Android 16 Beta 1 is here with over-the-air updates, APV codec support and more

All eyes are on Samsung which just launched the Galaxy S25 series, but Google wants some of that attention too. Google had already mentioned that Android 16 would begin with its beta versions sometime in January 2025, and here we are with Android 16 Beta 1, which is currently rolling out to supported Google Pixel smartphones.

Android 16 Beta 1: changes announced

With Android 16 Beta 1, Google announced the following changes:

Live updates

Google introduces Live Updates, a new class of notifications that helps users monitor and access important ongoing activities. If this all sounds familiar, that’s because the feature is quite similar in look, feel, and functionality to the Live Activities that Apple introduced to iPhones with iOS 16.

One point of difference is that Google suggests over-the-air updates for ride-sharing, food delivery, and navigation use cases, as notifications for these over-the-air updates are treated with high priority.

Android 16 is gradually removing the ability for apps to restrict screen orientation and resizing on large-screen devices like tablets, foldables, and beyond. Google notes that this feature is similar to features that OEMs have added on these devices, allowing users to run apps in any window size and aspect ratio. With Android 16, APIs and manifest attributes that restrict orientation and resizing will be ignored for apps (but not games) on large-screen devices.

Android 16 allows app developers to opt out of this change, but the 2026 Android release (i.e. Android 17) will make this change mandatory. So app developers should start working on adapting their apps to different screen sizes and aspect ratios.

Samsung showed himself the advanced professional video codec at the Samsung Developer Conference 2023. This new “professional” video codec aims to provide “perceptually lossless video quality” while using 20% ​​less storage than existing “conventional professional video codec” formats .

Google mentions that the APV codec has the following features:

• Perceptually lossless video quality (close to raw video quality)
• Low-complexity, high-throughput intra-frame-only encoding (without pixel domain prediction) to better support editing workflows
• Support for a high bitrate range down to a few Gbps for 2K, 4K, and 8K resolution content, enabled by a lightweight entropy encoding scheme
• Frame mosaicking for immersive content and to enable parallel encoding and decoding
• Support for various chroma sampling formats and bit depths
• Supports multiple decodings and re-encodings without serious degradation of visual quality
• Support multi-view video and auxiliary video like depth, alpha and preview
• Support for HDR10/10+ and user-defined metadata

Android 16 will support the APV 422-10 profile, which provides YUV422 color sampling, 10-bit encoding, and target bitrates of up to 2Gbps.

In 2023, Samsung had mentioned that the APV codec would be integrated into a future Samsung phone. From what we know so far, this hasn’t happened yet. Galaxy S25 series adds support for Samsung Journal Videobut it works via a 10-bit HEVC codec. APV support could come with the next One UI update or the next Galaxy flagship.

Predictive back support for three-button navigation

Predictive Back is a feature that lets you preview the destination of the back gesture before completely ending it, letting you decide whether you want to go back or stay on the current screen. It was introduced as a developer option in Android 13 and enabled by default in Android 15. However, until now it has been limited to gesture navigation.

With Android 16 Beta 1, Google is indeed doing this for applications that have correctly implemented predictive feedback. With three-button navigation, a long press on the back button will initiate a predictive back animation, giving users a preview of where the back button will take them. This behavior applies to all areas of the system that support predictive back animations, including system animations).

Generic Scope API

Android 16 includes the new RangingManager, which provides ways to determine the distance and angle of supported hardware between the local device and a remote device. RangingManager supports a variety of telemetry technologies, such as BLE channel probing, BLE RSSI-based telemetry, ultra-wideband, and Wi-Fi round trip time.

This should theoretically lead to better device tracker support in the operating system, as your Android device will soon be able to identify the distance and angle of the tracker.

Night Mode Camera Extension API

Google previously mentioned that it would introduce a new night mode indicator API in Android 16, and with beta 1, it’s here. This API helps apps automatically adapt to low-light environments when capturing images or recording videos.

Vertical text support

Android 16 adds low-level support for rendering and measuring text vertically to provide fundamental vertical writing support for library developers. This is particularly useful for languages ​​like Japanese, which commonly use vertical writing systems.

Gemini Extensions

This is oddly mentioned in the release announcement, but it’s not immediately part of Android 16 Beta 1. Google points out that Samsung just launched new Gemini extensions on the Galaxy S25 series, showing off the new ways Android apps can integrate with the power of Gemini.

Google says it’s working to make this feature available to more apps with more OEMs on more devices and in more form factors. However, the company does not provide further details, technical or otherwise, in the announcement. So we’ll have to dig deeper to see what changes are coming.

How to install Android 16 beta 1

As the name suggests, this version of Android 16 is still largely a beta. While it’s considered a bit more stable than developer previews before this, it still contains bugs and issues that need to be ironed out over the next few months. So it is not advisable to install this Android 16 Beta 1 update on your daily driver.

If you accept the risks of a non-functional phone and data loss, you can Enroll your Pixel device in the Android Beta program on the Google website. Once registered, you will receive an OTA update on your device which you can install as usual to restart with the new update. Users already enrolled in the Android Beta program or on Android 16 Developer Preview 2 will automatically be offered an OTA update to Beta 1.

Note that downgrading your device to Android 15 will likely result in a factory reset, so make sure you have backed up all your important data before signing up for the program and installing the update.

Have you installed Android 16 Beta 1 on your device? How do you like it? What is your favorite feature and what change do you dislike the most? Let us know in the comments below!