Android 16 : In January 2025, Google released the first public beta of Android16, codenamed “Baklava.” This latest iteration of the Android operating system introduces several innovative features and enhancements that aim to improve user experience and device performance.
Key Features of Android16
- Live Updates: This new class of notifications enables users to monitor and quickly access important ongoing activities. The ProgressStyle notification template provides a consistent user experience for progress-centric journeys such as rideshare, delivery, and navigation.
- Adaptive Apps: To ensure seamless functionality across various devices and screen sizes, the ability for apps to restrict screen orientation and resizability on large screens has been removed. This change encourages developers to create adaptive apps that adjust fluidly to different display dimensions and orientations.
- Vertical Text Rendering: Low-level support for rendering and measuring text vertically has been added, which is particularly useful for languages that commonly use vertical writing systems. A new flag, VERTICAL_TEXT_FLAG, has been added to the Paint class to facilitate this feature.
- Health Records Integration: The Health Connect app introduces APIs for sharing medical records in FHIR format, allowing apps to access and manage medical data with explicit user consent. This feature aims to provide a standardized method for managing electronic health records across different healthcare systems.
- Privacy Sandbox: Continuing efforts to redefine online advertising with stronger user privacy, the Privacy Sandbox limits tracking mechanisms by utilizing anonymized data and local processing to deliver personalized content without compromising user privacy.
- APV Codec Support: Support for the Advanced Professional Video (APV) codec has been introduced, designed for professional-level high-quality video recording and post-production. The APV codec standard offers features such as YUV 422 color sampling, 10-bit encoding, and target bitrates of up to 2 Gbps.
- Audio Sharing: Utilizing Bluetooth LE Audio’s Auracast technology, users can stream audio to multiple Bluetooth devices simultaneously, such as headphones or speakers, without complex pairing processes. This feature is particularly useful for sharing audio in group settings, ensuring all participants can listen on their individual devices.
- Notification Cooldown: To reduce distractions from rapid notification bursts, the notification cooldown feature temporarily lowers the notification sound and minimizes alerts for up to two minutes when multiple notifications are received in quick succession. This allows users to maintain focus while still receiving critical updates.
These enhancements collectively aim to provide a more seamless, efficient, and user-friendly experience across a wide range of devices.
Differences Between Android15 and Android16
While Android15 brought several enhancements, Android16 builds upon these with more refined features:
- Live Updates: Android16 introduces “Live Updates,” a new class of notifications designed to help users monitor and quickly access important ongoing activities. The new ProgressStyle notification template provides a consistent user experience for Live Updates, helping developers build for progress-centric user journeys such as rideshare, delivery, and navigation.
- Adaptive Apps: Android16 removes the ability for apps to restrict screen orientation and resizability on large screens, encouraging developers to create adaptive apps that adjust fluidly to different display dimensions and orientations.
- Vertical Text Rendering: Android16 adds low-level support for rendering and measuring text vertically, which is particularly useful for languages like Japanese that commonly use vertical writing systems. A new flag, VERTICAL_TEXT_FLAG, has been added to the Paint class to facilitate this feature.
- Health Records Integration: The Health Connect app in Android16 introduces APIs for sharing medical records in FHIR format, allowing apps to access and manage medical data with explicit user consent. This feature aims to provide a standardized method for managing electronic health records across different healthcare systems.
- Privacy Sandbox: Continuing Google’s efforts to redefine online advertising with stronger user privacy, the Privacy Sandbox on Android16 limits tracking mechanisms by utilizing anonymized data and local processing to deliver personalized content without compromising user privacy.
- APV Codec Support: Android16 introduces support for the Advanced Professional Video (APV) codec, designed for professional-level high-quality video recording and post-production. The APV codec standard offers features such as YUV 422 color sampling, 10-bit encoding, and target bitrates of up to 2 Gbps.
- Audio Sharing: Utilizing Bluetooth LE Audio’s Auracast technology, Android16 allows users to stream audio to multiple Bluetooth devices simultaneously, such as headphones or speakers, without complex pairing processes. This feature is particularly useful for sharing audio in group settings, ensuring all participants can listen on their individual devices
- Notification Cooldown: To reduce distractions from rapid notification bursts, Android16 introduces the notification cooldown feature. When multiple notifications are received in quick succession, this feature temporarily lowers the notification sound and minimizes alerts for up to two minutes, allowing users to maintain focus while still receiving critical updates.
