Google releases Android 16 for developers, here are all the new features

Android 16

While Android 15 is still not available for all major smartphones globally, Google has now surprisingly rolled out the first Android 16 Developer Preview update for eligible Pixel smartphones. This marks a significant shift in its release schedule for the next Android operating system update, as the company aims to launch the Android 16 update nearly three months earlier than usual in 2025.

Android 16: Release timeline, new features

Google, via a new blog post, announced the release of Android 16 Developer Preview 1, which is currently aimed at developers. Google believes that it will help Android manufacturers speed up in delivering the latest major updates for their smartphones, releasing in 2025.

Usually, Google releases the first developer update in the first quarter of the release year, but this early release means that the final public Android 16 build will be available by the second quarter of 2025. The tech giant has also confirmed that three more developer builds will be released before the full release and the first beta update will start rolling out in January.

With this Android 16 developer update, we get an embedded photo picker for apps. This functionality will provide a built-in way for users to grant app access to selected images and videos from both local and cloud storage, instead of choosing the whole internal storage. Google is updating Health Connect in Android 16. With the update, Health Connect will let apps read and write medical records in FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) format.

Further, Android 16 now has the latest version of the Privacy Sandbox on Android, which is Google's developing replacement for Android's advertising ID system. All the Pixel 6a and newer Pixel smartphones are eligible to receive the Android 16 Developer Preview 1 update.