Android 16 is now live, and here are the important updates
This Android update is the earliest one yet. However, don’t be fooled by its timing as it comes with many enhancements. #google #android #smartphone
Android 16 is now live. Image: Google.
It’s here, and it’s on time. Google has announced Android 16 for public release. Just like how iOS 26 at WWDC 2025 marks a major change to Apple's camp of phone users, Google’s Android 16 influences how Android phone users interact with their handsets.
Below is a summary of some of the most important changes and new features coming to the operating system.
Material 3 Expressive
Material 3 Expressive is an overhaul that keeps the Material You look while increasing its intuitiveness. Image: Google.
It’s not just Apple that’s working on an aesthetic redesign of its standard interfaces. Google introduces Material 3 Expressive, a user interface (UI) that evolved from Android 12’s Material You.
Just as how iOS 26’s Liquid Glass plays a part in a consistent, cross-platform look, Android’s Material 3 Expressive also cuts across Pixel’s tech products. Google said the design language is available on Pixel phones and Pixel smartwatches with Wear OS 6.
New features include Live Updates (similar to Apple’s Live Activities) and an overhaul of the UI's responsiveness, which now reacts more effectively with haptics when dismissing notifications and adjusting the volume slider.
For Android 16, such Live Updates will be compatible with Samsung’s Now Bar and OPPO’s Live Alerts.
Notifications from a single app will also be grouped together to reduce clutter, much like iOS 12 introduced grouped notifications.
The rest of Material 3 Expressive can be found here if you want to know more.
Advanced Protection and Identity Check
Advanced Protection unifies your security settings, making it easier to check your phone's defences. Image: Google.
Android 16’s big, user-facing security enhancement is Advanced Protection. It’s a collection of privacy and security features for mobile devices, housed within a single control point and integrated into both existing Google apps and third-party apps (should they choose to participate).
Identity Check is a feature that forces biometric authentication whenever the user needs to access their sensitive data outside of Google’s trusted ecosystem. The landing page here states that Identity Check helps prevent in-person scams, such as shoulder surfing (a theft method where someone looks over your shoulder to see your details) and PIN theft (when someone successfully memorises your login details and tries to use them).
The default Messages app by Google also now comes with scam detection for suspicious-looking messages. This feature uses AI to detect scammy text patterns.
Find Hub, a tracking app for keeping tabs on the location of friends and family, is a new interface that does exactly what it says.
Android 16’s “desktop mode” for tablets
It's the same Android 16 on Android tablets, but it's getting there in terms of productivity. Image: Google.
Besides single-app and split-screen views, Android 16 (in tablets) now offers the option to open, move, and resize multiple apps on a single screen, in a desktop-style layout.
After this launch, Android 16 also gets custom keyboard shortcuts for navigation.
HDR screenshots and adaptive refresh rates
Besides photos, your screenshots on Android 16 are HDR-enabled if they were originally HDR content.
More curious is adaptive refresh rates, which are now available by default on Android 16, despite being an option on some Android-based phones for a long time. In short, the refresh rate changes depending on the content, such as scrolling through text, gaming, or watching shows.
Google TV and Android Auto perks
Android Auto (Google’s in-car navigation and entertainment system) now shares compatible games from your Android 15 and 16 mobile devices. The vehicle must be parked to play these titles.
Continue watching between Android phones and Google TV is about to get better, and it finally makes the Google TV app even more useful on your handset. Image: Google.
What’s more sensible is Google TV’s “continue watching” feature. You can continue a show from your phone on your TV as long as you have compatible streaming apps and the Google TV app on your phone.
Who gets it first?
As with the last few major Android releases, Google Pixel phones will be the first to receive Android 16. That’s doubly true, seeing that Material 3 Expressive is unique to Google Pixel devices.
Phone users with reskinned Android software (e.g., Samsung’s One UI, OPPO’s ColorOS, Honor’s MagicOS, Xiaomi’s HyperOS etc.) will receive their updates after these brands are done incorporating their core features into the new operating system.
For example, Samsung has already announced that One UI 8 (based on Android 16) will first be available on its upcoming flagship foldable phones.
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