Android 16 Preview

Welcome to the Android 16 Preview, a program that gives you everything you need to make your apps compatible with and build for the next version of Android. You can get started right away by downloading the Preview SDK and tools.

Timeline, milestones, and updates

The Android 16 Preview program runs from November 2024 until the final public release to AOSP and OEMs, planned for next year. At key development milestones, we'll deliver updates for your development and testing environments. Each update includes SDK tools, system images, emulators, API reference, and API diffs. See the following table to learn more about what you should focus on during each milestone.

Timeline	Build	Type	Developer actions
November	Developer Preview 1	Early baseline build focused on developer feedback, with some new features, APIs, and behavior changes.	Explore new APIs and behavior changes and report any critical issues or requests to us during this time. Begin early app compatibility testing.
December	Developer Preview 2	Incremental update with additional features, APIs, and behavior changes.	Continue to send feedback on behavior changes and APIs. Get apps ready for consumer Beta. Continue compatibility testing and publish app updates to testing tracks without changing targeting.
January	Beta 1	Initial beta-quality release, over-the-air update to early adopters who enroll in Android Beta.	Continue compatibility testing and watch for feedback from Android Beta users. Start early testing with targeting Android 16. Notify SDK and library developers of any compatibility issues.
February	Beta 2	Incremental Beta-quality release	Continue compatibility testing, watch for feedback from Android Beta users. Continue early testing with targeting Android 16. Continue notifying SDK and library developers of any compatibility issues.
Platform Stability
March	Beta 3	First Platform Stability milestone including final APIs and behaviors. Play publishing also opens.	Start final compatibility testing for apps, SDKs, and libraries. Release compatible app versions. Continue work to target Android 16. Update SDKs and libraries and notify their developers of any compatibility issues.
April, May	Beta 4, ...	Near-final builds for final testing.	Release compatible versions of apps, SDKs, and libraries. Continue work to target Android 16. Build with new features and APIs.
	Final release	Android 16 release to AOSP and ecosystem.	Release compatible versions for apps, SDKs, and libraries. Continue work to target Android 16. Build with new features and APIs.

Platform Stability milestone

Android 16 includes a milestone called Platform Stability to help you plan your final testing and releases. This milestone means that Android 16 has reached final internal and external APIs, final app-facing behaviors, and final non-SDK API lists. We expect Android 16 to reach Platform Stability at Beta 3 in March 2025. From that point, you can expect no further changes affecting your apps.

We encourage all app, game, SDK, library, and game engine developers to use the Platform Stability milestone as a target for planning final compatibility testing and public release. Using Platform Stability instead of final release gives you several additional weeks before consumers can receive the new platform on their devices.

Preview phases

Each phase of the preview program helps you prepare your apps for the stable release of AOSP and the Android ecosystem.

Developer Previews 1 and 2

During the Developer Previews, you should focus on API feedback and app compatibility. App compatibility means making sure the current version of your app looks right and runs well on the new platform.

The Developer Preview builds provide an early test and development environment you can use to try new APIs, identify compatibility issues in your app, and plan migration or feature work needed to target the new platform. It's especially important to give us your feedback during this time. You should also expect some API changes with each of these updates.

Beta 1

Beta 1 gives you a more complete and stable environment for building and testing on Android 16, and it's the first build that we deliver to early adopters who are enrolled in the Android Beta program. During the Beta releases period, early adopters will be using your app on Pixel devices, so we recommend watching for feedback from those users and releasing compatible updates to address any issues, without changing the app's targeting. It's also a good time to begin preparing for changing your app's targeting later.

Beta 2

With Beta 2, you'll get a more complete and stable build for continuing your testing and development.

Beta 3

Starting with Beta 3, Android 16 reaches Platform Stability, meaning that system behaviors and APIs are finalized. This is the time to begin final testing and development work needed to ensure that a compatible version of your app will be ready for users at the final release to the ecosystem. Android 16 will provide a standard API level at this time.

Platform Stability is the time to shift focus to final compatibility testing and release your updated apps to users and downstream developers. You can also build with the final APIs and refine any code that is using the new APIs or features. You can plan your work with confidence that the platform and APIs won't change.

From Platform Stability, you'll also be able to publish apps to devices running Android 16 at the official API level. We recommend publishing into the Google Play alpha and beta tracks first so that you can test your apps before distributing broadly through the store.

Beta 4, ...

With Beta 4 and other final beta releases, we'll offer release candidate builds for your final testing. When you've finished testing, you should release compatible updates for your apps, SDKs, libraries, tools, and game engines to ensure that users who upgrade their devices around the final release have a good user experience. You can also continue to build new capabilities using new features and APIs and test your app while targeting the latest API level to discover issues that might arise.

Final release

The stable version of Android 16 is released to AOSP and the greater Android ecosystem. You should expect that some of your users will update to Android 16 at this time or shortly thereafter as device manufacturers start to release updates for their users. Be prepared for new issues that might be reported as the number of users on the latest version of Android increases.

What's included in the Android 16 Preview?

The Android 16 Preview program includes everything you need to test your existing apps on a variety of screen sizes, network technologies, CPU and GPU chipsets, and hardware architectures.

SDK & tools

Using Android Studio, you can download the following components through the SDK Manager:

• SDK and tools for Android 16
• Emulator system images for mobile devices for Android 16 (64-bit only, see release notes)

We'll provide updates to these development tools at each milestone as needed.

See Get Android 16 to get started and the release notes for any known issues.

System images

We provide system images for a variety of Google Pixel devices that you can use for developing and testing. Visit the Downloads page to get a system image for development and testing.

If you don't have a Pixel device, you can still develop and test using other methods, depending on your workflow:

• Android 16 emulator system images for mobile devices (64-bit only, see release notes)

Flash-to-OTA updates for Google Pixel

The Developer Preview releases are early baseline builds for developers only. They are not suitable for daily use by early adopters or consumers, so we're making them available by manual download and flash only on the following Pixel devices:

• Pixel 6 and 6 Pro
• Pixel 6a
• Pixel 7 and 7 Pro
• Pixel 7a
• Pixel Fold
• Pixel Tablet
• Pixel 8 and 8 Pro
• Pixel 8a
• Pixel 9, 9 Pro, 9 Pro XL, and 9 Pro Fold

For more information, see Get Android 16.

Once you've flashed a Developer Preview build to a supported Pixel device, you'll automatically be enrolled in over-the-air updates of later Developer Preview and Beta builds through the final release.

Note that the Android Beta OTA program is not supported for Developer Preview builds.

Preview APIs and publishing

The Android 16 Preview program initially provides a development-only system and Android library that doesn't have a standard API level. If you want to target the new platform and build with the new Android 16 APIs during this time, you must target the Preview version of Android 16 by updating your app's build configuration.

The Android 16 Preview delivers preview APIs—the APIs won't be official until the final SDK is released at Platform Stability. This means that you should expect API changes over time, especially during the initial weeks of the program. We'll provide a summary of changes with each release of Android 16.

Later in the preview, developer APIs will be finalized and you'll be able to download the official Android 16 SDK into Android Studio, target the official API level, and compile against the official APIs.

Until the Platform Stability milestone, Google Play prevents publishing of apps that target either the Baklava preview API level or the future official API level. When the final SDK is available, you can then target the official Android 16 API level and publish your app to Google Play using the alpha, beta, and production release channels. Meanwhile, if you want to distribute an app to testers that targets Android 16, you can do so through email or by direct download from your site at any time.

Keep up-to-date

Throughout the preview, as you test on Developer Preview and Beta releases, we strongly recommend keeping your development environment up-to-date. We'll notify you when new updates are available using the following channels:

• The release notes page on this site
• Android Developers Blog
• Android Developer Community

More information

To learn more about Android 16, see the following documentation resources:

• The feature and changes list page provides a summary of all the notable features and behavior changes in this release, including a short description of the apps that they might affect.
• The behavior changes for all apps page describes the updates in Android 16 that might affect your apps regardless of your app's targetSdkVersion and the areas where you should test. Focus on testing for these behavior changes first.
• The targeted behavior changes page describes the updates in Android 16 that might affect your apps after you switch your app's targetSdkVersion to target Android 16.
• The new features page contains an overview of new features, capabilities, and APIs, with developer guides on key new features.
• The release notes page lists and describes known issues and transitive changes that are specific to each preview or beta release.

API Reference and diff report

The full Preview API reference is available online. While the new APIs are under development, they'll be watermarked for visibility and show "Baklava" as the API level. Note that you can only use these APIs if you are building with the Android 16 Preview SDK.

When Android 16 reaches Platform Stability and the final SDK is available, the API reference will show that the new APIs were added in the official API level.

For a detailed view of new, modified, deprecated, and removed APIs in each release, we recommend starting with the diff reports:

Support resources

As you test and develop with Android 16, use these channels to report issues and give feedback:

• Visit the Feedback and issues page for complete information on how to report issues and let us know what you think. From the page, you can go to the issue tracker to file bugs or feature requests, and you can take quick surveys on some of the new features and changes.
• Android Preview issue tracker is our primary issue tracker. You can report bugs, performance issues, and general feedback through the issue tracker. You can also check for known issues and find workaround steps. We'll keep you updated on your issue as it's triaged and sent to the Android engineering team for review. For details on how to report various kinds of issues, see the Where to report issues section.
• The Android Developer Community is a community where you can connect with other users and developers who are working with the Android 16 preview builds. You can share observations and ideas and find answers to questions there.

Get started!

To get started, install Android 16 on your hardware device, or set up an emulator for compatibility testing. See Get Android 16 for details. Thank you for participating in the Android 16 Preview program!