Android 16 Beta 3 drops today, bringing stable release one step closer – Android Police

Google officially kicked off the Android 16 beta program in late January 2025, introducing significant improvements tailored for tablets. Within two months, the company rolled out two additional beta builds, including Android 16 beta 2.1, which arrived in late February with swift fixes for some troublesome bugs. Now, with the June release timeline for Android 16’s stable build fast approaching, the company has teased the release of the third beta build of the OS.Broken themes, apps, and navigation
The official Android Developers account on X announced that Android 16 Beta 3 will drop tomorrow, March 13.Android 16’s second beta packed several improvements, including new camera controls for third-party apps and UltraHDR support for images in HEIC format. It also enforced an edge-to-edge layout for apps, removing the black bars under the navigation gesture and status bars.The third Android 16 beta is expected to introduce more user-facing changes. Although Google released the first Developer Preview in mid-November 2024, user-focused changes only started appearing in the beta builds.With the upcoming beta build, Android 16 beta should hit Platform Stability, signaling that all developer APIs and app-facing behaviors have been finalized. This will give developers the green signal to build and update their apps using the new APIs in Android 16.Sameer Samat, Google’s President of the Android Ecosystem, confirmed at MWC 2025 that Android 16 is on track for a June release. Based on Google’s accelerated timeline, the last Android 16 beta should land in April.Following this, the company could showcase all the user-facing changes in Android 16 at its yearly developer conference in May and then push the stable update to compatible Pixel phones in June. We might see a few hotfix beta builds in between to squash major bugs, but otherwise, this is the timeline that Google should most likely stick to.A leak indicates that Android 16’s stable build may land on June 3, 2025.Note that following Android 16’s release in Q2 2025, Google plans to push a minor SDK update in Q4 2025. This update will prioritize new features and optimizations rather than major behavioral changes.We want to hear from you! Share your opinions in the thread below and remember to keep it respectful.Your comment has not been savedThis thread is open for discussion.Be the first to post your thoughts.A Q2, 2025 release might be on the cardsLocal Network Protection is becoming a thingNotification summaries are on their wayPlatform stability beginsRolling out to Android 15, 16, and One UI 7 New screen-off fingerprint unlock feature is crazy fast

Source: https://www.androidpolice.com/android-16-beta-3-drops-tomorrow-stable-release-closer/