Android 16 has already reached the final stages of development and the final release is just a few weeks away. With this earlier-than-usual number update to Android, Google is focusing mostly on under-the-hood improvements and practical improvements.
While Android 15 focussed little on visual upgrades brought in privacy features, such as partial screen recording and Private Space. This year, too, Google doesn’t seem too keen to focus much on a radical aesthetic overhaul.
If you are curious about the update, here is everything you must know about Android 16, including when it will be available, which devices already have it, and which features are likely to make it to the final release.
Android 16 release date
Google released the Android 16 developer previews and beta months ahead of the usual schedule. As such, Android 16 beta 3 is already live, and we have already reached the “Platform Stability” stage, suggesting Google is only making final touch-up and fixing bugs rather than testing new features. This period is meant for developers to adapt their apps
Based on the time release timeline, we expect the stable version of Android 16 to arrive sometime after April. Though we don’t have any official statements, there wouldn’t be a better time than Google’s annual developer conference — Google I/O, which will kick off on May 20th this year.
Phones that can download Android 16
At the moment, Android 16 is limited to Google’s own Pixel phones, starting Pixel 6 and newer. Although the list may expand over the coming weeks, these phones currently support Android 16 beta if you would to try:
The newly launched Pixel 9a is not officially on the list yet, but you should have no problems running the latest version of Android on it.
If you wish to try out the Android 16 beta on your phone, head over to this link, and select the devices you wish to be updated.
The shorter-than-usual window between the release of stable Android 15 and Android 16 builds leaves less time for several upgrades, but there are some noteworthy features we would see coming to Android this year after all.
Notifications with Live updates
One of the most insightful features on Android is the support for Live updates from apps that deal with time-sensitive notifications and update. A prime example is food delivery or cab-hailing apps, which will now show the completeness of your order — or more simply, the time left to arrival — through an animated progress bar in a dedicated tile on the top of your notifications and on your lock screen.
The progress bar functionality is already present in iOS (as Live Activities) and has also been implemented by several Android OEMs, including OnePlus. Now, with this change, Google is stepping up to make this a standard functionality in Android, which means it will be available on all devices that run Android 16 and above.
Meanwhile, developers have access to APIs that will enable live tracking feed from their apps to be shows through animated tickers. When not viewed directly, the information will be condensed into small pill-shaped icons on the status bar, displaying only the most important information, such as the time left. Here’s an example from developer Viktor Mykhailiv:
Besides live tracking of orders from food delivery apps or cab services, Live updates will also display the ETA for a trip in Google Maps when the app itself is minimized. While the actual utility will depend on apps, and many might not support it initially, we can expect big ones like Uber to be onboard soon.
Meanwhile, Google is demonstrating how Live updates will work with the new Android Easter egg, which we will look at later in this article.
Audio Sharing
If there’s one way Bluetooth headphones have not been able to match up to wired ones, even the lowest quality, it’s the ability to split audio into two different headsets. And almost a decade after Apple forced the entire phone industry to give up on headphone jacks, Bluetooth headphones haven’t quite been able to replicate the functionality — besides on a small set of unpopular smartphones.
Google, however, intends to finally fix this with a feature called Audio Sharing, which will cast the audio from one pair of Bluetooth earbuds or headphones to another. This basically means that while one person can control the audio playback on their phone, others can join through what Google calls an Audio stream.
The feature relies on Auracast, an audio broadcasting technology where people can tune in to specific broadcast channels — much like radio — through their Bluetooth headphones. The only requirement for Audio Sharing on Android to work is that the headphones must support Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) while the phones must support Auracast. As a result, it will work only on Pixel 8 and newer Google devices (but not Pixel 8a). For other Android devices, we will have to wait which manufacturers implement support.
Folks at Android Authority were able to activate the functionality and give us a glimpse of the interface, though we don’t have it at our end yet.
In addition to earphones, people with certain other compatible devices, such as hearing aids, will also be able to join audio streams. But, this will come at the cost of reduced audio quality.
Adaptive refresh rate
Most smartphones — at least those running Android — feature displays with refresh rates beyond 60Hz. But with refresh rates that go up to 120Hz, 144Hz, and sometimes even 165Hz, battery consumption becomes a big issue. Another disadvantage is that not all apps run at the highest rates, which can cause frame tearing or jitters in the interface — a term that is usually called “jank.”
Some high-end Android devices bypass this limitation by using LTPO displays that support variable refresh rates, or multiple variable steps. For instance, a high-end from 2025 would support refresh rate values such as 1Hz, 10Hz, 24Hz, 30Hz, 48Hz, 60Hz, 72Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz. The display uses a refresh rate that is closest to the content that is being displayed on the screen. That, of course, does not apply to less premium phones which typically only support fewer values, such as 30Hz, 60Hz, and 120Hz.
Even with the most expensive devices, the decision of which refresh rate to pick depends on the content played on the screen, which can lead to delay, albeit by a few milliseconds. Secondly, most displays are tuned to run different refresh rates at different display color modes — based on how they were calibrated.
To solve this, Google is looking at PC gaming monitors and adding what it calls Adaptive refresh rate deeper in the Android framework. Although the feature was first introduced in Android 15, it will become more mainstream in Android 16. The deeper integration means a display can switch between refresh rates more seamless without changing display color modes and allows more apps to take advantage.
In addition to reducing jank, adaptive refresh rate should also improve battery life on phones, allowing displays to work at low refresh rates unless necessary.
Haptics tuned to apps
Over the years, Android OEMs have advertised iPhone-like crisp haptic feedback and vibrations. Brands like OnePlus have even been able to achieve it with alarms and ringtones on flagship devices. But beyond that — and a handful of games that claim to support “4D vibration,” the topic has largely been ignored.
So, with Android 16, Google is adding richer controls for developers to integrate in their apps where they can assign different vibration patterns to different actions. Google says the new haptic APIs will allow developers “define the amplitude and frequency curves of a haptic effect” while minimizing the effects of hardware (vibration motor) available on the devices.
This should result in better tuned haptic feedback across a multitude of apps, though the actual adoption lies with developers.
New Easter egg
Among the major user-facing changes coming to Android 16 is its mightily overhauled Easter egg, a tradition which Android has carried on since the beginning. With Android 16, the spaceship Easter egg that originated in Android 14 reaches a seemingly more fulfilling form.
Much like Android 14 and 15, the Easter egg has a small game where you can float around in the space and find other celestial bodies. With Android 16, there are seemingly more celestial bodies to find and even land on. Google has also added an autopilot mode, so you can simply appreciate its efforts rather than cribbing about how awfully baffling the steering controls feel at first.
When you land on a planet, a tiny victory flag is hoisted. And when the spaceship takes off, there’s a blast-off animation where the vessel springs up from the surface where you had previously landed. If you were hoping to score a win, there aren’t any checkpoints — not the ones we spotted.
But unlike any previous generations, you can minimize the Easter egg and jump back into action later by tapping the persistent notification.
As mentioned above, this floating notification is meant to exemplify the utility of the Live updates feature we discussed above. It displays your progress en route to your next destination, showing the remaining distance and ETA. However, you will have to start afresh if you swipe the notification away.
Camera controls
Google is making several under-the-hood changes to camera algorithms in Android, and the benefit may not be limited just to its own Pixel lineup.
First, it is bringing Hybrid exposure, which will allow you to specifically illuminate or darken parts of a photo while letting auto-exposure take care of the rest of the frame. Apps will have control that combine ISO with auto-exposure or exposure time and auto-exposure, allowing greater flexibility on the amount of light in the image. And these features will not just be limited to the Camera app on your phone but also extend to apps such as Instagram and Snapchat.
Second, video recording apps will have finer controls over hue and color temperatures separately while recording videos instead of just playing with white balance. This will allow for video recording with more accurate colors.
Third, Google is also allowing third-paty apps such as Instagram and Snapchat to make use of the phones’ inbuilt night modes for better low-light photos.
Lastly, there are improvements to motion photos and will allow HEIC format photos to retain their HDR metadata through UltraHDR support.
Advanced Professional Video (APV) recording
Video recording on Android 16 is getting yet another boost in the form of added support for APV 422-10 Profile. APV or Advanced Professional Video is a codec that supports 10-bit encoding and video bitrates up to 2Gbps for “perceptually lossless” video quality while consuming 20% less space than other professional video codecs like HEVC.
A place to store your health records
Google has opened up support to store your health records and make them readable to other apps. You can store medical records in FHIR format and then make them accessible to other apps using Health Connect — a system app that lets you share fitness and activity related data across apps.
That means you may receive your digital health records from one app — say the one your hospital uses — and share them with another app, such as a diagnostics app or one that may be used to predict cancer.
Ambient mode for BLE hearing aids
Android 16 brings functionality where volumes of hearing aids with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) will be automatically adjusted based on the ambient noise levels. This means the volume on hearing aids will automatically decrease in loud situations or increase when it’s quiet.
In addition, Android 16 will also be able to switch the input source between the microphone on the hearing aids and the phone during voice calls. This will be handy in noisy environments when hearing aids’ microphones may not hear sufficiently.
Desktop mode
For a few generations of Android, Google has been brewing a native Desktop mode or a Chrome OS-like interface that will be projected onto a bigger screen when you connect your phone. Samsung already does this with DeX, but Google wants to make it standard across all phones.
While there have been significant advancements this year, including a screen recording feature exclusively for the external monitor, to suggest Google may finally release it, this doesn’t seem to be the case. We hope to see more developments in this regard over the coming months leading up to Android 17’s developer preview, which might come later this year. But we wouldn’t be surprised if Google decides to give us a glimpse of it during Google I/O in May this year.
