Google LLC today released the first preview version of Android 16, the next major version of its mobile operation system.

Developer previews provide individual developers and teams a first look at the new operating system features and architectural changes. The Google Android team also said this is the beginning of a faster release cycle for the operating system than in previous years to speed up innovation on the platform.

As a result, there will be two application programming interface releases in 2025. One will be part of a major software development kit release in the second quarter of 2025, along with behavior changes and features, and a second minor SDK release during the fourth quarter. During the other two quarters, the team said, there will be feature releases only.

From a programming perspective, an API is a set of rules for how software applications talk to each other and the operating system. APIs act as a contract to describe how communication happens, essentially defining requests and responses.

With major releases happening in the second quarter, developers will need to do annual behavioral and compatibility testing a few months earlier than in previous years to ensure certain apps will operate correctly in the new version.

“We’re actively working with our device partners to bring the Q2 release to as many devices as possible,” said Matthew McCullough, vice president of product management for Android at Google.

The APIs affected in the first preview are the embedded photo picker, health records and Privacy Sandbox for Android.

The photo picker provides a security and privacy-oriented way for users to grant apps access to user-selected images and videos from local or cloud storage. That way, users can permit or disallow apps from seeing their entire media library. The developer preview includes new APIs that allow apps to embed the photo picker and integrate it directly.

In the developer preview, Health Connect contains an early version of APIs supporting health records. Health Connect allows Android to share health and fitness data between apps, store data on devices — online and offline — as well as manage privacy settings and unify health data. The new interface will allow developers to develop apps that work with Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources formatted records, a standard for exchanging electronic health records.

Android 16 also incorporates the latest version of Privacy Sandbox for Android. It’s a software toolkit designed to help improve user privacy by limiting the amount of data available to external apps, websites and other third parties. Developers will get access to a software development kit runtime and a specialized set of privacy-preserving APIs that allow SDKs to run in a dedicated environment separate from the apps they serve. That’s aimed at helping prevent private or sensitive information about the user’s device from leaking through the app.

Developers can start with the Android 16 Preview by flashing a system image and updating the tools. The Android team is also seeking feedback during these early stages to help adjust future builds based on community needs.

The Android team is targeting platform stability for March of next year, after which there will be no major feature updates or behavioral changes, only bug fixes and minor tweaks. Once the platform is stabilized, the operating system will be on its path to final release, which will take several months. During that time developers will have time to prepare, test and polish their apps.

Image: Google