Google used to stick to the schedule, planning major releases for the third or fourth quarter, but this time the company decided to speed up the release of Android 16 by several months so that more devices could receive the update earlier.
According to preliminary plans, Google will launch Android 16 in the second quarter of 2025 (somewhere between April and June).
The company’s announcement said the new «date will better align with the ecosystem’s device launch schedule so that more devices can receive a major Android release before» (effectively solving the problem of third-party smartphone manufacturers waiting months or longer to receive the latest updates).
As it became known earlier, Android 16 received the traditional sweet code name «Baklava» (This time, Google does not follow the alphabetical order of versions.)
As a reminder, this year’s Pixel 9 family was released in August with Android 14 on board — while Android 15, which Google was working on at the time, was not, released a few months later. If Google manages to release Android 16 by the end of June, the Pixel 10 will get the new OS from day one.
Google is also planning a second release of Android 16 for the fourth quarter of 2025 (October-December), but «minor» — with feature updates, optimizations, and bug fixes to the main one.