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 (API level 36) 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 (API level 36), R.attr#windowOptOutEdgeToEdgeEnforcement is deprecated and disabled, and your app can't opt-out of going edge-to-edge.

• If your app targets Android 16 (API level 36) and is running on an Android 15 device, R.attr#windowOptOutEdgeToEdgeEnforcement continues to work.
• If your app targets Android 16 (API level 36) and is running on an Android 16 device, R.attr#windowOptOutEdgeToEdgeEnforcement is disabled.

For testing in Android 16, ensure your app supports edge-to-edge and remove any use of R.attr#windowOptOutEdgeToEdgeEnforcement so that your app also supports edge-to-edge on an Android 15 device. To support edge-to-edge, see the Compose and Views guidance.

Migration or opt-out required for predictive back

For apps targeting Android 16 (API level 36) 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 overrode the default by setting the elegantTextHeight attribute to false.

elegantTextHeight behavior for apps targeting Android 16 (API level 36), 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 (API level 36) 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.

Device form factors

Android 16 (API level 36) 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, desktops, cars, and TVs) 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 (API level 36), orientation, resizability, and aspect ratio restrictions no longer apply on displays with smallest width >= 600dp. Apps 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. Make your app adaptive to deliver the best possible user experience.

You can also test this behavior by using the app compatibility framework and enabling the UNIVERSAL_RESIZABLE_BY_DEFAULT compat flag.

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 (API level 36), 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 (API level 36) includes the following changes related to health and fitness data.

Health and fitness permissions

For apps targeting Android 16 (API level 36) or higher, BODY_SENSORS permissions use more granular permissions under android.permissions.health, which Health Connect also uses. As of Android 16, any API previously requiring BODY_SENSORS or BODY_SENSORS_BACKGROUND requires the corresponding android.permissions.health permission instead. This affects the following data types, APIs, and foreground service types:

• HEART_RATE_BPM from Health Services on Wear OS
• Sensor.TYPE_HEART_RATE from Android Sensor Manager
• heartRateAccuracy and heartRateBpm from ProtoLayout on Wear OS
• 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 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.

Mobile apps

Mobile apps migrating to use the READ_HEART_RATE and other granular permissions must also declare an activity to display the app's privacy policy. This is the same requirement as Health Connect.

Important: Failure to provide the rationale for mobile apps will result in the permission being revoked.

Connectivity

Android 16 (API level 36) includes the following changes in Bluetooth stack to improve connectivity with peripheral devices.

New intents to handle bond loss and encryption changes

As part of the Improved bond loss handling, Android 16 also introduces 2 new intents to provide apps with greater awareness of bond loss and encryption changes.

Apps targeting Android 16 can now:

• Receive an ACTION_KEY_MISSING intent when remote bond loss is detected, allowing them to provide more informative user feedback and take appropriate actions.
• Receive an ACTION_ENCRYPTION_CHANGE intent whenever encryption status of the link changes. This includes encryption status change, encryption algorithm change, and encryption key size change. Apps must consider the bond restored if the link is successfully encrypted upon receiving ACTION_ENCRYPTION_CHANGE intent later.

Adapting to varying OEM implementations

While Android 16 introduces these new intents, their implementation and broadcasting can vary across different device manufacturers (OEMs). To ensure your app provides a consistent and reliable experience across all devices, developers should design their bond loss handling to gracefully adapt to these potential variations.

We recommend the following app behaviors:

• If the ACTION_KEY_MISSING intent is broadcast:

  The ACL (Asynchronous Connection-Less) link will be disconnected by the system, but the bond information for the device will be retained (as described here).

  Your app should use this intent as the primary signal for bond loss detection and guiding the user to confirm the remote device is in range before initiating device forgetting or re-pairing.

  If a device disconnects after ACTION_KEY_MISSING is received, your app should be cautious about reconnecting, as the device may no longer be bonded with the system.

• If the ACTION_KEY_MISSING intent is NOT broadcast:

  The ACL link will remain connected, and the bond information for the device will be removed by the system, same to behavior in Android 15.

  In this scenario, your app should continue its existing bond loss handling mechanisms as in previous Android releases, to detect and manage bond loss events.

New way to remove bluetooth bond

All apps targeting Android 16 are now able to unpair bluetooth devices using a public API in CompanionDeviceManager. If a companion device is being managed as a CDM association, then the app can trigger bluetooth bond removal by using the new removeBond(int) API on the associated device. The app can monitor the bond state changes by listening to the bluetooth device broadcast event ACTION_BOND_STATE_CHANGED.

Security

Android 16 (API level 36) includes the following security changes.

MediaStore version lockdown

For apps targeting Android 16 or higher, MediaStore#getVersion() will now be unique to each app. This eliminates identifying properties from the version string to prevent abuse and usage for fingerprinting techniques. Apps shouldn't make any assumptions around the format of this version. Apps should already handle version changes when using this API and in most cases shouldn't need to change their current behavior, unless the developer has attempted to infer additional information that is beyond the intended scope of this API.

Safer Intents

The Safer Intents feature is a multi-phase security initiative designed to improve the security of Android's intent resolution mechanism. The goal is to protect apps from malicious actions by adding checks during intent processing and filtering intents that don't meet specific criteria.

In Android 15 the feature focused on the sending app, now with Android 16, shifts control to the receiving app, allowing developers to opt-in to strict intent resolution using their app manifest.

Two key changes are being implemented:

1. Explicit Intents Must Match the Target Component's Intent Filter: If an intent explicitly targets a component, it should match that component's intent filter.

2. Intents Without an Action Cannot Match any Intent Filter: Intents that don't have an action specified shouldn't be resolved to any intent filter.

These changes only apply when multiple apps are involved and don't affect intent handling within a single app.

Impact

The opt-in nature means that developers must explicitly enable it in their app manifest for it to take effect. As a result, the feature's impact will be limited to apps whose developers:

• Are aware of the Safer Intents feature and its benefits.
• Actively choose to incorporate stricter intent handling practices into their apps.

This opt-in approach minimizes the risk of breaking existing apps that may rely on the current less-secure intent resolution behavior.

While the initial impact in Android 16 may be limited, the Safer Intents initiative has a roadmap for broader impact in future Android releases. The plan is to eventually make strict intent resolution the default behavior.

The Safer Intents feature has the potential to significantly enhance the security of the Android ecosystem by making it more difficult for malicious apps to exploit vulnerabilities in the intent resolution mechanism.

However, the transition to opt-out and mandatory enforcement must be carefully managed to address potential compatibility issues with existing apps.

Implementation

Developers need to explicitly enable stricter intent matching using the intentMatchingFlags attribute in their app manifest. Here is an example where the feature is opt-in for the entire app, but disabled/opt-out on a receiver:

<application android:intentMatchingFlags="enforceIntentFilter">
    <receiver android:name=".MyBroadcastReceiver" android:exported="true" android:intentMatchingFlags="none">
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="com.example.MY_CUSTOM_ACTION" />
        </intent-filter>
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="com.example.MY_ANOTHER_CUSTOM_ACTION" />
        </intent-filter>
    </receiver>
</application>

Note: The attribute can be specified on the <application> tag as well as at the component tags such as <activity>, <activity-alias>, <receiver>, <service>, <provider> and the attribute on the component can be used to override what's on the <application> tag

More on the supported flags:

Flag Name	Description
enforceIntentFilter	Enforces stricter matching for incoming intents
none	Disables all special matching rules for incoming intents. When specifying multiple flags, conflicting values are resolved by giving precedence to the "none" flag
allowNullAction	Relaxes the matching rules to allow intents without an action to match. This flag to be used in conjunction with "enforceIntentFilter" to achieve a specific behavior

Testing and Debugging

When the enforcement is active, apps should function correctly if the intent caller has properly populated the intent. However, blocked intents will trigger warning log messages like "Intent does not match component's intent filter:" and "Access blocked:" with the tag "PackageManager." This indicates a potential issue that could impact the app and requires attention.

Logcat filter:

tag=:PackageManager & (message:"Intent does not match component's intent filter:" | message: "Access blocked:")

GPU syscall filtering

为了加固 Mali GPU Surface，我们已在生产版本中屏蔽了已废弃或仅用于 GPU 开发的 Mali GPU IOCTL。 此外，用于 GPU 性能剖析的 IOCTL 已限制为 shell 进程或可调试的应用。如需详细了解平台级政策，请参阅 SAC 更新。

此项变更适用于使用 Mali GPU 的 Pixel 设备（Pixel 6-9）。Arm 已在其 r54p2 release 版本的 Documentation/ioctl-categories.rst 中提供了 IOCTL 的官方分类。此列表将在未来的驱动程序版本中继续维护。

此项变更不会影响受支持的图形 API（包括 Vulkan 和 OpenGL），预计也不会影响开发者或现有应用。 Streamline Performance Analyzer 和 Android GPU 检查器等 GPU 性能剖析工具不会受到影响。

测试

如果您看到类似以下内容的 SELinux 拒绝，则您的应用很可能受到了此项变更的影响：

06-30 10:47:18.617 20360 20360 W roidJUnitRunner: type=1400 audit(0.0:85): avc:  denied  { ioctl }
for  path="/dev/mali0" dev="tmpfs" ino=1188 ioctlcmd=0x8023
scontext=u:r:untrusted_app_25:s0:c512,c768 tcontext=u:object_r:gpu_device:s0 tclass=chr_file
permissive=0 app=com.google.android.selinux.pts

如果您的应用需要使用被屏蔽的 IOCTL，请提交 bug 并将其分配给 [e-mail]。

常见问题解答

1. 此项政策变更是否适用于所有 OEM？ 此项变更将采用选择启用模式，但任何想要使用此加固方法的原始设备制造商(OEM)都可以使用。如需了解如何实现此项变更，请参阅实现文档。

2. 是否必须在 OEM 代码库中进行更改才能实现此项变更，还是默认随新的 AOSP 版本提供？ 平台级变更将默认随新的 AOSP 版本提供。供应商可以选择在其代码库中启用此项变更，以便应用此项变更。

3. SoC 是否负责让 IOCTL 列表保持最新状态？例如，如果我的设备使用 ARM Mali GPU，我是否需要就任何变更与 ARM 联系？ 各个 SoC 必须在驱动程序发布后根据设备更新其 IOCTL 列表。 例如，ARM 会在驱动程序更新后更新其发布的 IOCTL 列表。 不过，OEM 应确保将更新纳入其 SEPolicy，并根据需要将任何选定的自定义 IOCTL 添加到列表中。

4. 此项变更是否会自动应用于所有在售 Pixel 设备，还是需要用户执行操作来切换某些内容以应用此项变更？ 此项变更适用于所有使用 Mali GPU 的在售 Pixel 设备（Pixel 6-9）。无需用户执行任何操作即可应用此项变更。

5. 使用此政策是否会影响内核驱动程序的性能？ 我们已使用 GFXBench 在 Mali GPU 上对此政策进行了测试，未观察到 GPU 性能发生任何可衡量的变化。

6. IOCTL 列表是否需要与当前的用户空间和内核驱动程序版本保持一致？是，允许的 IOCTL 列表必须与用户空间和内核驱动程序支持的 IOCTL 同步。如果用户空间或内核驱动程序中的 IOCTL 发生更新，则必须更新 SEPolicy IOCTL 列表以进行匹配。

7. ARM 已将 IOCTL 分类为“受限”/“检测”，但我们希望在生产用例中使用其中的一些 IOCTL，并/或拒绝其他 IOCTL。 各个 OEM/SoC 负责根据其用户空间 Mali 库的配置，决定如何对其使用的 IOCTL 进行分类。 ARM 的列表可用于帮助决定这些内容，但每个 OEM/SoC 的用例可能有所不同。

Privacy

Android 16 (API level 36) includes the following privacy changes.

Local Network Permission

Devices on the LAN can be accessed by any app that has the INTERNET permission. This makes it easy for apps to connect to local devices but it also has privacy implications such as forming a fingerprint of the user, and being a proxy for location.

The Local Network Protections project aims to protect the user's privacy by gating access to the local network behind a new runtime permission.

Release plan

This change will be deployed between two releases, 25Q2 and 26Q2 respectively. It is imperative that developers follow this guidance for 25Q2 and share feedback because these protections will be enforced at a later Android release. Moreover, they will need to update scenarios which depend on implicit local network access by using the following guidance and prepare for user rejection and revocation of the new permission.

Impact

At the current stage, LNP is an opt-in feature which means only the apps that opt in will be affected. The goal of the opt-in phase is for app developers to understand which parts of their app depend on implicit local network access such that they can prepare to permission guard them for the next release.

Apps will be affected if they access the user's local network using:

• Direct or library use of raw sockets on local network addresses (e.g. mDNS or SSDP service discovery protocol)
• Use of framework level classes that access the local network (e.g. NsdManager)

Traffic to and from a local network address requires local network access permission. The following table lists some common cases:

App Low Level Network Operation	Local Network Permission Required
Making an outgoing TCP connection	yes
Accepting incoming TCP connections	yes
Sending a UDP unicast, multicast, broadcast	yes
Receiving an incoming UDP unicast, multicast, broadcast	yes

These restrictions are implemented deep in the networking stack, and thus they apply to all networking APIs. This includes sockets created in native or managed code, networking libraries like Cronet and OkHttp, and any APIs implemented on top of those. Trying to resolve services on the local network (i.e. those with a .local suffix) will require local network permission.

Note: Traffic originating from Android Webviews that require local network access will inherit permission state from the host app

Exceptions to the rules above:

• If a device's DNS server is on a local network, traffic to or from it (at port 53) doesn't require local network access permission.
• Applications using Output Switcher as their in-app picker won't need local network permissions (more guidance to come in 2025Q4).

Note: Many media casting scenarios depend on access to the local network and will be impacted by this change. However, not all apps which offer casting will need to request the new permission. Future APIs and guidance for dealing with casting scenarios will be provided in 25Q4.

Developer Guidance (Opt-in)

To opt into local network restrictions, do the following:

1. Flash the device to a build with 25Q2 Beta 3 or later.
2. Install the app to be tested.

3. Toggle the Appcompat flag in adb:

   adb shell am compat enable RESTRICT_LOCAL_NETWORK <package_name>
   

4. Reboot The device

Now your app's access to the local network is restricted and any attempt to access the local network will lead to socket errors. If you are using APIs that perform local network operations outside of your app process (ex: NsdManager), they won't be impacted during the opt-in phase.

To restore access, you must grant your app permission to NEARBY_WIFI_DEVICES.

1. Ensure the app declares the NEARBY_WIFI_DEVICES permission in its manifest.
2. Go to Settings > Apps > [Application Name] > Permissions > Nearby devices > Allow.

Note: In a future Android release, this feature will be guarded by a new permission in the Nearby devices permission group

Now your app's access to the local network should be restored and all your scenarios should work as they did prior to opting the app in.

Once enforcement for local network protection begins, here is how the app network traffic will be impacted.

Permission	Outbound LAN Request	Outbound/Inbound Internet Request	Inbound LAN Request
Granted	Works	Works	Works
Not Granted	Fails	Works	Fails

Use the following command to toggle-off the App-Compat flag

adb shell am compat disable RESTRICT_LOCAL_NETWORK <package_name>

Errors

Errors arising from these restrictions will be returned to the calling socket whenever it invokes send or a send variant to a local network address.

Example errors:

sendto failed: EPERM (Operation not permitted)

sendto failed: ECONNABORTED (Operation not permitted)

Local Network Definition

A local network in this project refers to an IP network that utilizes a broadcast-capable network interface, such as Wi-Fi or Ethernet, but excludes cellular (WWAN) or VPN connections.

The following are considered local networks:

IPv4:

• 169.254.0.0/16 // Link Local
• 100.64.0.0/10 // CGNAT
• 10.0.0.0/8 // RFC1918
• 172.16.0.0/12 // RFC1918
• 192.168.0.0/16 // RFC1918

IPv6:

• Link-local
• Directly-connected routes
• Stub networks like Thread
• Multiple-subnets (TBD)

Additionally, both multicast addresses (224.0.0.0/4, ff00::/8) and the IPv4 broadcast address (255.255.255.255) are classified as local network addresses.

App-owned photos

当面向 SDK 36 或更高版本的应用在搭载 Android 16 或更高版本的设备上提示用户授予照片和视频权限时，如果用户选择限制对所选媒体的访问权限，则会在照片选择器中看到该应用拥有的所有照片。用户可以取消选择任何这些预选项，这会撤消该应用对这些照片和视频的访问权限。