{"id":272367,"date":"2025-03-14T05:50:11","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T05:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/14\/the-third-beta-of-android-16\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:09:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:09:09","slug":"the-third-beta-of-android-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/14\/the-third-beta-of-android-16\/","title":{"rendered":"The Third Beta of Android 16"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Posted by Matthew McCullough<\/author> \u2013 VP of Product Management, Android Developer<\/em><\/p>\n

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Android 16 has officially reached Platform Stability today with Beta 3! That means the API surface is locked, the app-facing behaviors are final, and you can push your Android 16-targeted apps to the Play store right now. Read on for coverage of new security and accessibility features in Beta 3.<\/p>\n

Android delivers enhancements and new features year-round, and your feedback on the Android beta<\/a> program plays a key role in helping Android continuously improve. The Android 16 developer site<\/a> has more information about the beta, including how to get it onto devices and the release timeline<\/a>. We\u2019re looking forward to hearing what you think<\/a>, and thank you in advance for your continued help in making Android a platform that benefits everyone.<\/p>\n

New in Android 16 Beta 3<\/span><\/h2>\n

At this late stage in the development cycle, there are only a few new things in the Android 16 Beta 3 release for you to consider when developing your apps.<\/p>\n

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Broadcast audio support<\/span><\/h3>\n

Pixel 9 devices on Android 16 Beta now support Auracast broadcast audio with compatible LE Audio hearing aids, part of Android’s work to enhance audio accessibility. Built on the LE Audio standard, Auracast enables compatible hearing aids and earbuds to receive direct audio streams from public venues like airports, concerts, and classrooms. Our Keyword post has more on this technology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Outline text for maximum text contrast<\/span><\/h3>\n

Users with low vision often have reduced contrast sensitivity, making it challenging to distinguish objects from their backgrounds. To help these users, Android 16 Beta 3 introduces outline text, replacing high contrast text, which draws a larger contrasting area around text to greatly improve legibility.<\/p>\n

Android 16 also contains new AccessibilityManager<\/a><\/span> APIs to allow your apps to check<\/a> or register a listener<\/a> to see if this mode is enabled. This is primarily for UI Toolkits like Compose to offer a similar visual experience. If you maintain a UI Toolkit library or your app performs custom text rendering that bypasses the android.text.Layout<\/span> class then you can use this to know when outline text is enabled.<\/p>\n

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Text with enhanced contrast before and after Android 16’s new outline text accessibility feature<\/em><\/center><\/imgcaption><\/image><\/p>\n

Test your app with Local Network Protection<\/span><\/h3>\n

Android 16 Beta 3 adds the ability to test the Local Network Protection<\/a> (LNP) feature which is planned for a future Android major release. It gives users more control over which apps can access devices on their local network.<\/p>\n

What’s Changing?<\/span><\/h4>\n

Currently, any app with the INTERNET<\/span> permission can communicate with devices on the user’s local network. LNP will eventually require apps to request a specific permission to access the local network.<\/p>\n

Beta 3: Opt-In and Test<\/span><\/h4>\n

In Beta 3, LNP is an opt-in feature. This is your chance to test your app and identify any parts that rely on local network access. Use this adb command to enable LNP restrictions for your app:<\/p>\n

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adb shell am compat enable RESTRICT_LOCAL_NETWORK \n<\/your_package_name><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
After rebooting your device, your app’s local network access is restricted. Test features that might interact with local devices (e.g., device discovery, media casting, connecting to IoT devices). Expect to see socket errors like EPERM<\/span> or ECONNABORTED<\/span> if your app tries to access the local network without the necessary permission. See the developer guide<\/a> for more information, including how to re-enable local network access.<\/p>\n
This is a significant change, and we’re committed to working with you to ensure a smooth transition. By testing and providing feedback now, you can help us build a more private and secure Android ecosystem.<\/p>\n
Get your apps, libraries, tools, and game engines ready!<\/span><\/h3>\n
If you develop an SDK, library, tool, or game engine, it’s even more important to prepare any necessary updates now to prevent your downstream app and game developers from being blocked by compatibility issues and allow them to target the latest SDK features. Please let your developers know if updates are needed to fully support Android 16.<\/p>\n
Testing involves installing your production app or a test app making use of your library or engine  using Google Play or other means onto a device or emulator running Android 16 Beta 3. Work through all your app’s flows and look for functional or UI issues. Review the behavior changes<\/a> to focus your testing. Each release of Android contains platform changes that improve privacy, security, and overall user experience, and these changes can affect your apps. Here are several changes to focus on that apply, even if you don’t yet target Android 16<\/b>:<\/p>\n