Android is released each year by Google, and the releases have all occurred between August and November since 2013. Android 16 might change that, however.
The Android 15 OS is only expected to roll out to supported Pixels on October 15, but Google seems to be planning to release Android 16 much earlier than usual – between April and June next year.
It would be a pretty significant shift in strategy, but Google switched its hardware announcement this year from October to August in a similar fashion, so the new Pixels launched with Android 14 on board because Android 15 was not yet available.
The Pixel 10 series will run Android 16 out of the box if Android 16 arrives by the end of June next year, and Google sticks with August for its next hardware reveal.
According to Google’s Compatibility Definition Document for Android 15 for developers, as well as several patches to the Android Open Source Project, Android 16 will be released in Q2. All of these patches mention big changes being pushed to Android W or 25Q2. Since Android 15 was codenamed Vanilla Ice Cream, W is Android 16 (though Google seems to have skipped a few letters and renamed it Baklava recently).
It is important to note that these are just hints, and nothing has been decided yet. There is still a possibility of things changing – both Android 15 and Android 14 were delayed because of last-minute issues, so it is likely to happen with Android 16. For what it’s worth, if it were released in Q2, it would at least one up Apple’s yearly iOS release.
