Android 16 is now accessible for early testers

Google has given us a glimpse at what’s coming within the subsequent main model of Android. The first preview launch for Android 16 is on the market for builders beginning at the moment, which expands the photograph library and medical data-sharing capabilities in apps. A change transferring Android’s launch timeline ahead was introduced final month, which might assist third-party Android telephones launched in 2025 keep away from ready months to obtain the newest main updates.

Android Developer head Matthew McCullough says, “That is the beginning of Android having extra frequent API releases as a part of our effort to drive quicker innovation in apps and units.”

The preview accessible at the moment permits builders to embed Android’s photograph picker — the menu that lets customers choose particular photographs and movies they need to share — immediately into their apps. This could make sharing media with apps extra seamless with out granting them entry to your whole system or cloud storage library. It additionally contains the newest model of Privateness Sandbox, Google’s in-development substitute for Android’s promoting ID.

A preview of the Well being Join app “accommodates an early model of APIs supporting well being data” that “permits apps to learn and write medical data in FHIR format,” based on Google. This might let apps and medical units share data and medical data (with specific consent from the person) the way in which wearables and health trackers already do, mirroring an identical Apple Well being function on iPhones.

Judging by Google’s projected launch timeline, the primary public beta for Android 16 might be accessible in January 2025. A ultimate public launch is predicted someday after April, seemingly lining up with Google’s annual I/O occasion (which was held on Might 14th this 12 months), the place the corporate often proclaims its newest Android updates and product options.