Despite that Android 15 arrived on Pixel devices just last month, Google has decided to skip ahead to its usual timescales, already making the first release of version 16 of the OS available to developers: by analyzing the content of this developer view it is possible to view of some of the most important news that the Mountain View giant has planned for its users.
The timing
As mentioned, the first thing that catches the eye is the great advance of these releases, given that in recent years Google has always released previews for developers of the operating system in February: this means that this first Android Developer Preview It arrived three months earlier than usual. The roadmap therefore includes the second DP in December, the release of the Beta versions between January and April, and the official debut of the definitive version no longer in the third quarter but in the second. It could happen in May, so the event would coincide with Google I/O, or at most in June: if everything went as planned, the Pixel 9A would be the first smartphone to come out with Android 16 already installed.
Everything is part of the plans already anticipated in recent weeks by the company, which explained that it had made this decision to “improve alignment with the device launch calendar in our ecosystem, so that more devices can receive the new version of Android sooner”. In this way, the times that generally elapse between the release of a new version of the OS and its adoption on third-party devices are cut: this will allow the manufacturers of these electronic devices to make the updates related in a more timely manner.
The news
The improved selector photo is one of the most interesting elements: it will be possible to embed the OS photo picker directly into the apps. This means that when an application asks to share a multimedia file, you will be able to choose exactly which photos or videos to share without necessarily having to grant access to the entire gallery or to the cloud: a way, therefore, to further protect user privacy.
The DP1 includes the latest version of Privacy Sandbox, which allows you to protect user data: the Software Development Kit Runtime stands out among the new features, which makes the SDKs work in an environment separate from the main app and reduces the risk of unauthorized access to data
A preview of the app is also included in the release HealthConnectwith APIs to read and write medical records in FHIR (Fast Healthcare
Interoperability Resources): subject to user authorization, applications and medical devices will be able to exchange health data and information, as happens for example between fitness trackers and wearable devices.