The Android improvement workforce immediately introduced the primary beta for the upcoming Android 16, which is anticipated to be launched in Q2 of 2025.
At present, it’s anticipated that Android 16 will attain platform stability in March, at which level the Android workforce will ship the ultimate SDK and NDK APIs in addition to remaining inside APIs and app-facing system behaviors.
“This construct consists of help for the way forward for app adaptivity, Reside Updates, the Superior Skilled Video format, and extra. We’re trying ahead to listening to what you suppose, and thanks prematurely to your continued help make Android a platform that works for everybody,” Matthew McCullough, VP of Product Administration for Android Developer at Google, wrote in a weblog submit.
To raised help adaptive apps — apps that change layouts primarily based on the scale of the display — the Android workforce has determined to start phasing out the power for apps to limit display orientation and resizability for big screens. For screens which might be bigger than 600dp large, apps concentrating on API stage 36 may have app home windows that resize, and due to this fact, it is strongly recommended builders test their apps to make sure the UI scales seamlessly.
The Android workforce can be introducing Reside Updates, that are notifications that assist “customers monitor and rapidly entry necessary ongoing actions.” There may be now a ProgressStyle notification template that can be utilized to construct a majority of these notifications for rideshare, supply, and navigation. Reside Updates help customized icons for begin, finish, and present progress monitoring, segments and factors, person journey states, milestones, and extra.
Digicam and media updates in Android 16 embrace help for the Superior Skilled Video (APV) code and night time mode scene detection to assist apps determine when to modify to and from night time mode within the digital camera.
This launch can even embrace low-level help for rendering and measuring textual content vertically, which is beneficial for languages that use a vertical writing system, like Japanese.
And eventually, this launch consists of new accessibility updates, together with the power to supply textual content a couple of ViewGroup with out overriding details about its kids, and the addition of setFieldRequired to AccessibilityNodeInfo, which permits apps to inform an accessibility service that enter to a type subject is required. “This is a vital state of affairs for customers filling out many sorts of types, even issues so simple as a required phrases and situations checkbox, serving to customers to constantly establish and rapidly navigate between required fields,” McCullough wrote.
In response to the Android improvement workforce, with this launch, any supported Pixel machine is ready to get this replace over-the-air. If a Pixel machine isn’t accessible, builders can use the Android Emulator in Android Studio.
