The Android growth group at present introduced the primary beta for the upcoming Android 16, which is anticipated to be launched in Q2 of 2025.
At the moment, it’s anticipated that Android 16 will attain platform stability in March, at which level the Android group will ship the ultimate SDK and NDK APIs in addition to last inside APIs and app-facing system behaviors.
“This construct consists of help for the way forward for app adaptivity, Dwell Updates, the Superior Skilled Video format, and extra. We’re trying ahead to listening to what you assume, and thanks prematurely on your continued assist in making Android a platform that works for everybody,” Matthew McCullough, VP of Product Administration for Android Developer at Google, wrote in a blog post.
To higher help adaptive apps — apps that change layouts based mostly on the dimensions of the display — the Android group has determined to start phasing out the flexibility for apps to limit display orientation and resizability for giant screens. For screens which are bigger than 600dp large, apps concentrating on API stage 36 could have app home windows that resize, and subsequently, it is strongly recommended builders verify their apps to make sure the UI scales seamlessly.
The Android group can be introducing Dwell Updates, that are notifications that assist “customers monitor and shortly entry necessary ongoing actions.” There’s now a ProgressStyle notification template that can be utilized to construct all these notifications for rideshare, supply, and navigation. Dwell 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 embody help for the Superior Skilled Video (APV) code and evening mode scene detection to assist apps determine when to modify to and from evening mode within the digicam.
This launch can even embody 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 flexibility to supply textual content a couple of ViewGroup with out overriding details about its kids, and the addition of setFieldRequired to AccessibilityNodeInfo, which allows apps to inform an accessibility service that enter to a type discipline is required. “This is a vital situation for customers filling out many sorts of types, even issues so simple as a required phrases and circumstances checkbox, serving to customers to constantly determine and shortly navigate between required fields,” McCullough wrote.
Based on the Android growth group, with this launch, any supported Pixel system is ready to get this replace over-the-air. If a Pixel system isn’t out there, builders can use the Android Emulator in Android Studio.
