Android 16 is now the baseline for the 2025 Android platform, and Google’s priorities are clear: smarter notifications, tougher security, better media and camera plumbing, and meaningful quality‑of‑life upgrades for large screens and accessibility. Below is a concise, confirmed rundown of what’s actually in the platform (not future QPRs or OEM skins), with context on why it matters.
Notifications and lock screen changes
Live Updates arrive as a new class of “progress‑centric” notifications that spotlight time‑sensitive journeys—think a rideshare approaching, a delivery en route, or the next turn in navigation. The first phase in Android 16 focuses on richer progress info right in the notification, trimming app‑hops for common tasks. It’s Google’s answer to the same problem iOS solved with Live Activities, implemented with Android’s notification stack in mind.
Android 16 also enforces automatic grouping of alerts from the same app, cutting visual clutter without relying on developers to opt in. A new Notification Cooldown gradually lowers alert volume during bursty spam, a small but practical win you’ll appreciate the first time a chat explodes.
Other useful tweaks: a system option to map double‑press power to Google Wallet instead of the camera, and refined predictive back animations that extend to three‑button navigation when apps support the modern back API.
Security and privacy hardening
Advanced Protection Mode brings Google’s high‑risk user safeguards deeper into the OS. With one toggle, Android 16 coordinates stricter protections across system and first‑party apps and exposes an API so third‑party apps can raise their own defenses when the mode is active. The aim mirrors Google’s existing Advanced Protection Program for accounts, but at the device layer.
To blunt social‑engineering during calls, Android 16 blocks enabling sideloading and certain high‑risk permissions (like Accessibility) while you’re on the line—a pattern fraud investigators say scammers exploit. Sensitive notifications, including OTPs, are also automatically redacted on the lock screen in higher‑risk scenarios, reducing the chance of shoulder‑surfing leaks.
Secure Lock lets a trusted client remotely lock your device into an enhanced state that requires both your primary credential and biometrics for entry. And new “mobile network security” alerts can warn when a cellular connection is unencrypted or requests device identifiers—available on devices that launch with the required radio HAL.
Camera, media, and graphics pipeline
True HDR screenshots are finally standardized: Android 16 saves HDR content as PNGs with gain maps, so highlights pop on HDR displays while gracefully falling back to SDR elsewhere. The Camera2 stack gains hybrid auto‑exposure modes, finer color temperature/tint controls, a standard Motion Photo intent, and Ultra HDR support in HEIC alongside JPEG—useful for pro apps and social platforms alike.
On video, Android 16 adds the APV 422‑10 profile, a “professional” codec tier targeting perceptually lossless quality with YUV422 sampling, 10‑bit depth, and high bitrates—handy for creators who move footage between phone and desktop NLEs.
Google has also cemented Vulkan as Android’s official graphics API. With Vulkan as the GPU HAL and the Vulkan Profiles for Android (VPA 16) setting minimum capabilities, developers get a more consistent target. A standout requirement, Host Image Copy (from Vulkan 1.4), lets the CPU move textures without stalling the GPU, reducing stutter and speeding loads in real‑world games.
Connectivity, ranging, and audio
RangingManager unifies distance and angle measurements across technologies—BLE channel sounding, RSSI, UWB, and Wi‑Fi RTT—laying the groundwork for more precise device finding and nearby‑device experiences.
Android 16 also supports secure Wi‑Fi positioning with 802.11az on capable hardware, pairing higher accuracy with AES‑256 protections to enable sensitive proximity use cases (like unlocking a laptop or vehicle) with reduced spoofing risk, per the Wi‑Fi Alliance’s positioning work.
For accessibility, LE Audio hearing‑aid users can adjust ambient mic mix, switch between on‑aid mics and the phone mic during calls, and tap into Auracast broadcast audio in supported venues—features aligned with Bluetooth SIG’s next‑gen assistive listening vision.
UX fundamentals and large‑screen policy
Android 16 pushes apps to draw edge‑to‑edge by default and deprecates the opt‑out for those targeting the new SDK. On large screens, the platform begins ignoring legacy manifest flags that tried to lock orientation or block resizing (games are exempt for now). Developers can temporarily opt out, but Google says the behavior becomes mandatory in the next cycle—good news for tablets and foldables.
Text rendering gets foundational support for vertical writing systems, benefiting languages such as Japanese. And a new Outline Text accessibility option replaces “high contrast text,” increasing legibility by drawing larger contrast areas around glyphs.
Health, identity, and language
Health Connect adds early‑access support for reading and writing electronic health records using the FHIR standard, plus a new activity‑intensity data type aligned with World Health Organization guidance on moderate and vigorous activity. There’s also a mindfulness session type, anticipating broader wellness integrations.
Identity gets more consistent: Android 16 expands platform hooks so more devices can adopt Identity Check behaviors introduced on select flagships. Users can also set a preferred measurement system independent of system language—handy in regions where apps mix metric and imperial units. Unicode 16.0 emoji are included via the updated system font from the Unicode Consortium.
Developer tools and system plumbing
The system Photo Picker gains customization APIs so apps can present brand‑consistent pickers without losing Android’s privacy guarantees, and search hooks for cloud media providers. Adaptive Refresh Rate APIs are easier to target, reducing mode‑switch jank and power draw on variable‑refresh displays.
A new Settings integration API lets apps surface their own toggles inside the system Settings app—if widely adopted, this reduces scavenger hunts across app menus. Android 16 also introduces support for in‑process software audio codecs when implemented in memory‑safe languages like Rust, and a cloud compilation path to speed new app installs by offloading dex2oat work—both long‑term investments in performance and battery life.
Trade‑in Mode speeds retail diagnostics by enabling a constrained ADB right from setup, allowing automated checks without fully provisioning a device—small friction removed, big time saved at scale, as retailers confirm device condition on the spot.
Why it matters
Taken together, Android 16’s confirmed platform features are less about flashy UI and more about reliability where users feel it: clearer, more actionable notifications; guardrails that frustrate scammers; media and graphics tech that benefits both creators and gamers; and policies that nudge apps to respect large screens. Google’s own documentation and announcements for developers underscore the theme: shipping durable plumbing first, then layering visual overhauls via QPRs and app updates as they mature.