Android 16 Hits The Homestretch As Google Releases Beta 4

This article covers a developing story. Continue to check back with us as we will be adding more information as it becomes available.

Back when Google surprised us all with the first Developer Preview of Android 16 in November, the company also published a development timeline. Google has hit each milestone perfectly so far, and now we’re down to the last bullet on the list. The April 2025 release is the final major beta version planned before going stable in May or June, and that update has just arrived: Android 16 Beta 4.

Google announced the new version on the Android Developers Blog today, though its post does not appear to be fully live just yet. Still, we’ve been expecting the new version ever since Google proclaimed on Twitter/X that it would be arriving today.

It’s still unclear if Beta 4 carries the important April 2025 security patches that addressed two zero-days and other critical CVEs, but that is likely to be the case, considering the timing. As Mishaal Rahman reported yesterday, this update has a build number of BP22.250325.007.

Notably, this should be the first beta build available for the brand-new Pixel 9a. In fact, all of Google’s phones, tablets, and foldables, from the Pixel 6 through the new 9a, are eligible for this update — provided they’re opted in to the Android Beta Program, of course.

The release notes for Android 16 Beta 4 aren’t quite up yet, but we will add them to this post as soon as they’re available.

One change was spotted by AssembleDebug on the GApps Flags & Leaks Telegram channel. In the Wallpaper & style app, where Beta 3 had displayed a prominent Beta badge on the Themed icons setting, Beta 4 has finally removed this. In other words, Google’s themed icons have finally gone stable — but ironically, this change had already been made with Android 15 QPR2, so the stable channel was ahead of the beta in this regard.

The update should start rolling out immediately, but it may take up to a week to show up for everyone, depending on your device and carrier. To see if it’s available on your Pixel, head to Settings → System → Software updates → System update and tap the Check for updates button.

Google has already said Android 16 is on track for a Q2 2025 release

In an interview with Android Police’s James Peckham at Mobile World Congress last month, Google’s President of the Android Ecosystem, Sameer Samat, confirmed that the company was still on track to release the stable build of Android 16 shortly after this month’s beta. The official word is simply Q2 2025, which could be anywhere between now and June.

With the way things are going — largely thanks to a shift to Trunk Stable development — we wouldn’t be surprised to see Android 16’s public debut sometime around Google I/O 2025 in May. We’ll likely see a Beta 4.x bugfix release or two, so things could easily drag out until June, but today’s release certainly bodes well for an I/O launch.