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The next iteration of Google’s mobile operating system, Android, will arrive in quarter 2 of 2025. Until now, Google has been consistent with its new releases occurring in quarters 3 or 4.
In an announcement yesterday (October 31) on the Android Developers Blog, Matthew McCullough, Google’s Vice President of Product for Android Developers, wrote that they plan on having two releases next year: a major release in Q2, which will be “the only release in 2025 to include behavior changes that can affect apps,” and a minor release in Q4.
According to McCullough, the reason for the departure from the established release schedule is to “better align with the schedule of device launches across our ecosystem, so more devices can get the major release of Android sooner.”
It isn’t clear what device launches McCullough is referring to, however, with Google’s Pixel 9 launching slightly earlier in the year than previous devices, it is likely the tech giant wants their newest operating system out and bug-free in time for their next phone release.
What is the difference between the planned Q2 and Q4 Android 16 releases?
Google’s announcement confirmed that they have a major release planned for Q2 and a minor release planned for Q4. They also confirmed that Q1 and Q3 will see small releases providing small, incremental updates.
They have outlined the planned differences between the releases. The major Q2 release will be the only update that includes behavior changes that could affect apps. This means that app developers will be obliged to do a swathe of compatibility testing and update their apps months earlier than they might have planned due to the previous later release schedule for large updates.
However, according to the announcement, Google will be releasing the developer preview and beta program for the major release “soon” so that app developers can be sure their apps remain compatible.
The Q4 minor release will include new APIs for developers to use but does not have any planned behavior changes that will incur extra testing and updates from app developers.
Google has stated that in order to “differentiate major releases (which may contain planned behavior changes) from minor releases, minor releases will not increment the API level. Instead, they’ll increment a new minor API level value”
The tech giant has not given any indication as to what new features we can expect to see in Android 16. Android 15 was released in September 2024 and contained a large number of updates and features including theft prevention and ‘Private Spaces’, among others.
Featured image credit: Ideogram
