Android 15 rolled out to Pixel phones only last month, and Google is now offering a sneak peek at what’s next. The first Android 16 release preview is now out for developers, revealing early changes in the upcoming OS, though these are very few at the moment as they evolve over time.
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The first preview build allows developers to embed Android’s photo picker. This will allow users to select specific photos and videos a particular app can access. So, you won’t have to unnecessarily allow apps to access all images and videos on your device, which is excellent for privacy. iPhones already have this feature, though.
Early changes to Health Connect include new APIs supporting health records. Google says, “This allows apps to read and write medical records in FHIR format with explicit user consent,” This could allow users’ health data to be synced across apps and devices with their permission.
The preview build also includes the latest version of Privacy Sandbox, enhancing user privacy in mobile advertising.
As of now, the changes are too few to get excited about, but it’s early days: expect to hear more about major upgrades when the public beta launches in January 2025 and at the Google I/O event, which is likely to happen in May 2025.
We should have another developer preview build in December, followed by at least two beta releases in January and February before Android 16 hit platform stability around March. The stable version might start rolling out to Pixels in June 2025.
I’m looking forward to being one of the early tester