The first preview of Android 16 for developers is now available

Nov. 20 (Portaltic/EP) –

Google has already made the first preliminary version of Android 16, that incorporates the latest version of its security feature Privacy Sandbox and new application programming interfaces (APIs) to add the Photo Picker tool to your applications.

The technology company announced a few weeks ago an advance in its release schedule, a change with which it hoped to align with the schedule of the devices in its ecosystem and that would bring the new version of its operating system months earlier than expected.

Google has remembered now that the next major version of Android will initially be released in the second quarter of 2025 and that, since this major release will occur then and not in the third quarter, as has happened so farthe creators of the ‘apps’ will have to carry out annual compatibility tests beforehand to ensure that they are ready for use.

Likewise, it has indicated that it plans to launch another version of Android in the fourth quarter of 2025, which will also include new APIs for developers. However, the main version of the second quarter It will be the only one in 2025 which will include “planned behavior changes” that could affect applications.

One of the new features included in the first preview version of Android 16 is Photo Picker, which provides “a secure and integrated way” for users to give applications access to selected images and videos, both local and cloud storage. This means that these services will no longer be able to access the entire media library.

Google has explained that the developer preview includes new APIs that allow applications to incorporate the photo selector into their visualization hierarchy, allowing this experience to be displayed in a more integrated way.

This Android 16 developer preview also contains APIs that support medical records for Health Connect. Because of this, ‘apps’ can read and write medical records in Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) format with explicit user content.

Finally, the next iteration of the Android OS integrates the latest version of Privacy Sandbox, a Google initiative that aims to create technologies that protect users’ online privacy, while providing companies and developers with tools to create their digital businesses. In this way, it reduces tracking between sites and applications, and helps keep online content and services free.

One of the new functions that Google has not mentioned in its blog for developers warned by 9to5Google In this first preview it is the one that allows users to share audio, which can now be enabled and activated in the Google operating system.

This is a feature that allows you to stream from a device, such as a smartphone or computer, stream music or audio on different devices, such as headphones and speakers, to be heard simultaneously. At the moment, it has only been noticed on Pixel 8 and Pixel 9 phones.