

The Android growth crew right now introduced the primary beta for the upcoming Android 16, which is anticipated to be launched in Q2 of 2025.
At present, it’s anticipated that Android 16 will attain platform stability in March, at which level the Android crew will ship the ultimate SDK and NDK APIs in addition to last inner APIs and app-facing system behaviors.
“This construct consists of help for the way forward for app adaptivity, Reside Updates, the Superior Skilled Video format, and extra. We’re wanting ahead to listening to what you assume, and thanks upfront to your continued help make Android a platform that works for everybody,” Matthew McCullough, VP of Product Administration for Android Developer at Google, wrote in a weblog publish.
To raised help adaptive apps — apps that change layouts primarily based on the dimensions of the display — the Android crew has determined to start phasing out the flexibility for apps to limit display orientation and resizability for giant screens. For screens which might be bigger than 600dp broad, apps focusing on API stage 36 could have app home windows that resize, and subsequently, it is suggested builders examine their apps to make sure the UI scales seamlessly.
The Android crew can also be introducing Reside Updates, that are notifications that assist “customers monitor and rapidly entry essential ongoing actions.” There may be now a ProgressStyle
notification template that can be utilized to construct all these notifications for rideshare, supply, and navigation. Reside Updates help customized icons for begin, finish, and present progress monitoring, segments and factors, person journey states, milestones, and extra.
Digital camera and media updates in Android 16 embrace help for the Superior Skilled Video (APV) code and night time mode scene detection to assist apps resolve when to change to and from night time mode within the digicam.
This launch may also embrace low-level help for rendering and measuring textual content vertically, which is beneficial for languages that use a vertical writing system, like Japanese.
And eventually, this launch consists of new accessibility updates, together with the flexibility to supply textual content a few ViewGroup
with out overriding details about its youngsters, and the addition of setFieldRequired
to AccessibilityNodeInfo
, which allows apps to inform an accessibility service that enter to a kind discipline is required. “This is a vital state of affairs for customers filling out many kinds of kinds, even issues so simple as a required phrases and circumstances checkbox, serving to customers to persistently establish and rapidly navigate between required fields,” McCullough wrote.
In response to the Android growth crew, with this launch, any supported Pixel system is ready to get this replace over-the-air. If a Pixel system isn’t out there, builders can use the Android Emulator in Android Studio.