Google has officially rolled out the second beta of Android 16 for supported Pixel devices, building on last month’s Beta 1 release. This update brings improvements in professional camera capabilities, graphical effects, and overall performance while refining privacy, security, and background task management. The announcement was made by Matthew McCullough, VP of Product Management at Android Developer.
What’s New in Android 16 Beta 2?
Media and Camera Enhancements
- Hybrid Auto-Exposure: Android 16 introduces hybrid auto-exposure modes in Camera2, allowing manual control over ISO and exposure time while maintaining auto-exposure adjustments.
- Precise Color Adjustments: Professional-grade video recording benefits from fine-tuned color temperature and tint adjustments.
- Motion Photo Capture: New Intent actions—
ACTION_MOTION_PHOTO_CAPTUREandACTION_MOTION_PHOTO_CAPTURE_SECURE—enable apps to request motion photo captures.
- UltraHDR Enhancements: The update adds UltraHDR image support in the HEIC format, with additional parameters from the ISO 21496-1 draft standard. AVIF support is currently in development.
Custom Graphical Effects with AGSL
- Advanced Graphics Capabilities: Android 16 introduces
RuntimeColorFilterandRuntimeXfermode, allowing developers to create complex visual effects such as Threshold, Sepia, and Hue Saturation using AGSL (Android Graphics Shading Language).
Behavioral Changes
- Edge-to-Edge Opt-Out Removal: Apps targeting Android 16 must support edge-to-edge displays, ensuring a seamless UI experience.
- Health and Fitness Permissions: The
BODY_SENSORSpermission has been replaced with granular health permissions underandroid.permissions.health, aligning with Health Connect. - Abandoned Jobs Management: A new stop reason—
STOP_REASON_TIMEOUT_ABANDONED—has been introduced for jobs that are abandoned before completion. - Intent Redirect Security: Android 16 enforces default security hardening against Intent redirection attacks, with an opt-out API available for testing.
- Elegant Font APIs Deprecated and Disabled: The elegantTextHeight attribute, which was introduced in Android 15 to improve readability for certain languages, is now deprecated in Android 16. Apps targeting Android 16 will ignore this attribute, and developers are encouraged to adapt layouts for consistent text rendering in languages like Arabic, Lao, Myanmar, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, Telugu, and Thai.
Accessibility Improvements
- TTSSpan Duration Support: A new
TYPE_DURATIONenables accurate text-to-speech (TTS) output for time durations. - Multiple UI Labels: UI elements now support multiple accessibility labels for better screen reader compatibility.
- Expandable Elements: APIs now support expanded/collapsed states, improving navigation for assistive technologies.
- Indeterminate ProgressBars: The new
RANGE_TYPE_INDETERMINATEAPI enhances accessibility feedback for progress indicators. - Tri-State CheckBox Support: Accessibility APIs now support a “partially checked” state, improving user interaction.
Performance and Compatibility Upgrades
- 16KB Page Size Compatibility: Apps designed for 4KB memory pages can now run on 16KB memory page devices using a compatibility mode.
- Regional Measurement Customization: Users can now customize measurement systems in regional preferences.
- Live Wallpaper APIs: New APIs like
WallpaperDescriptionandWallpaperInstancesimplify dynamic wallpaper creation. - CPU/GPU Optimization: New headroom APIs (
getCpuHeadroomandgetGpuHeadroom) help apps optimize resource usage.
TV and Media Quality Enhancements
- Standardized Media Quality Framework: New APIs allow streaming apps to dynamically adjust audio and video quality based on device capabilities.
Availability
Android 16 Beta 2 is available for the following Pixel devices:
- Pixel 6, 6 Pro, 6a
- Pixel 7, 7 Pro, 7a
- Pixel 8, 8 Pro, 8a
- Pixel 9, 9 Pro, 9 Pro XL, Pixel Pro Fold
- Pixel Tablet, Pixel Fold
- Android Emulator
Google encourages users to submit feedback via the Android Beta Feedback app on Pixel devices.