- Google has announced that the next major release of Android, i.e. Android 16, will launch in Q2 of 2025.
- That means Android 16 will be released sometime in April, May, or June of 2025.
- In comparison, the last three major Android releases launched in August, September, or October, meaning Android 16 is coming much earlier than expected.
In a major shift of its release cycle, Google has revealed that Android 16 will be released in Q2 of 2025, confirming my report from late last month. Android 16 is the name of the next major release of the Android operating system, and its release in Q2 marks a significant departure from the norm. Google typically pushes out a new major release of Android in Q3 or Q4, but the company has decided to move next year’s major release up by a few months so more devices will get the update sooner.
Revisiting the history of Android version releases shows just how atypical a Q2 release is for Android. August, September, and October are the three months when Google most commonly pushes out a new major release of Android. In fact, you have to go all the way back to 2012 to find an Android version (4.1 Jelly Bean) that wasn’t released during those three months.