Android 16 introduces great new features and APIs for developers. The following sections summarize these features to help you get started with the related APIs.
For a detailed list of new, modified, and removed APIs, read the API diff report. For details on new APIs visit the Android API reference — new APIs are highlighted for visibility.You should also review areas where platform changes might affect your apps. For more information, see the following pages:
- Behavior changes that affect apps when they target Android 16
- Behavior changes that affect all apps regardless of
targetSdkVersion.
Core functionality
Android includes new APIs that expand core capabilities of the Android system.
Two Android API releases in 2025
- This preview is for the next major release of Android with a planned launch in Q2 of 2025. This release is similar to all of our API releases in the past, where we can have planned behavior changes that are often tied to a targetSdkVersion.
- We're planning the major release a quarter earlier (Q2 rather than Q3 in prior years) to better align with the schedule of device launches across our ecosystem, so more devices can get the major release of Android sooner. With the major release coming in Q2, you'll need to do your annual compatibility testing a few months earlier than in previous years to make sure your apps are ready.
- We plan to have another release in Q4 of 2025 which also will include new developer APIs. The Q2 major release will be the only release in 2025 to include planned behavior changes that could affect apps.
In addition to new developer APIs, the Q4 minor release will pick up feature updates, optimizations, and bug fixes; it will not include any app-impacting behavior changes.
We'll continue to have quarterly Android releases. The Q1 and Q3 updates in-between the API releases will provide incremental updates to help ensure continuous quality. We're actively working with our device partners to bring the Q2 release to as many devices as possible.
Using new APIs with major and minor releases
Guarding a code block with a check for API level is done today using
the SDK_INT constant with
VERSION_CODES. This will continue
to be supported for major Android releases.
if (SDK_INT >= VERSION_CODES.BAKLAVA) {
// Use APIs introduced in Android 16
}
The new SDK_INT_FULL
constant can be used for API checks against both major and minor versions with
the new VERSION_CODES_FULL
enumeration.
if (SDK_INT_FULL >= VERSION_CODES_FULL.[MAJOR or MINOR RELEASE]) {
// Use APIs introduced in a major or minor release
}
You can also use the
Build.getMinorSdkVersion()
method to get just the minor SDK version.
val minorSdkVersion = Build.getMinorSdkVersion(VERSION_CODES_FULL.BAKLAVA)
These APIs have not yet been finalized and are subject to change, so please send us feedback if you have any concerns.
User experience and system UI
Android 16 gives app developers and users more control and flexibility for configuring their device to fit their needs.
Progress-centric notifications
Android 16 introduces progress-centric notifications to help users seamlessly track user-initiated, start-to-end journeys.
Notification.ProgressStyle is a new notification
style that lets you create progress-centric notifications. Key use cases include
rideshare, delivery, and navigation. Within the Notification.ProgressStyle
class, you can denote states and milestones in a user journey using
points and segments.
To learn more, see the Progress-centric notifications documentation page.
Predictive back updates
Android 16 adds new APIs to help you enable predictive back system animations in
gesture navigation such as the back-to-home animation. Registering the
onBackInvokedCallback with the new
PRIORITY_SYSTEM_NAVIGATION_OBSERVER allows your app to
receive the regular onBackInvoked call whenever the
system handles a back navigation without impacting the normal back navigation
flow.
Android 16 additionally adds the
finishAndRemoveTaskCallback() and
moveTaskToBackCallback. By registering these callbacks
with the OnBackInvokedDispatcher, the system can trigger
specific behaviors and play corresponding ahead-of-time animations when the back
gesture is invoked.
Richer haptics
Android has exposed control over the haptic actuator ever since its inception.
Android 11 added support for more complex haptic effects that more advanced
actuators could support through
VibrationEffect.Compositions of device-defined semantic
primitives.
Android 16 adds haptic APIs that let apps define the amplitude and frequency curves of a haptic effect while abstracting away differences between device capabilities.
Performance and battery
Android 16 introduces APIs that help gather insights about your apps.
System-triggered profiling
ProfilingManager was
added in Android 15, giving apps the ability to
request profiling data collection using Perfetto on public devices in the field.
However, since this profiling must be started from the app, critical flows such
as startups or ANRs would be difficult or impossible for apps to capture.
To help with this, Android 16 introduces system-triggered profiling to
ProfilingManager. Apps can register interest in receiving traces for certain
triggers such as cold start reportFullyDrawn
or ANRs, and then the system starts and stops a trace on the app's behalf. After
the trace completes, the results are delivered to the app's data directory.
Start component in ApplicationStartInfo
ApplicationStartInfo was added in Android
15, allowing an app to see reasons
for process start, start type, start times, throttling, and other useful
diagnostic data. Android 16 adds
getStartComponent()
to distinguish what component type triggered the start, which can be helpful for
optimizing the startup flow of your app.
Better job introspection
The JobScheduler#getPendingJobReason() API returns a reason why a job
might be pending. However, a job might be pending for multiple reasons.
In Android 16, we are introducing a new API
JobScheduler#getPendingJobReasons(int jobId), which returns multiple
reasons why a job is pending, due to both explicit constraints set by the
developer and implicit constraints set by the system.
We're also introducing
JobScheduler#getPendingJobReasonsHistory(int jobId), which returns a list
of the most recent constraint changes.
We recommend using the API to help you debug why your jobs may not be executing, especially if you're seeing reduced success rates of certain tasks or have bugs around latency of certain job completion. For example, updating widgets in the background failed to occur or prefetch job failed to be called prior to app start.
This can also better help you understand if certain jobs are not completing due to system defined constraints versus explicitly set constraints.
Adaptive refresh rate
Adaptive refresh rate (ARR), introduced in Android 15, enables the display refresh rate on supported hardware to adapt to the content frame rate using discrete VSync steps. This reduces power consumption while eliminating the need for potentially jank-inducing mode-switching.
Android 16 introduces hasArrSupport() and
getSuggestedFrameRate(int) while restoring
getSupportedRefreshRates() to make it easier for your apps to take
advantage of ARR. RecyclerView
1.4 internally supports ARR when it is settling from a fling or
smooth scroll, and we're continuing our work to add ARR
support into more Jetpack libraries. This frame rate article covers
many of the APIs you can use to set the frame rate so that your app can directly
use ARR.
Accessibility
Android 16 adds new accessibility APIs to help you bring your app to every user.
Supplemental descriptions
When an accessibility service describes a ViewGroup, it combines
content labels from its child views. If you provide a contentDescription for
the ViewGroup, accessibility services assume you are also overriding the
description of non-focusable child views. This can be problematic if you want to
label things like a drop-down (for example, "Font Family") while preserving the
current selection for accessibility (for example, "Roboto"). Android 16 adds
setSupplementalDescription so you can provide text that provides
information about a ViewGroup without overriding information from its
children.
Required form fields
Android 16 adds setFieldRequired to
AccessibilityNodeInfo so apps can tell an accessibility service
that input to a form field is required. This is an important scenario for users
filling out many types of forms, even things as simple as a required terms and
conditions checkbox, helping users to consistently identify and quickly navigate
between required fields.
Phone as microphone input for voice calls with LEA hearing aids
Android 16 adds the capability for users of LE Audio hearing aids to switch between the built-in microphones on the hearing aids and the microphone on their phone for voice calls. This can be helpful in noisy environments or other situations where the hearing aid's microphones might not perform well.
Ambient volume controls for LEA hearing aids
Android 16 adds the capability for users of LE Audio hearing aids to adjust the volume of ambient sound that is picked up by the hearing aid's microphones. This can be helpful in situations where background noise is too loud or too quiet.
Camera
Android 16 includes features that improve the camera experience.
Camera night mode scene detection
To help your app know when to switch to and from a night mode camera session,
Android 16 adds EXTENSION_NIGHT_MODE_INDICATOR. If
supported, it's available in the CaptureResult within
Camera2.
This is the API we briefly mentioned as coming soon in the How Instagram enabled users to take stunning low light photos blog post. That post is a practical guide on how to implement night mode together with a case study that links higher-quality in-app night mode photos with an increase in the number of photos shared from the in-app camera.
Connectivity
Android 16 updates the platform to give your app access to the latest advances in communication and wireless technologies.
Ranging with enhanced security
Android 16 adds support for robust security features in Wi-Fi location on supported devices with Wi-Fi 6's 802.11az, allowing apps to combine the higher accuracy, greater scalability, and dynamic scheduling of the protocol with security enhancements including AES-256-based encryption and protection against MITM attacks. This allows it to be used more safely in proximity use cases, such as unlocking a laptop or a vehicle door. 802.11az is integrated with the Wi-Fi 6 standard, leveraging its infrastructure and capabilities for wider adoption and easier deployment.
Generic ranging APIs
Android 16 includes the new RangingManager, which provides
ways to determine the distance and angle on supported hardware between the local
device and a remote device. RangingManager supports the usage of a variety of
ranging technologies such as BLE channel sounding, BLE RSSI-based ranging, Ultra
Wideband, and Wi-Fi round trip time.
Media
Android 16 includes a variety of features that improve the media experience.
Photo picker improvements
The photo picker provides a safe, built-in way for users to grant your app access to selected images and videos from both local and cloud storage, instead of their entire media library. Using a combination of Modular System Components through Google System Updates and Google Play services, it's supported back to Android 4.4 (API level 19). Integration requires just a few lines of code with the associated Android Jetpack library.
Android 16 includes the following improvements to the photo picker:
- Embedded photo picker: New APIs that enable apps to embed the photo picker into their view hierarchy. This allows it to feel like a more integrated part of the app while still leveraging the process isolation that allows users to select media without the app needing overly broad permissions. To maximize compatibility across platform versions and simplify your integration, you'll want to use the forthcoming Android Jetpack library if you want to integrate the embedded photo picker.
- Cloud search in photo picker: New APIs that enable searching from the cloud media provider for the Android photo picker. Search functionality in the photo picker is coming soon.
Advanced Professional Video
Android 16 introduces support for the Advanced Professional Video (APV) codec which is designed to be used for professional level high quality video recording and post production.
The APV codec standard has the following features:
- Perceptually lossless video quality (close to raw video quality)
- Low complexity and high throughput intra-frame-only coding (without pixel domain prediction) to better support editing workflows
- Support for high bit-rate range up to a few Gbps for 2K, 4K and 8K resolution content, enabled by a lightweight entropy coding scheme
- Frame tiling for immersive content and for enabling parallel encoding and decoding
- Support for various chroma sampling formats and bit-depths
- Support for multiple decoding and re-encoding without severe visual quality degradation
- Support multi-view video and auxiliary video like depth, alpha, and preview
- Support for HDR10/10+ and user-defined metadata
A reference implementation of APV is provided through the OpenAPV project. Android 16 will implement support for the APV 422-10 Profile that provides YUV 422 color sampling along with 10-bit encoding and for target bitrates of up to 2Gbps.
Privacy
Android 16 includes a variety of features that help app developers protect user privacy.
Health Connect updates
Health Connect in the developer preview adds ACTIVITY_INTENSITY, a new
data type defined according to World Health Organization guidelines around
moderate and vigorous activity. Each record requires the start time, the end
time and whether the activity intensity is moderate or vigorous.
Health Connect also contains updated APIs supporting health records. This allows apps to read and write medical records in FHIR format with explicit user consent. This API is in an early access program. If you'd like to participate, sign up to be part of our early access program.
Privacy Sandbox on Android
Android 16 incorporates the latest version of the Privacy Sandbox on Android, part of our ongoing work to develop technologies where users know their privacy is protected. Our website has more about the Privacy Sandbox on Android developer beta program to help you get started. Check out the SDK Runtime which allows SDKs to run in a dedicated runtime environment separate from the app they are serving, providing stronger safeguards around user data collection and sharing.
Internationalization
Android 16 adds features and capabilities that complement the user experience when a device is used in different languages.
Vertical text
Android 16 adds low-level support for rendering and measuring text vertically to
provide foundational vertical writing support for library developers. This is
particularly useful for languages like Japanese that commonly use vertical
writing systems. A new flag,
VERTICAL_TEXT_FLAG,
has been added to the Paint class. When
this flag is set using
Paint.setFlags, Paint's
text measurement APIs will report vertical advances instead of horizontal
advances, and Canvas will draw text
vertically.
val text = "「春は、曙。」"
Box(
Modifier.padding(innerPadding).background(Color.White).fillMaxSize().drawWithContent {
drawIntoCanvas { canvas ->
val paint = Paint().apply { textSize = 64.sp.toPx() }
// Draw text vertically
paint.flags = paint.flags or VERTICAL_TEXT_FLAG
val height = paint.measureText(text)
canvas.nativeCanvas.drawText(
text,
0,
text.length,
size.width / 2,
(size.height - height) / 2,
paint
)
}
}
) {}