I have been ready to say something about Android 16 till it was near being launched, however the first actual take a look at what the OS will likely be dropped throughout Google I/O, and I believe it is shut sufficient to name: that is the way you replace a platform.
If you happen to’re a tech fanatic or an Android nerd, you may really feel in a different way. That is precisely what I imply. Google was capable of pull off a significant OS replace in a method that appears acquainted to everybody, which may’t be straightforward when including the issues the platform is lacking.
What you may name a boring iterative replace and one thing you’ll anticipate from Apple is something however. Beneath the hood are some huge adjustments and enhancements that we deserve, together with adjustments to the official Google Play Retailer and different Google apps. It is like Google took a protracted, exhausting take a look at what was incorrect and determined to begin fixing it.
But on the user-facing aspect, you may not even know you are utilizing a wholly new platform except for the recent coat of paint launched as a part of Materials 3 Expressive (which is able to come through a SPR1 replace later this yr). The much less apparent adjustments are there if you understand what you are on the lookout for, however putting in the most recent beta on a telephone that was operating Android 15 moments earlier than is not the jarring slew of adjustments that we have seen previously.
These had been adjustments you and I could have preferred, however they could have appeared unusual and discomforting to the typical shopper; you understand, the individuals shopping for billions of telephones.
Most significantly, I am not seeing sharpened pitchforks from upset app builders like I’ve previously. Possibly the corporate spent extra time listening and addressing points earlier than they turned critical, or it discovered a approach to change with out inflicting a ruckus within the developer neighborhood. Since apps are what drives any software program platform in 2025, that is a wise transfer.
I will be trustworthy, I did not anticipate this. Not that I used to be considering it could be one other early-2000s sci-fi look and really feel or something, however I didn’t assume an Android replace could be this refined, once more, if you happen to low cost the beauty adjustments coming with the QPR1 replace.
I all the time say to carry off from putting in any beta replace to the telephone you employ every single day, particularly on the subject of the developer previews, and I am not saying in any other case right here. Nonetheless, if you happen to do set up the beta, I am betting you may discover the identical factor. It isn’t actually the identical because it ever was, however it seems prefer it, even when it seems a bit totally different. That is factor.
You’ll be able to 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 prepared early this time. When it does get to you, I believe you are going to prefer it; you are for certain going to be acquainted with it. That is the very best factor of all.
