Behavior changes: Apps targeting Android 16 or higher

Like previous releases, Android 16 includes behavior changes that might affect your app. The following behavior changes apply exclusively to apps that are targeting Android 16 or higher. If your app is targeting Android 16 or higher, you should modify your app to support these behaviors, where applicable.

Be sure to also review the list of behavior changes that affect all apps running on Android 16 regardless of your app's targetSdkVersion.

User experience and system UI

Android 16 includes the following changes that are intended to create a more consistent, intuitive user experience.

Edge to edge opt-out going away

Android 15 enforced edge-to-edge for apps targeting Android 15 (API level 35), but your app could opt-out by setting R.attr#windowOptOutEdgeToEdgeEnforcement to true. For apps targeting Android 16, R.attr#windowOptOutEdgeToEdgeEnforcement is deprecated and disabled, and your app can't opt-out of going edge-to-edge.

For testing in Android 16 Beta 2, ensure your app supports edge-to-edge and remove any use of R.attr#windowOptOutEdgeToEdgeEnforcement. To support edge-to-edge, see the Compose and Views guidance. Let us know about concerns in our issue tracker on the feedback page.

Migration or opt-out required for predictive back

For apps targeting Android 16 or higher and running on an Android 16 or higher device, the predictive back system animations (back-to-home, cross-task, and cross-activity) are enabled by default. Additionally, onBackPressed is not called and KeyEvent.KEYCODE_BACK is not dispatched anymore.

If your app intercepts the back event and you haven't migrated to predictive back yet, update your app to use supported back navigation APIs. or temporarily opt out by setting the android:enableOnBackInvokedCallback attribute to false in the <application> or <activity> tag of your app's AndroidManifest.xml file.

The predictive back-to-home animation.

The predictive cross-activity animation.

The predictive cross-task animation.

Elegant font APIs deprecated and disabled

Apps targeting Android 15 (API level 35) have the elegantTextHeight TextView attribute set to true by default, replacing the compact font with one that is much more readable. You could override this by setting the elegantTextHeight attribute to false.

Android 16 deprecates the elegantTextHeight attribute, and the attribute will be ignored once your app targets Android 16. The "UI fonts" controlled by these APIs are being discontinued, so you should adapt any layouts to ensure consistent and future proof text rendering in Arabic, Lao, Myanmar, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, Telugu or Thai.

elegantTextHeight behavior for apps targeting Android 14 (API level 34) and lower, or for apps targeting Android 15 (API level 35) that overrided the default by setting the elegantTextHeight attribute to false.

elegantTextHeight behavior for apps targeting Android 16, or for apps targeting Android 15 (API level 35) that didn't override the default by setting the elegantTextHeight attribute to false.

Core functionality

Android 16 includes the following changes that modify or expand various core capabilities of the Android system.

Fixed rate work scheduling optimization

Prior to targeting Android 16, when scheduleAtFixedRate missed a task execution due to being outside a valid process lifecycle, all missed executions immediately execute when the app returns to a valid lifecycle.

When targeting Android 16, at most one missed execution of scheduleAtFixedRate is immediately executed when the app returns to a valid lifecycle. This behavior change is expected to improve app performance. Test this behavior in your app to check if your app is impacted. You can also test by using the app compatibility framework and enabling the STPE_SKIP_MULTIPLE_MISSED_PERIODIC_TASKS compat flag.

Large screens and form factors

Android 16 includes the following changes for apps when displayed on large screen devices.

Adaptive layouts

With Android apps now running on a variety of devices (such as phones, tablets, foldables, and desktops) and windowing modes on large screens (such as split screen and desktop windowing), developers should build Android apps that adapt to any screen and window size, regardless of device orientation. Paradigms like restricting orientation and resizability are too restrictive in today's multidevice world.

Ignore orientation, resizability, and aspect ratio restrictions

For apps targeting Android 16, Android 16 includes changes to how the system manages orientation, resizability, and aspect ratio restrictions. On displays with smallest width >= 600dp, the restrictions no longer apply. Apps also fill the entire display window, regardless of aspect ratio or a user's preferred orientation, and pillarboxing isn't used.

This change introduces a new standard platform behavior. Android is moving toward a model where apps are expected to adapt to various orientations, display sizes, and aspect ratios. Restrictions like fixed orientation or limited resizability hinder app adaptability, so we recommend making your app adaptive to deliver the best possible user experience.

You can also test this behavior by using the [app compatibility framework][a16-kilo-14] and enabling the UNIVERSAL_RESIZABLE_BY_DEFAULT compat flag.

Important: If you encounter a bug preventing these changes from being applied in the Android Studio emulator, use the prescribed workaround until the fix is released in Beta 2.

Common breaking changes

Ignoring orientation, resizability, and aspect ratio restrictions might impact your app's UI on some devices, especially elements that were designed for small layouts locked in portrait orientation: for example, issues like stretched layouts and off-screen animations and components. Any assumptions about aspect ratio or orientation can cause visual issues with your app. Learn more about how to avoid them and improve your app's adaptive behaviour.

Allowing device rotation results in more activity re-creation, which can result in losing user state if not properly preserved. Learn how to correctly save UI state in Save UI states.

Implementation details

The following manifest attributes and runtime APIs are ignored across large screen devices in full-screen and multi-window modes:

• screenOrientation
• resizableActivity
• minAspectRatio
• maxAspectRatio
• setRequestedOrientation()
• getRequestedOrientation()

The following values for screenOrientation, setRequestedOrientation(), and getRequestedOrientation() are ignored:

• portrait
• reversePortrait
• sensorPortrait
• userPortrait
• landscape
• reverseLandscape
• sensorLandscape
• userLandscape

Regarding display resizability, android:resizeableActivity="false", android:minAspectRatio, and android:maxAspectRatio have no effect.

For apps targeting Android 16, app orientation, resizability, and aspect ratio constraints are ignored on large screens by default, but every app that isn't fully ready can temporarily override this behavior by opting out (which results in the previous behavior of being placed in compatibility mode).

Exceptions

The Android 16 orientation, resizability, and aspect ratio restrictions don't apply in the following situations:

• Games (based on the android:appCategory flag)
• Users explicitly opting in to the app's default behavior in aspect ratio settings of the device
• Screens that are smaller than sw600dp

Opt out temporarily

To opt out a specific activity, declare the PROPERTY_COMPAT_ALLOW_RESTRICTED_RESIZABILITY manifest property:

<activity ...>
  <property android:name="android.window.PROPERTY_COMPAT_ALLOW_RESTRICTED_RESIZABILITY" android:value="true" />
  ...
</activity>

If too many parts of your app aren't ready for Android 16, you can opt out completely by applying the same property at the application level:

<application ...>
  <property android:name="android.window.PROPERTY_COMPAT_ALLOW_RESTRICTED_RESIZABILITY" android:value="true" />
</application>

Important: The opt-out is temporary and won't apply when targeting API level 37 in a future Android release. That is, for apps targeting API level 37, orientation, resizability, and aspect ratio restrictions are ignored on displays that are at least sw600dp.

Health and fitness

Android 16 includes the following changes related to health and fitness data.

Health and fitness permissions

For apps targeting Android 16 or higher, BODY_SENSORS permissions are transitioning to the granular permissions under android.permissions.health also used by Health Connect. Any API previously requiring BODY_SENSORS or BODY_SENSORS_BACKGROUND now requires the corresponding android.permissions.health permission. This affects the following data types, APIs, and foreground service types:

• HEART_RATE_BPM from Wear Health Services
• Sensor.TYPE_HEART_RATE from Android Sensor Manager
• heartRateAccuracy and heartRateBpm from Wear ProtoLayout
• FOREGROUND_SERVICE_TYPE_HEALTH where the respective android.permission.health permission is needed in place of BODY_SENSORS

If your app uses these APIs, it should now request the respective granular permissions:

• For while-in-use monitoring of Heart Rate, SpO2, or Skin Temperature: request the granular permission under android.permissions.health, such as READ_HEART_RATE instead of BODY_SENSORS.
• For background sensor access: request READ_HEALTH_DATA_IN_BACKGROUND instead of BODY_SENSORS_BACKGROUND.

These permissions are the same as those that guard access to reading data from Health Connect, the Android datastore for health, fitness, and wellness data.