Google is speeding up the release of new Android versions. The second preview release of Android 16 has arrived, and the final version is still on track for the middle of 2025.

Google has now released Android 16 Developer Preview 2, almost exactly one month after the first preview, and not long after the completed Android 15 update in September. The planned timeline remains unchanged—a mostly-finished “Platform Stability” version will be ready sometime in the first quarter of 2025, then a final update after “several months” of testing.

Timetable for Android 16 development by month.
Google

Most of the changes are low-level improvements and API updates for app developers, as with most new Android preview releases. Wi-Fi location services have been improved with the Wi-Fi 6 802.11az protocol, apps can now create more complex haptic effects, adaptive refresh rate modes have been improved, and support for accessibility announcements has been deprecated. There are also some changes to background tasks that should help performance and battery life.

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Google said in a blog post, “This preview is for the next major release of Android with a planned launch in Q2 of 2025 and we plan to have another release with new developer APIs in Q4. The Q2 major release will be the only release in 2025 to include planned behavior changes that could affect apps. The Q4 minor release will pick up feature updates, optimizations, and bug fixes; it will not include any app-impacting behavior changes.”

If you’re an app developer, you can try out Developer Preview 2 by flashing the system image to a supported Pixel device, or with the new system images in the Android Studio SDK device emulator. There’s no reason for other people to try this out right now—it’s not intended to be a stable experience, and there are few visible improvements right now compared to Android 15.

In the meantime, Google is rolling out new features outside of Android OS version number upgrades. Earlier this month, the company announced improvements coming to its Find My Device tracking network, and the latest Feature Drop for Pixel devices improved HDR photography and added Gemini Nano to Call Screen.

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Source: Android Developers Blog