Google has revealed that it plans to release Android 16 in the second quarter of 2025 — a period between April and June. The release window presented by the big tech company is earlier than other versions of the operating system, which traditionally arrived between August and October. Google’s plan is to release Android 16 and smaller updates in the following months.
In 2022, Google released Android 13 on August 15. The release date for this version of the mobile OS was one of the earliest in its history. In 2023 and 2024, the big tech giant ended up postponing the official launch of new generations of Android. Last year, for example, Google even tried to hide the delay of Android 14 by editing the image of the release schedule.
What is the Android 16 release plan?
On its official blog, Google explains that it wants to make two Android 16 updates in 2025. In the second quarter, the idea is to launch the new operating system, with new APIs, tools and behaviour changes that affect applications — these will only be present in this stage of the update.
In the fourth quarter, the last of the year, Google would release a second update (similar to Windows updates). In this stage, the big tech company would introduce API changes, new features and bug fixes. Other updates and specific improvements would be released in the first and third quarters.
Why is Google opting for this strategy?
Google explains that it is changing the Android release schedule to align with device launches. Taking Samsung as an example, which has the largest market share in Brazil, it launches its premium phones at the beginning of the year, while the Android update only occurs at the end of the year.
With this change in Google’s schedule, it is likely that in 2026 Samsung will launch a Galaxy S26 and One UI 8 months after the top-of-the-line phone — the Z Fold and Z Flip would arrive with the new interface from the factory.
Remember that One UI 7, based on Android 15, will only arrive in January 2025. We don’t know if Samsung did this already knowing about Google’s plans. However, it’s hard to imagine that it will launch One UI 8 next year.
In any case, we see some users complaining that there are few new features between operating system versions. So, it wouldn’t be at all absurd for One UI 8 to arrive shortly after One UI 7 — we’ll probably only see changes in AI tools.
With information: TechRadar
