Android 16 Beta still on schedule as some dates emerge

The Android 16 Beta for Pixel devices is scheduled to start in January and some key dates have emerged. Compared to previous years, Android 16 is set to arrive in Q2 of 2025 (instead of Q3), with Google moving up the first Developer Preview from February to November.

Earlier this week, a Google employee commented in the Android Gerrit (via Android Authority) about some upcoming development dates. The discussion is in relation to an upcoming “bugfix”/“feature” and how it should be tested.

Ideally yes, this should be a standard feature flag and go over the same soak time. However, we may want to have this flag enabled asap in a Beta to get early validations. Beta 2 is going to be challenging considering that changes are due for Jan 22 which won’t give us enough time to do QA on it except if we make it part of this week prebuilt. Beta 3 changes due are Feb 19, but Beta 3 will only be released on March 12, almost at the same time of our bug fix cutoff. If these changes are fully ready / validated on our side and can be merged today, we can try including in Beta 2 (and in this case we should keep it under a bugfix flag). If we need more time, then Beta 3 is the only option and I would recommend switching to a standard flag.

One takeaway from this days-old exchange is that the first three Android 16 Beta Releases remain on track with the monthly schedule Google set in November:

• Beta 1: Initial beta-quality release, over-the-air update to early adopters who enroll in Android Beta.
• Beta 2: Incremental Beta-quality release
• Beta 3: First Platform Stability milestone including final APIs and behaviors. Play publishing also opens.
• “Beta 4, …”: Near-final builds for final testing. [Beta 4 is coming in April, with Google possibly releasing more builds before the final release.]

Meanwhile, the comment mentions Wednesday, January 22 as when “changes are due” for Android 16 Beta 2. Similarly, Wednesday, February 19 is when “Beta 3 changes [are] due.” Keep in mind that these are not the rollout dates for the public, but rather just internal Google deadlines. We do not know the relationship between those two events. 

Android releases are locked down and finalized weeks ahead of their release. For example, the build number for 16 DP1 and DP2 are roughly four weeks before the release date. 

The January 22 date does not necessarily mean that’s when we’ll see Android Android 16 Beta 1 roll out. That said, the month is very much winding down and this upcoming Wednesday-Thursday or the next would line up with historical availability.

This Googler says that “Beta 3 will only be released on March 12.” That is the only explicit date — another Wednesday — we have for when an upcoming beta of Android 16 will be released, but things might shift between now and then. As such, it’s best thought of as a target date.