Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
Google’s big Android 16 update has arrived a tad early in the year — and that’s good news as we get to play with new software a little ahead of schedule. It also means that the upcoming Pixel flagships will likely ship with the latest Android update out of the box, unlike last year.
While the Pixel 10 series may get Android 16 at launch, the latest version still misses several noteworthy features in the stable release. Android 16 brings a lot of under-the-hood changes for all Android flagships (not just Pixels), but the more user-facing changes we all have been eagerly waiting for? Yeah, you will have to wait a little longer.
Android 16 stable release: Hot or not? 1566 votes Hot 45 % Not 55 %
Material 3 Expressive
A big draw of the new Android version is the updated theming engine — a step up from the older Material You we’ve come to know and love from previous Android versions. It’s more colorful, more personalized, and Google has even played around with text, shapes, and transparency to make it feel more modern.
Justifying the ‘Expressive’ tag in its name, this Material You iteration is quite a sensory experience. Animations look bouncier, elements follow nice motion physics, and haptic feedback brings everything to life.
It would’ve been even better if it launched with the first Android 16 stable release — but alas, we’ll have to wait a bit longer.
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