Google makes one big Android release a year — until now. This week, it released Android 16 QPR2. In some ways it’s a minor update, but one that means there should be greater flexibility and, therefore, faster innovation, Google says. It’s arrived for Google Pixel phones like the Pixel 10 Pro, but will come to Samsung Galaxy S25 and other phones soon — likely sooner than under the previous Android release schedule.
The new release comes after the initial arrival of Android 16 in the first half of 2025. Here’s why that’s important.
‘These small biannual SDK releases will be the model going forward, alongside bringing major releases forward — with Android 16 having launched in Q2 instead of Q3, for example — and the usual quarterly Android feature updates. By moving to an earlier, more frequent release schedule for developer previews and general release rollouts, third-party phone makers will have more time to prepare their latest devices to launch with the latest version of Android,” Jess Weatherbed reported at The Verge.
If you have a Google Pixel phone, you’ll still get the updates first (it’s now available for phones from the Pixel 6 onwards up to the latest Pixel 10 series), but the new system should mean that other Android brands won’t be so far behind, which benefits everyone.
Android 16 QPR2: What’s In It?
This release mixes APIs and features, unlike the release in the last quarter which was for features only. There are lockscreen widgets, for a start, which can be customized differently. There’s a notification organizer to provide categories such as news, promotions and social alerts for less urgent alerts.
There are also minor tweaks, such as an enhanced Pixel Launcher search bar, changes to Live Captions, repositioning of parental controls (no longer in the Digital Wellbeing in Settings.
There are changes to the Themed Icons on the home screen, for a more coherent look, with automatically generated icons. Users can customize the shape of home screen icons, too. An expanded dark mode can deal with apps that don’t cater for a better look in dark mode. There are more details which subtly change how you use your Android phone.
In other words, though the new features aren’t major, their arrival now makes the update process smoother.
To get the new release, go to Settings, choose System and then System update and click Check for update.
