Google kicked off early previews of the highly awaited Android 16 last November with the launch of its first developer preview. The excitement quickly escalated as the new version of the operating system made its debut shortly after.
Now, fresh insights indicate that the first beta releases could be available to the public as soon as this week. According to a finding from Android Authority contributor AssembleDebug, users might witness the initial beta rollout of Android 16 as early as January 22. This perfectly times with Samsung’s Unpacked event, where the Galaxy S25 series is ready to be revealed.
In addition to this, the second beta is expected to arrive on February 19, followed by Android 16 beta 3, which is expected to be launched on March 12 for compatible Android devices.
These release dates were uncovered through a comment on Android Gerrit by a Googler. It indicated that the Android 16 beta releases are significantly ahead of the timeline seen with the previous version, Android 15.
Google has already pointed out that Android 16 will see an earlier official launch as compared to Android 15 and the developer previews have hinted at this shift. The latest findings are further in support of this timeline.
As already mentioned, Android 16 is projected to roll out to Pixel devices by the second quarter of this year, which is a notable change from past practices. With the expected beat release schedule, it looks like Google’s latest operating system will reach a stable state soon.
It will pave the way for additional beta releases before the official launch, potentially just ahead of the yet-to-be-announced Google IO event.
The developer previews of Android 16 have already showcased several exciting new features. The second preview brought a ‘private space’ functionality which is a privacy-centric feature that allows users to securely hide important applications within a separate profile.
