Android 16: adaptive by default, Live Updates

Android 16 is the release that made large screens non-negotiable. On tablets and foldables, apps targeting API 36 can no longer lock orientation or refuse to resize, and predictive back and edge-to-edge stopped being optional. It was also the first Android with two SDK releases in one year: the major one in June, and a minor one, 36.1, in December.

At a glance

Google released Android 16 on 10 June 2025 for the Pixel 6 and newer, including the Pixel 6a, Pixel Tablet and Pixel Fold. Google’s consumer post called it “the earliest Android has launched a major release in the last few years.” The first AOSP build, BP2A.250605.031.A2, carries the June 2025 security patch.

The preview cycle started early too. Developer Preview 1 came out on 19 November 2024; the five releases before it had opened their previews in February. Beta 1 followed on 23 January 2025, Beta 3 reached platform stability on 13 March, and Beta 4, the last scheduled beta, came on 17 April. The two developer previews and four betas are the parts below this overview.

The first phones sold with Android 16 were Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold7 and Z Flip7, announced on 9 July and on sale from 25 July 2025 with One UI 8. Samsung says they were the first devices to ship with Android 16 out of the box. The Galaxy Z Flip7 FE, announced the same day, also ships with Android 16 and One UI 8.

Google confirmed the dessert name Baklava to Android Faithful in October 2024 and said it stays internal. Unlike Android 10 to 12, the name is visible to developers: the SDK constant is BAKLAVA.

What it brought

• Progress-centric notifications. Notification.ProgressStyle draws a progress bar with Point milestones and Segment states, for rides, deliveries and navigation. Google called it “the basis for Live Updates”.
• Live Updates. The system promotes some ongoing notifications to the top of the shade, the lock screen and a status bar chip. Pixel launched them with ride-share and food delivery apps (see QPR2 for the public API).
• Notification grouping. Notifications from one app are grouped automatically, whatever the app does.
• Adaptive refresh rate. Display.hasArrSupport() and Display.getSuggestedFrameRate(int) help apps on displays that change their refresh rate on the fly. RecyclerView 1.4 uses it when a fling settles.
• Performance tools. ProfilingManager starts traces by itself on events such as a cold start or an ANR. JobScheduler.getPendingJobReasonsHistory() explains why a job has not run. Games get CPU and GPU headroom APIs.
• Camera and media. Hybrid auto-exposure, colour temperature and tint controls, night mode detection, motion photo intents, UltraHDR in HEIC, and the APV codec (MediaFormat.MIMETYPE_VIDEO_APV) for professional video.
• Photo picker. It can be embedded in an app’s own view hierarchy.
• Health records. Health Connect gained early-access APIs to read and write medical records in FHIR format, with explicit user consent.
• Vertical text. With Paint.VERTICAL_TEXT_FLAG, Paint measures and Canvas draws text top to bottom, for scripts such as Japanese. It is a low-level API for libraries: TextView and the Layout classes do not support it.
• Accessibility. “Outline text” replaces high contrast text, Auracast broadcast audio is supported, and LE Audio hearing aid users can talk through the phone’s microphone in noisy places. Developers got setSupplementalDescription() for view groups and AccessibilityNodeInfo.setFieldRequired() for required form fields.
• Other APIs. A RangingManager for UWB, Bluetooth channel sounding and Wi-Fi RTT; AGSL colour filters (RuntimeColorFilter); richer haptics in android.os.vibrator; and a “Measurement system” setting under Languages & region.

The Material 3 Expressive redesign was not in the June release. Google said more design updates would come later in 2025. They reached the Pixel 6 and newer and the Pixel Tablet in the September Pixel Drop, on 3 September 2025.

Desktop windowing was announced but also not in the June release. Google built it with Samsung: on large screens, apps open in windows that can be moved and resized, beside the single-app and split-screen modes. Google said it would reach compatible devices later in 2025.

Security and privacy

• Advanced Protection. One switch, under Security & privacy, turns on Google’s strictest device settings for people at risk, such as journalists. It blocks sideloading, turns off 2G and WEP, enables memory tagging (MTE) on supported devices, protects USB, reboots a phone locked for 72 hours, and can keep encrypted intrusion logs. Apps check it with AdvancedProtectionManager and the QUERY_ADVANCED_PROTECTION_MODE permission.
• Intent redirection hardening. Android 16 blocks general intent redirection by default, for every app. An app that has to forward a nested intent can opt out with Intent.removeLaunchSecurityProtection().
• Safer intents, opt-in. With android:intentMatchingFlags="enforceIntentFilter", an explicit intent must match the target’s intent filter, and intents without an action match nothing.
• Key sharing. KeyStoreManager.grantKeyAccess() lets an app give another app, by UID, access to an Android Keystore key.
• MediaStore version. MediaStore.getVersion() returns a value unique to each app; do not parse it or assume its format.
• GPU syscall filtering. On Pixel 6 to 9, deprecated and development-only Mali GPU IOCTLs are blocked in production builds.

Permissions

• Health sensors. For apps targeting 36, BODY_SENSORS gives way to granular android.permissions.health permissions such as READ_HEART_RATE, and BODY_SENSORS_BACKGROUND to READ_HEALTH_DATA_IN_BACKGROUND. Phone apps must also show a privacy policy activity, or the permission is revoked.
• Local network, preview. Google announced that local network access (mDNS, SSDP, NsdManager, sockets to private ranges) will need a runtime permission. In Android 16 it is opt-in for testing only: adb shell am compat enable RESTRICT_LOCAL_NETWORK <package>. While the test flag is on, NEARBY_WIFI_DEVICES restores access.
• Limited photo access. For apps targeting 36, photos the app created are pre-selected when the user grants partial media access.
• New permissions for features. QUERY_ADVANCED_PROTECTION_MODE (see above). Live Updates gained POST_PROMOTED_NOTIFICATIONS in QPR2.

What changed for your app

All apps on Android 16

Apps targeting API 36

Games are exempt from the large-screen rule if they declare android:appCategory="game", and users can still pick the app’s old behaviour in the device’s aspect ratio settings. Developers got a temporary opt-out, the android.window.PROPERTY_COMPAT_ALLOW_RESTRICTED_RESIZABILITY property, which Google said would not apply once an app targets API 37.

Edge-to-edge was already enforced for apps targeting 35 in Android 15, which still allowed the opt-out attribute. Android 16 removed that escape.

Android 16 QPR2 and the first minor SDK

Android 16 changed Android’s release model. Google announced a major SDK release in Q2 2025, with behaviour changes, and a minor SDK release in Q4 2025 with new APIs only. The quarterly updates in between bring features but no new SDK.

The minor release is Android 16 QPR2, released on 2 December 2025 to the Pixel 6 and newer, Pixel 10 included. source.android.com lists it as API level 36.1. Google’s post calls it “the first release to utilize a minor SDK version”.

SDK_INT stays at 36. A new field, Build.VERSION.SDK_INT_FULL, carries the major and minor version. In AOSP the value is the major level times 100,000 plus the minor, so VERSION_CODES_FULL.BAKLAVA_1 is 3600001. The source documents the rule: minor releases add APIs with “no changes gated by targetSdkVersion”. Build.getMajorSdkVersion() and getMinorSdkVersion() decode the value. Google’s own check tests both fields:

if ((Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.BAKLAVA) &&
    (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT_FULL >= Build.VERSION_CODES_FULL.BAKLAVA_1)) {
  // Call new APIs from the Android 16 QPR2 release
}

To compile against 36.1, AGP 8.13.0 or higher accepts a minor level:

android {
    compileSdk {
        version = release(36) { minorApiLevel = 1 }
    }
}

What QPR2 added:

• Live Updates for every app. POST_PROMOTED_NOTIFICATIONS appears in the public API at the QPR2 tag, not at 36. An ongoing notification with a title, a supported style and setRequestPromotedOngoing(true) can be promoted. NotificationManager.canPostPromotedNotifications() tells whether the user allows it.
• Expanded dark theme. Users can force dark theme on apps that have none; the system reads isLightTheme to decide what to invert.
• Themed icons for all apps. If an app has no monochrome icon layer, the system generates one. Users can also pick icon shapes.
• SMS OTP protection. For most apps, a message carrying an SMS Retriever hash is held for three hours: the RECEIVE_SMS broadcast is withheld and SMS provider queries are filtered.
• Other APIs. Interactive chooser sessions, developer verification APIs for app installs, widget engagement metrics, IAMF audio decoding, and Health Connect steps recorded by the device itself.

What lasted

• Large screens. Android 17 removed the temporary opt-out: apps targeting 37 on sw600dp displays cannot keep their orientation or aspect ratio locks.
• Local network. The QPR2 API already lists an ACCESS_LOCAL_NETWORK permission. Android 17 blocks local network access by default for apps targeting 37.
• SMS OTP. Android 17 extends the three-hour hold to OTP messages for most apps targeting 37.
• ART. Google listed a generational Concurrent Mark-Compact collector among the QPR2 changes; the Android 17 note covers it, since ART updates through Google Play system updates.
• Process. For Android 17, Google skipped developer previews and went from Canary straight to beta; see the Android 17 betas, from Beta 1 to Beta 4, and the memory limits.

Worth knowing

• The dessert alphabet started over. After Vanilla Ice Cream, Google confirmed Baklava, a B, and the first Android 16 build ID starts with B as well: BP2A.250605.031.A2.
• The Easter egg is the Android 15 starfield, sped up. In AOSP the maximum warp went from 10f with the comment “after all these years” in Android 15 to 16f with “must go faster”, and the stars from 34 to 128.
• Holding the logo, or the space bar, warps the stars for five seconds; a second later the next stage opens: Landroid, the space game from Android 14, now with an Android 16 icon. The activity also asks for an HDR colour mode, “silently ignored on displays that don’t support HDR color”.
• Android 16 was the only 2025 release with planned behaviour changes; Google said so in its launch post.