Change is coming to the world of Android. While the operating system’s development and release cycle had been operating on a nice, predictable pattern for years, things are starting to shake up. Android 15 already did things a little differently by landing in stable only after the new Pixel 9 phones arrived, and we just reported that Google is seriously hitting the gas when it comes to Android 16, aiming to get a release out in Q2 of 2025.
That’s normally the time of year when we’d be playing with may be the second Developer Preview of the next Android release, with eye to the horizon for the formal start of betas, so thinking about having the next edition of Android ready to go so very early in the year is going to be a big change. On one hand, that just means we get to experience Google’s latest improvements to Android earlier than ever, but it could also have some not-immediately-obvious on you and how you shop for phones.