Google announced today that “Android will have more frequent SDK releases,” while setting a Q2 2025 release date for Android 16, which will soon see a developer preview.
Android SDK releases bring new features that app developers can take advantage of. As of late, this has happened on a yearly basis with the new version of Android (e.g., 14 -> 15).
In 2025, a few things are changing. Instead of that major release happening in Q3, it will take place in Q2 “to better align with the schedule of device launches across our ecosystem, so more devices can get the major release of Android sooner.” (That’s a pretty big sign of the Pixel team sticking with the late summer/August launch period.) Google is “actively working with our device partners to bring the Q2 release to as many devices as possible.”
That is “Android 16,” which Google named today, with the usual “new developer APIs” and “behavior changes that can affect apps.” Google will “soon begin the developer preview and beta program for the Q2 major release,” and tells developers to “stay tuned for more information on the first developer preview of Android 16.” For the past few years, developer previews have arrived in February.
With the major release coming in Q2, you’ll need to do your annual compatibility testing a few months earlier than in previous years to make sure your apps are ready.
Meanwhile, Q4 2025 will see a minor SDK release with “feature updates, optimizations, and bug fixes since the major release.” There will be new developer APIs, but it won’t “include any app-impacting behavior changes.”
While “minor releases will not increment the API level,” Google is introducing a “new minor API level value, which will be accessed through a constant that captures both major and minor API levels.” That said, Google is only confirming the major/minor releases schedule for 2025. It remains to be seen what will happen in the future.
A new manifest attribute will allow you to specify a minor API level as the minimum required SDK release for your app. We’ll have an initial version of support for minor API levels in the upcoming Q2 developer preview, so please try building against the SDK and let us know how this works for you.
Q1 and Q3 of 2025 will continue to see incremental Android releases (a.k.a. QPRs) that “provide incremental updates to help ensure continuous quality” and new user-facing features. Google will also continue to offer betas and system images for testing ahead of time.
In all, Google hopes that these changes will “enable faster innovation and a higher level of quality and polish across releases, without introducing more overhead or costs for developers.”
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