I have been ready to say something about Android 16 till it was near being launched, however the first actual have a look at what the OS will likely be dropped throughout Google I/O, and I feel it is shut sufficient to name: that is the way you replace a platform.
For those who’re a tech fanatic or an Android nerd, you may really feel in a different way. That is precisely what I imply. Google was in a position to pull off a significant OS replace in a means that appears acquainted to everybody, which may’t be simple when including the issues the platform is lacking.
What you may name a boring iterative replace and one thing you’ll count on from Apple is something however. Underneath the hood are some big changes and improvements that we deserve, together with adjustments to the official Google Play Retailer and different Google apps. It is like Google took an extended, onerous have a look at what was improper and determined to begin fixing it.
But on the user-facing aspect, you may not even know you are utilizing an entirely new platform other than the contemporary coat of paint launched as a part of Materials 3 Expressive (which can come by way of a SPR1 replace later this 12 months). The much less apparent adjustments are there if what you are on the lookout for, however putting in the most recent beta on a cellphone that was operating Android 15 moments earlier than is not the jarring slew of adjustments that we have seen up to now.
These have been adjustments you and I could have appreciated, however they could have appeared unusual and discomforting to the common shopper; , the individuals shopping for billions of telephones.
Most significantly, I am not seeing sharpened pitchforks from upset app builders like I’ve up to now. Possibly the corporate spent extra time listening and addressing points earlier than they grew to become severe, or it discovered a method to change with out inflicting a ruckus within the developer group. Since apps are what drives any software program platform in 2025, that is a wise transfer.
I will be trustworthy, I did not count on this. Not that I used to be pondering it will be one other early-2000s sci-fi look and really feel or something, however I didn’t assume an Android replace can be this delicate, once more, when you low cost the beauty adjustments coming with the QPR1 replace.
I at all times say to carry off from putting in any beta replace to the cellphone you employ day by day, particularly in relation to the developer previews, and I am not saying in any other case right here. Nonetheless, when you do install the beta, I am betting you may discover the identical factor. It is not actually the identical because it ever was, however it sort of feels prefer it, even when it seems a bit completely different. That is an excellent factor.
You may set up the most recent Android 16 QPR1 beta on some telephones, most notably Pixel smartphones like the brand new Pixel 9a. Even Samsung is rumored to be ready early this time. When it does get to you, I feel you are going to prefer it; you are for certain going to be acquainted with it. That is the very best factor of all.
