Android 16: News, leaks, and release window

Android 16 is officially due out in the second quarter of 2025, sometime before the end of June. And that's not all: the Developer Preview is ongoing now, with a second DP build available as of December.

Android 15 only started rolling out to phones and tablets in late 2024, but in keeping with Google's adjusted Android release schedule, we already know quite a bit about the next major release. Here's everything you need to know about Android 16 (so far).

Android 16: what we know so far

A convention-breaking codename and some new features to boot

Google's started sharing info about what to expect from the Android 16 release, but so far, its communication has been largely developer-focused. The Android 16 Developer Preview includes several new APIs for developers to check out, giving us a hint at what to expect from our favorite apps come next year.

Developers will be able to embed Android's secure photo picker into their apps, allowing for easier and more private image insertion in different settings. There are also new APIs that let apps read and write medical records in Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) format, which should enable health applications on Android both understand and create health data in a standardized way.

That's not a ton of official info to go by, but we've already started to get an idea of what the update could look like on the user side, largely thanks to the reporting of Android maven Mishaal Rahman.

The next Android version may break with Google's established naming convention. Android versions have long had codenames inspired by desserts beginning with letters that progress through the alphabet sequentially: Android 2.0 Eclair, 2.2 Froyo, 2.3 Gingerbread, et cetera, all the way to Android 15 Vanilla Ice Cream. Based on that pattern, we'd expect Android 16's codename to start with W.

Apparently not so. Writing for Android Authority, Rahman reports that Android 16 will be codenamed Baklava. Rahman says the reset is related to a change in Android's development: version 16 is meant to establish a trunk-based development model for Android, meaning the operating system will get more frequent, small code changes, rather than larger ones every few months.

As far as features users will feel right away go, we've already seen enough rumored that it seems obvious Android 16 will be a more significant update than this year's Android 15 was.

Again as reported by Mishaal Rahman for Android Authority, Android 16 could introduce a fully redesigned quick settings panel. The updated panel sports a new look and, in the version Rahman was able to get working by tinkering with the Android 15 QPR beta, controversial new functionality. As tested in September, the redesigned panel made it so that swiping down from the top of the screen surfaced your notifications, but to access quick settings, you had to swipe down with two fingers.

A later version of the updated notifications and quick settings panels doesn't require the same two-finger gesture, instead opening either notifications or quick settings depending on where you swipe in from the top edge of the screen.

The brightness slider in Android 16's quick settings panel will apparently look more like the tweaked volume settings do in Android 15, with a thicker bar and larger touch target. In its current in-development state, it also shows your display's brightness as a percentage while you make adjustments — a nice touch, though I think that functionality may make more sense as a developer option.

We may get the option to put any app inside a floating "bubble" in Android 16. While Android has offered functionality that generates a floating shortcut to a specific app since Android 11, these so-called bubbles have historically only worked for chat apps. According to Rahman, Android 16 could expand that functionality to any app on your device, allowing for temporary bubble-style shortcuts to browsers, utility apps, and more.

Source: Android Authority

Android 16 could integrate Google's Advanced Protection features into the Android operating system. Advanced Protection is meant to provide additional safeguards for users who are at increased risk of phishing, surveillance, and other online attacks. In Android 16, there may be an option to enable Advanced Protection right from your phone's settings. It seems there will also be a new Advanced Protection API that will let apps see whether you're enrolled in the program and act accordingly, modifying functionality to suit your security needs.

Advanced Protection is meant to provide additional safeguards for users who are at increased risk of phishing, surveillance, and other online attacks.

Do Not Disturb could get a boost in Android 16 thanks to Priority Modes. Rahman writes that these modes are user-configurable notification settings that let you define a name, icon, and conditions under which the modes will start. Each Priority Mode can allow different notifications from different apps and contacts; for example, a Priority mode for sleep could silence all notifications that don't come from defined contacts, while a work Priority Mode could turn off notifications from social media and games.

Rahman's found evidence of a new chip-style notification in Android 15 QPR1 Beta 3 that reminds us more than a little of Apple's Dynamic Island notifications. The chips will use a new Rich Ongoing Notifications API to display info about ongoing processes in your phone's status bar.

Source: Android Authority

It looks like Android 16 could bring back custom app icon shapes. In Android 11, you could choose between a handful of shapes for your app icons, but it was later removed. Now, evidence has been shared on the Google News Telegram channel that custom icons are making a comeback, with screenshots showing circular, square, and various scalloped shapes as options.

A new Privacy Dashboard feature in Android 16 DP1 lets you view which permissions your apps have accessed over the past week, rather than just over the past 24 hours — handy if you're not checking in on your privacy settings every single day.

Android 16 could ship with a notification bundling feature that works similarly to the way Gmail groups emails of similar types. It'll be off by default, but when enabled, it'll group notifications of particular kinds — promotions, news, social, et cetera — into silenced bundles "for a quieter experience." Mishaal Rahman found evidence of this feature in Android 15 QPR2 Beta 2, but couldn't get it working, signaling that the feature may be planned for release on Android 16.

Android 16 DP2 brings a heap more developer-focused changes

Android 16 DP2 landed on December 18. It includes a ton of developer-centric changes that themselves won't mean anything to average users, but will lead to changes in app behavior that will have an impact on the day-to-day Android experience. Here are a few of the biggest changes.

• As promised at Google I/O in May, Android's photo picker is finally getting search functionality — though it's not exclusive to Android 16. The functionality is "coming soon" to Android 16 and older versions. The change includes a new APIs that'll allow third-party cloud media services to implement search functionality when using the photo picker.
• New APIs will make it easier for app developers to implement predictive animations for back gestures.
• Android 16 DP2 introduces ways for apps to take advantage of Android's recent adaptive refresh rate support.
• Android's Health Connect service can now categorize activities by intensity, as defined by the World Health Organization.

For more of the nitty-gritty about developer changes in Android 16 Developer Preview, check out our guide linked below.

When will Android 16 be released?

Spring of 2025, with a beta to begin soon

While Android versions have long been released in either the late third or early fourth quarter of the year, Android 16 will be available sooner than that. Google's confirmed that a "major SDK release" — Android 16 — is coming in the second quarter of 2025, with a "minor SDK release" to follow in Q4. A November leak says that Android 16 will be pushed to AOSP and Pixel devices on the same day: June 3, 2025. That all lines up with what we expected before, based on Mishaal Rahman's analysis of Android 15's Compatibility Definition Document — and roughly matches the timeline Google shared in late November (as seen above). Here's the expected timeline for Android 16's major milestones:

The Android 16 developer preview period has begun. We wouldn't recommend running a Developer Preview on your primary device, but if you've got a phone around for development (or just to play with), you can grab Android 16 Developer Preview 2 now. Google's timeline shows that we should expect beta releases to follow in January, and that the company is targeting platform stability sometime in the spring. If you're an average user just looking to try new features early, you might want to hold off until March or April.

While we're still in the early days, we'll be following leaks, rumors, and official news about the next big Android release until, and even after Android 16 makes its way to our phones; check back often for all the latest developments.