Android 16 developer preview is out already

Google is moving up its Android release schedule next year and that means that the Developer Preview of Android 16 is out already, which is roughly three and a half months ahead of its usual release.

Generally Google releases its Developer Preview in February, but this year things are speeding up as Google aims to release Android 16 in the second quarter of 2025.

Google says this is to better align with the release schedule of device launches across the Google ecosystem, according to 9to5Google. To me, this makes sense since if Google launches Android 16 in the early summer, that means that when the Pixel hardware launches at the end of the summer, they’ll all be running the latest Google software. For context, the Pixel 9 series was announced at the end of August and Android 15 hit those phones on October 15th, roughly a month ago.

Since Google is moving up the dev preview, people who usually install Android Betas can expect that to launch in January since there will likely be two developer previews before the more feature-rich beta launches.

The first dev previews rarely bring all the new exciting features, and so far, it seems like most of what’s new are just APIs for app developers to help them get their apps ready for the upcoming OS. That said, there are a few cool features already in the OS.

One of the newest features that’s been uncovered by 9to5Google is a new notification setting called ‘Notification cooldown’ that will help users deal with a deluge of notifications. When you turn this on and get a lot of notifications at once without answering them, Android will recognize that you’re busy and lower the volume and minimize alerts for two minutes.

Another feature will allow users to share audio between multiple headphones. This is called ‘Audio Sharing,’ and if you and someone else have headphones with the Bluetooth Low Energy function, you can dive into the ‘Connection preferences’ area in the settings app to set it up.

As of right now, only Google’s Pixel phones can install the developer preview, but it will work on phones as old as the Pixel 6.

Source: Android developers, 9to5Google