Android 16 Will Launch Earlier Than Usual

Google is advancing the release timeline for Android 16, shifting it to the second quarter of 2025 to better align with new device launches and accelerate access to its latest AI and machine learning resources. It should also "enable app creators and phone companies to prepare their products for the new software more quickly," reports CNET. From the report: [I]n a big-picture sense, the change could help facilitate a new wave of apps with more AI integration, considering developers will get access to Google's latest machine learning and AI resources even sooner. "We're in a once-in-a-generation moment to completely reimagine what our smartphones can do and how we interact with them," Google's Seang Chau, who took on the role of vice president and general manager of the Android Platform earlier this year, said in an interview with CNET. "It's a really exciting time for smartphones, and we've been putting a lot of thought into what we want to do next with them."

In addition to moving up the major release, Google will roll out a minor update in the fourth quarter of 2025 with feature updates, optimizations and bug fixes. It's a notable switch from Google's usual release timeline, but it's just one of several changes the company has made to the way it distributes Android updates in an effort to add features more frequently. [...] "Things are moving quite fast in the AI world right now," Chau said. "So we want to make sure that we get those developer [application programming interfaces], especially around machine learning and AI, available to our developers so they can build these capabilities faster and get them out to our users faster."

Android 16 Will Launch Earlier Than Usual

[ls671]

Android 16 Will Launch Earlier Than Usual

How many times has Android 16 launched already? I don't follow Android 16 closely but they say: "Earlier Than Usual."

Re:

[Fly Swatter]

Don't quit your day job.

-Sadly yes, that thing was on.

Re:

[bill_mcgonigle]

Can you really not figure out what this means or are you just wasting our time for fun?

Re:

[Errol backfiring]

That is not what they mean. As you may know, for every launch there is a launch window: the period in which the heavenly bodies are properly aligned. So they will launch anyway, even though Pluto is not in Sagittarius or something.

Translation

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

The shareholders are getting restless and want to see some return on their insanity-level AI investment sooner rather than later, so they want AI shoved down people's throats asap.

I'd still be using Android 4 if

[vrhelmutt]

Google hadn't have broken it. I wish I could have continued to use my HTC instead of the garbage that I have now.

Re:

[BenJaminus]

I'm the same with Android 8.
Be nice if the new versions made the UX less frustrating rather than introducing AI features that don't help me.

Dr.Gero wasn't planning to launch him yet

[Z80a]

However, unforeseen circumstances led to android 16 to be launched anyway.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

It's 17 and 18 you need to watch out for, although in time 18 made Kuririn happy.

LTS kernels

[ChunderDownunder]

The main benefit of shorter release cycles is to take advantage of newer Linux features, perhaps.

i.e. A new LTS 6.12 is expected to drop on kernel.org in a week or two, so they can obsolete 6.1 as per the table entry for Android 15.

https://source.android.com/doc... [android.com]

An incentive for Qualcomm, Samsung and Mediatek to upstream their out of tree patches into mainline to encourage OEMs (e.g. Lenovo/Moto) to do the right thing, one hopes.

Last major update for Pixel 6a

[Zen-Mind]

Since Pixel 6a major updates support ends on July 2025, this means owners are likely to get it as well. Kind of a good news if Google doesn't screw it up.