- Android 16 is out now, with new features such as live updates and security tools
- Many other Android 16 features – along with its visual overhaul – are not present and is jerked on September 3
- This initial roll -out is just for pixel phones, with other brands to roll Android 16 later in the year
Android 16 is now landed and if it seems unusually early for you, you are right as the last few versions of Android all landed at the end of their release year, with Android 15 first launched back in October.
So this is a quick turn to Google’s latest Android version – which may explain why the most expected and significant feature is absent.
Specifically, Android’s Visual Ovhaul – called Material 3 Expressive – Like Google not so long ago, not since, yet. It lands as part of the Android 16S QPR1 (Quarterly Platform Release 1), which according to a source speaking to Android Authority will roll out to Pixel devices on September 3 – that is around the time we would typically expect to see new numbered versions of Android.
September 3 is also reportedly when we see the Android 16s Desktop mode, which allows you to connect your phone to a screen and interact with a desktop interface, just as Samsung has been offering for years with its DEX mode.
And we will probably also see minor updates then, as a more organized audio setting, which has been viewed by Android Authority in the latest Android 16 QPR1 beta.
It still does not mean that this first version of Android 16 is not worth downloading. It includes various new features, such as live updates that give you real-time updates about things like food deliveries and Uber requests on your lock screen.
You can also activate advanced protection mode to help keep your phone protected from uncertain websites, scams, harmful apps and other threats. Not all features of advanced protection are new, but now you can activate all of these protective measures with a single press.
Grouped messages and improvements of availability
Android 16 will also group messages from a single app to keep things organized, and there are improvements for users of hearing aids as you can now choose to use your phone’s audio input microphone during calls (rather than the hearing aid microphone), and naturally checks your hearing aid’s volume from your phone.
There are also minor updates, such as a host-in mode that provides faster access to key device details, which speeds up the host-in-process when selling your phone.
These features and other rolls out now for supported pixel phones (meaning Google Pixel 6 and up). If you are using another phone brand, you will have to wait a little longer, with Google saying that updates to handsets from other brands arrive “later in the year”.
