series for the reasons I mentioned before. We don’t know for sure if Google plans to do either of these things, but we’ll keep an eye out to see what happens.

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