Android 16 Second Developer Preview Now Available for App Testing: Upgraded App Experience, Battery Life, Performance, and Compatibility
A month after the first developer preview release, the next second developer preview of the Android 16 operating system is now available for app testing. It brings several upgrades for enhancing app experience, improving battery life, increasing performance, and reducing app incompatibilities.
Read more about it below.
Android 16 Second Developer Preview – Now Available for App Testing
Speaking of the Android 16 second developer preview and the upgrades and changes brought, the ProfilingManager which was introduced in Android 15, now includes System Triggered Profiling for capturing challenging case scenarios like startups or ANRs. Following the addition of ApplicationStartInfo in Android 15, getStartComponent () has been added on Android 16 to distinguish what type of component triggered the start, helping in startup flow optimization of the app.
For richer haptics, Android 16 also brings haptic APIs, letting apps define the frequency curves and amplitude of a haptic effect. JobScheduler#getPendingJobReasons (int jobId) and JobScheduler#getPendingJobReasonsHistory (int jobId) have also been added, returning reasons why a job is pending and list of most recent constraint changes.
Android 16 DP2 also introduces hasARRSupport () and getSuggestedFrameRate (), and restores getSupportedRefreshRates (). This makes it easier for the app to make use of adaptive refresh rate (ARR). Regular and expedited job execution runtime quote based on certain factors are also being adjusted starting with Android 16.
Accessibility announcements characterized by using announceForAccessibility and dispatching TYPE_ANNOUNCEMENT AccessibilityEvents have been avoided and other alternatives have been suggested. Cloud searching in photo picker has also been enabled. Robust security features have also been added in Wi-Fi location on supported devices with Wi-Fi 6 802.11az, guaranteeing greater scalability, higher accuracy, and dynamic scheduling of protocol. Security enhancements include AES-256-based encryption and protection against MITM attacks, among other threats.
Moreover, Health Connect adds ACTIVITY_INTENSITY and contains updated APIs that support health records. Finally, new APIs enable predictive back system animations in gesture navigation, as well as the addition of finishAndRemoveTaskCallback () and moveTaskToBackCallback () for specific behaviors to trigger and to play corresponding ahead-of-time animations.
As previously revealed, Google plans to have two API releases next year in Q2 and Q4 2025, accompanied by two features-only releases in Q1 and Q3 2025. The two promised developer previews have already been rolled out last month in November 2024 and this month in December 2024. Beta releases will start from next month in January 2025 to April 2025, and in March 2025, it is said to achieve platform stability. The official stable version will come out in Q2 2025 as noted, after April 2025.
Stay tuned for more updates.
