MANILA, Philippines — Google has announced the second developer preview of Android 16 in a blog post on the official Android Developers Blog on Wednesday, December 18, 2024. The announcement was shared by Product Management VP Matthew McCullough on the development channel, along with details listing down the added features on the upcoming version of Android.

Android 16 logo
Android 16 logo. | Illustration by Brahm Daniel Verano / androidist

As this is part of the development program, expect that terms may be too technical and may not be for consumers, as these builds are solely intended for developers. Builds for Pixel devices are now available via manual download and flash. Meanwhile, existing Developer Preview 1 users will automatically receive Developer Preview 2 via over-the-air (OTA) update.

Android 16 Developer Preview 2 supported devices

The Developer Preview 2 supports the following devices (according to the Android 16 Preview page):

  • 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

Android 16 Developer Preview 2 changes

While the announcement contains information previously added on previous Android versions such as Android 15, Android 16 adds enhancements to the said features, which include the following:

  • ProfilingManager now comes with System Triggered Profiling, which allows applications to register interest in receiving information about flows which include activity-based cold starts, and ANRs.
  • ApplicationStartInfo, initially added in Android 15, now comes with getStartComponent() that distinguishes what component type triggered the start of an app.
  • Haptic APIs that let apps define the amplitude and frequency curves of a haptic effect.
  • Better job introspection.
  • An improved version of Adaptive Refresh Rate (ARR) which makes applications take further advantage of the feature.
  • Job execution optimizations
  • Deprecated Disruptive Accessibility Announcements
  • Cloud search in photo picker, which includes new APIs to enable searching from the cloud media provider.
  • Enhanced security support for devices with Wi-Fi 6's 802.11az, which allows apps to combine higher accuracy, greater scalability, and dynamic scheduling.
  • Health Connect updates.
  • Changes to the predictive back.

Android 16 API roadmap
API release roadmap of the next Android versions. | Image credit: Android Developers Blog

Developers can head on to the blog post to see the list of changes in detail. The announcement concludes with a release roadmap for  Android 16 and next Android releases.