Google is officially rolling out the next version of Android for developers with the launch of the Android 16 Developer Preview 2, a build that Google says enhances several things including battery life. Developer previews are builds of the Android operating system that are intended for developers. So none of these changes are really going to mean much for end users. At least not in the short term.
In the long-run though, the changes that are part of the developer preview will trickle down to users in some form. So that’ll be something to keep an eye on. It’s also worth mentioning that the developer previews aren’t something that Google recommends users even bother with. As they aren’t nearly as stable as the beta builds.
Android 16 Developer Preview 2 introduces improvements to battery life and more
Google doesn’t go into too much detail here with specifics, but it does state that this build of the preview brings in battery life improvements. Presumably, battery life was one of the things that had problems with the first preview build. In addition to the battery life improvements, Google states that this build is designed to enhance the app experience and even improve performance.
All without increasing the incompatibilities. In fact, this preview may even reduce them for some developers. When it comes to more specific changes, the launch of the Android 16 Developer Preview 2 brings in richer haptics. This comes in the form of new haptics APIs. These APIs allow apps to “define the amplitude and frequency curves of a haptic effect.”
Another change is better job introspection. This particular change comes in two parts. The first is JobScheduler#getPendingJobReasons(int jobId), which is aimed at helping developers understand why a job is pending and gives multiple reasons why. The second is JobScheduler#getPendingJobReasonsHistory(int jobId), which gives developers a list of the most recent constraint changes. With both of these, the API can help developers gain a better understanding of why certain jobs may not be executing.
Preparing apps for better support of Adaptive Refresh Rates
Google introduced Adaptive Refresh Rate with Android 15, and with the second developer preview it’s making it easier for apps to take advantage of this feature. This preview also makes some improvements to the Photo Picker by adding cloud search. This won’t be functional yet but Google is adding an API that enables searching from the cloud media provider. The actual working search function in the Photo Picker is coming at a later date.
Beta releases for Android 16 begin in January
Although this build of the software is intended for developers, users will get their chance to test out the software soon. Google confirms that beta builds of Android 16 will start rolling out sometime in January.
At this time Google says it will begin to start inviting users to test the new software. The beta builds will last for about three months, with “platform stability” expected in March. For developers wanting to get started with Android 16 Developer Preview 2, the software build can be installed in two ways. One, you can access the build through an over-the-air update. However, only if you already have the first developer preview installed. Alternatively, you can flash the system image.
There are a handful of other changes with this build of the dev preview. You can check out all of those details in Google’s official blog post.
