This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Features:
New wallpapers? Sign me up! /s
Been real for a while, been using the barfing moon a lot.
they took out the eggplant and the peach emoji
These? 🍑🍆
Yea, they're still in our keyboard but not part of the emojis you can mix together with others
These are all app features, not OS features.
Everything in Android is an app tbh, even the launcher is a completely normal app.
The launcher is, but not everything new in Android 16 could be just an app. The new desktop mode, for example likely requires much deeper integration with the OS.
Nothing really useful. What I would like to see is better battery life and truly Open Source Android which can be easily degoogled and customized and works on many different devices. An entire ecosystem of Android mods, like me have for Linux. Yeah, that would be nice.
GrapheneOS. No need to even degoogle.
Just a shame to have to buy google hardware (as well built as it is)
The best way would probably be buying used.
I'm talking about an ecosystem and you listed one mod. I use graphene OS, it's great overall but I would like to have a choice. Maybe I don't want to use a Pixel phone? Maybe I want different set of features?
Small updates are fine but I find it a bit deceptive to increase the version number from 15 to 16 just for this
I heard they are adding a desktop mode to android 16, curious if it would be possible to use phone and have a similar experience to an actual PC by connecting monitor and mouse/keyboard, well just using a browser, at the very least.
EDIT: found it
Future updates will also bring even more productivity enhancements to Android, allowing you to connect tablets and phones to an external display for an expanded desktop experience
Mhh, the System Update page for 16 on my Pixel is dedicated to AI bullshit, nothing actually useful... Nice
They really need to take more time with major updates, what good is releasing a new version every year when it's just new AI slop?
Its all soo boring now. The two major changes I got literally yesterday was to lock out pages in te app drawer and only have a scroll and to separate quick actions and notifications...both of which were new features years ago
Yeah, so far i noticed two "new" features in Android 16; the Contacts app now lists local weather info and birthdays which is nice I guess and Themed Icons are finally not listed as being in beta anymore...
The rest is AI stuff and features that are of no use to me (which doesn't mean everything's bad but it doesn't feel like a major upgrade; more like a Pixel Feature Drop).
At least it doesn't have super distracting glass effects everywhere.
Poor Seang Chau. They wrote this blog post in a total of three paragraphs, but Google was still like "WOULD YOU LIKE AN AI SUMMARY?" at the top.
Literally took me about 45 seconds to read all of the features, but Google is over here burning down another rainforest to process an AI summary of a three paragraph blog post with three pictures.
Three whole paragraphs?! tl;dr
New OS versions feel like threats.
Now to wait 10 months for samsung to update.
You people are getting updates?
I really hate that I cannot just do everything with the pocket computer I own that is running a supposedly free operating system.
New Android 6 features tailored to steal more of your data behind your back. And now $500 more expensive!
And here i am with my phone still stuck on 14... I know it was a short time between 15 and 16, but still, catch up a little bit! Honestly, my only complaint about Android. I am not a fan of the pixel series either.
Edit: Never mind! I decided to check for an update and found it was ready as of early May, but for some reason, my phone didn't check. Installing now. Now to wait another 8 months for 16.
IMO the only problem with using older version are security updates, or better, lack of them.
Security updates have been separate for a while now, no? So within reason an older version of android shouldn't be detrimental.
They are, but they stop coming eventually as well.
