Tech

Google rolling out Android 16 Beta 1 for Pixel

admin 01/23/2025

21 4 minutes read

Right this moment information
2025-01-23 19:00:00

The primary beta of the following main model of Google’s cellular OS is launching at this time with Android 16 Beta 1 rolling out to Pixel units. This launch will probably be out there later at this time.

Android 16 Beta 1 is the “preliminary beta-quality launch” and the primary this cycle to be out there as an over-the-air replace for these enrolled within the Android Beta Program.

Android 16 introduces Dwell Updates as a “new class of notifications that assist customers monitor and shortly entry essential ongoing actions,” like journey sharing, meals supply, and navigation.

The brand new ProgressStyle notification template offers a constant person expertise for Dwell Updates, serving to you construct for these progress-centric person journeys: rideshare, supply, and navigation. It contains assist for customized icons for the beginning, finish, and present progress monitoring, segments and factors for person journey states, milestones, and extra.

In the meantime, Google is “phasing out the flexibility for apps to limit display orientation and resizability on massive screens,” or letterboxing. This solely applies to apps and never video games.

On screens bigger than 600dp extensive, apps that focus on API degree 36 may have app home windows that resize; you need to test your apps to make sure your current UIs scale seamlessly, working nicely throughout portrait and panorama facet ratios. We’re offering frameworks, tooling, and libraries to assist.

Android 16 (2025): Adjustments apply to massive screens (600dp in width) for apps focusing on API degree 36 (builders can opt-out).
Android launch in 2026: Adjustments apply to massive screens for apps focusing on API degree 37 (no opt-out).

Android 16 provides assist for the Superior Skilled Video (APV) codec, particularly the APV 422-10 Profile (YUV 422 coloration sampling together with 10-bit encoding and for goal bitrates of as much as 2Gbps). Meant for high-quality video recording and put up manufacturing, the usual permits for:

Perceptually lossless video high quality (near uncooked video high quality)
Low complexity and excessive throughput intra-frame-only coding (with out pixel area prediction) to raised assist enhancing workflows
Help for top bit-rate vary up to a couple Gbps for 2K, 4K and 8K decision content material, enabled by a light-weight entropy coding scheme
Body tiling for immersive content material and for enabling parallel encoding and decoding
Help for varied chroma sampling codecs and bit-depths
Help for a number of decoding and re-encoding with out extreme visible high quality degradation
Help multi-view video and auxiliary video like depth, alpha, and preview
Help for HDR10/10+ and user-defined metadata

Generic Ranging APIs (RangingManager) will use BLE channel sounding, BLE RSSI-based ranging, Extremely-Wideband, and WiFi spherical journey time to “decide the space and angle on supported {hardware} between the native gadget and a distant gadget.”

Google is continuous to encourage predictive again adoption by enabling it by default for apps that focus on/run on Android 16, whereas 3-button navigation is now supported. Whenever you long-press the again button, a predictive again animation/preview is initiated.

This habits applies throughout all areas of the system that assist predictive again animations, together with the system animations (back-to-home, cross-task, and cross-activity).

Different notable additions embrace:

“To assist your app know when to change to and from an evening mode digicam session, Android 16 provides EXTENSION_NIGHT_MODE_INDICATOR.”
“Android 16 provides low-level assist for rendering and measuring textual content vertically to supply foundational vertical writing assist for library builders.”
“Android 16 provides setFieldRequired to AccessibilityNodeInfo so apps can inform an accessibility service that enter to a type subject is required.”
“Samsung simply launched new Gemini Extensions on the S25 sequence, demonstrating new methods Android apps can combine with the ability of Gemini. We’re working to make this performance out there to extra apps with extra OEMs on extra units throughout extra type elements.”

You’ll be able to go away suggestions with the Android Beta Suggestions app on Pixel units. Entry it from the drawer or by way of Fast Settings to file bugs within the Google problem tracker. There’s additionally the Android Beta neighborhood on Reddit.

“If you’re at present on Android 16 Developer Preview 2 or are already within the Android Beta program, you may be supplied an over-the-air replace to Beta 1.”
“If you’re within the Android 15 QPR2 Beta and want to get the ultimate steady launch of QPR2 and exit the Beta program, you have to ignore the over-the-air replace to Android 16 Beta 1 and anticipate the discharge of QPR2.”

Android 16 Beta 1 (XXXX) system photographs with the January 2025 safety patch will probably be out there for the Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Professional, Pixel 6a, Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Professional, Pixel 7a, Pixel Pill, Pixel Fold, Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Professional, Pixel 8a, Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Professional, Pixel 9 Professional XL, and Pixel Professional Fold, in addition to the Android Emulator.