When Android 16 landed on Pixels early last summer, it didn’t make much of a splash. To say that many of us were disappointed by what we saw — or what we didn’t see, to be fair — would be an understatement. Android 16 felt like Android 15.1, a minor upgrade with some interesting new features, but nothing more.
A lot of what was promised with Android 16 didn’t come with that first release. Instead, it took a few months and a couple of quarterly updates, but it’s obvious to me now that Android 16 is the best Android version we’ve had in many years.
Is Android 16 the best Android version in the last few years? 19 votes Yes. 79 % No (tell us which one you prefer in the comments). 21 %
Android 16 is a grower, not a shower
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
The first Android 16 stable release packed a bunch of interesting APIs and under-the-hood changes, but its user-facing features were very limited. We got treated to notification cooldown, Wallet quick access with the power button, and force-grouped notifications, but none of the more interesting updates were packed in, so we were all left very underwhelmed.
When my colleague Mishaal argued that Android 16 was a big update, readers complained, calling it “a small update,” “crap update,” or a “weak update with zero to get excited about.” Someone went as far as saying that “LITERALLY NOTHING has changed for the consumer,” and for good reason. There was even a point in time when Samsung phones got One UI 8 Beta with some of Android 16’s promised features like 90:10 app multi-tasking, Live Updates, and Advanced Protection, while Pixels running Android 16 didn’t have any of these.
In retrospect, though, this first Android 16 stable release was nothing more than an appetizer for the real meal that came with the first quarterly release — the sexily-named QPR1.
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
QPR1 was the “real” Android 16 upgrade. It brought a huge design overhaul with Material 3 Expressive that affected everything in the interface, from widgets to the Settings app and Quick Settings drop-down. On top of this, we got upgraded screen saver options that show photos, smart home controls, or the weather. The lock screen received some love, too, with a few different clock designs to choose from.
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