Behavior changes: all apps

The Android 16 platform includes behavior changes that might affect your app. The following behavior changes apply to all apps when they run on Android 16, regardless of targetSdkVersion. You should test your app and then modify it as needed to support these changes, where applicable.

Make sure to also review the list of behavior changes that only affect apps targeting Android 16.

Core functionality

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

JobScheduler quota optimizations

Starting in Android 16, we're adjusting regular and expedited job execution runtime quota based on the following factors:

• Which app standby bucket the application is in: in Android 16, active standby buckets will start being enforced by a generous runtime quota.
• If the job starts execution while the app is in a top state: in Android 16, Jobs started while the app is visible to the user and continues after the app becomes invisible, will adhere to the job runtime quota.
• If the job is executing while running a Foreground Service: in Android 16, jobs that are executing while concurrently with a foreground service will adhere to the job runtime quota. If you're leveraging jobs for user initiated data transfer, consider using user initiated data transfer jobs instead.

This change impacts tasks scheduled using WorkManager, JobScheduler, and DownloadManager. To debug why a job was stopped, we recommend logging why your job was stopped by calling WorkInfo.getStopReason() (for JobScheduler jobs, call JobParameters.getStopReason()).

For more information on battery-optimal best practices, refer to guidance on optimize battery use for task scheduling APIs.

We also recommend leveraging the new JobScheduler#getPendingJobReasonsHistory API introduced in Android 16 to understand why a job has not executed.

Testing

To test your app's behavior, you can enable override of certain job quota optimizations as long as the app is running on an Android 16 device.

To disable enforcement of "top state will adhere to job runtime quota", run the following adb command:

adb shell am compat enable OVERRIDE_QUOTA_ENFORCEMENT_TO_TOP_STARTED_JOBS APP_PACKAGE_NAME

To disable enforcement of "jobs that are executing while concurrently with a foreground service will adhere to the job runtime quota", run the following adb command:

adb shell am compat enable OVERRIDE_QUOTA_ENFORCEMENT_TO_FGS_JOBS APP_PACKAGE_NAME

To test certain app standby bucket behavior, you can set the app standby bucket of your app using the following adb command:

adb shell am set-standby-bucket APP_PACKAGE_NAME active|working_set|frequent|rare|restricted

To understand the app standby bucket your app is in, you can get the app standby bucket of your app using the following adb command:

adb shell am get-standby-bucket APP_PACKAGE_NAME

Abandoned empty jobs stop reason

An abandoned job occurs when the JobParameters object associated with the job has been garbage collected, but JobService#jobFinished(JobParameters, boolean) has not been called to signal job completion. This indicates that the job may be running and being rescheduled without the app's awareness.

Apps that rely on JobScheduler, don't maintain a strong reference to the JobParameters object, and timeout will now be granted the new job stop reason STOP_REASON_TIMEOUT_ABANDONED, instead of STOP_REASON_TIMEOUT.

If there are frequent occurrences of the new abandoned stop reason, the system will take mitigation steps to reduce job frequency.

Apps should use the new stop reason to detect and reduce abandoned jobs.

If you're using WorkManager, AsyncTask, or DownloadManager, you aren't impacted because these APIs manage the job lifecycle on your app's behalf.

Fully deprecating JobInfo#setImportantWhileForeground

The JobInfo.Builder#setImportantWhileForeground(boolean) method indicates the importance of a job while the scheduling app is in the foreground or when temporarily exempted from background restrictions.

This method has been deprecated since Android 12 (API level 31). Starting in Android 16, it no longer functions effectively and calling this method will be ignored.

This removal of functionality also applies to JobInfo#isImportantWhileForeground(). Starting in Android 16, if the method is called, the method returns false.

Ordered broadcast priority scope no longer global

Android apps are allowed to define priorities on broadcast receivers to control the order in which the receivers receive and process the broadcast. For manifest-declared receivers, apps can use the android:priority attribute to define the priority and for context-registered receivers, apps can use the IntentFilter#setPriority() API to define the priority. When a broadcast is sent, the system delivers it to receivers in order of their priority, from highest to lowest.

In Android 16, broadcast delivery order using the android:priority attribute or IntentFilter#setPriority() across different processes will not be guaranteed. Broadcast priorities will only be respected within the same application process rather than across all processes.

Also, broadcast priorities will be automatically confined to the range (SYSTEM_LOW_PRIORITY + 1, SYSTEM_HIGH_PRIORITY - 1). Only system components will be allowed to set SYSTEM_LOW_PRIORITY, SYSTEM_HIGH_PRIORITY as broadcast priority.

Your app might be impacted if it does either of the following:

1. Your application has declared multiple processes with the same broadcast intent, and has expectations around receiving those intents in a certain order based on the priority.
2. Your application process interacts with other processes and has expectations around receiving a broadcast intent in a certain order.

If the processes need to coordinate with each other, they should communicate using other coordination channels.

ART internal changes

Android 16 includes the latest updates to the Android Runtime (ART) that improve the Android Runtime's (ART's) performance and provide support for additional Java features. Through Google Play System updates, these improvements are also available to over a billion devices running Android 12 (API level 31) and higher.

As these changes are released, libraries and app code that rely on internal structures of ART might not work correctly on devices running Android 16, along with earlier Android versions that update the ART module through Google Play system updates.

Relying on internal structures (such as non-SDK interfaces) can always lead to compatibility problems, but it's particularly important to avoid relying on code (or libraries containing code) that leverages internal ART structures, since ART changes aren't tied to the platform version the device is running on and they go out to over a billion devices through Google Play system updates.

All developers should check whether their app is impacted by testing their apps thoroughly on Android 16. In addition, check the known issues to see if your app depends on any libraries that we've identified that rely on internal ART structures. If you do have app code or library dependencies that are affected, seek public API alternatives whenever possible and request public APIs for new use cases by creating a feature request in our issue tracker.

16 KB page size compatibility mode

Android 15 introduced support for 16 KB memory pages to optimize performance of the platform. Android 16 adds a compatibility mode, allowing some apps built for 4 KB memory pages to run on a device configured for 16 KB memory pages.

If Android detects that your app has 4 KB aligned memory pages, it automatically uses compatibility mode and display a notification dialog to the user. Setting the android:pageSizeCompat property in the AndroidManifest.xml to enable the backwards compatibility mode will prevent the display of the dialog when your app launches. For best performance, reliability, and stability, your app should still be 16 KB aligned. Check out our recent blog post on updating your apps to support 16 KB memory pages for more details.

The compatibility mode dialog that displays when the system detects that a 4 KB-aligned app could run more optimally if 16 KB aligned.

User experience and system UI

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

Deprecating disruptive accessibility announcements

Android 16 deprecates accessibility announcements, characterized by the use of announceForAccessibility or the dispatch of TYPE_ANNOUNCEMENT accessibility events. These can create inconsistent user experiences for users of TalkBack and Android's screen reader, and alternatives better serve a broader range of user needs across a variety of Android's assistive technologies.

Examples of alternatives:

• For significant UI changes like window changes, use Activity.setTitle(CharSequence) and setAccessibilityPaneTitle(java.lang.CharSequence). In Compose, use Modifier.semantics { paneTitle = "paneTitle" }
• To inform the user of changes to critical UI, use setAccessibilityLiveRegion(int). In Compose, use Modifier.semantics { liveRegion = LiveRegionMode.[Polite|Assertive]} . These should be used sparingly as they may generate announcements every time a View is updated.
• To notify users about errors, send an AccessibilityEvent of type AccessibilityEvent#CONTENT_CHANGE_TYPE_ERROR and set AccessibilityNodeInfo#setError(CharSequence), or use TextView#setError(CharSequence).

The reference documentation for the deprecated announceForAccessibility API includes more details about suggested alternatives.

Support for 3-button navigation

Android 16 brings predictive back support to the 3-button navigation for apps that have properly migrated to predictive back. Long-pressing the back button initiates a predictive back animation, giving you a preview of where the back swipe takes you.

This behavior applies across all areas of the system that support predictive back animations, including the system animations (back-to-home, cross-task, and cross-activity).

The predictive back animations in 3-button navigation mode.

Security

Android 16 includes changes that promote system security to help protect apps and users from malicious apps.

Improved security against Intent Redirect attacks

Android 16 provides default security against general Intent Redirect attacks, with minimum compatibility and developer changes required.

We are introducing by-default security hardening solutions to Intent redirect exploits. In most cases, apps that use intents normally won't experience any compatibility issues; we've gathered metrics throughout our development process to monitor which apps might experience breakages.

Intent redirection in Android occurs when an attacker can partly or fully control the contents of an intent used to launch a new component in the context of a vulnerable app, while the victim app launches an untrusted sub-level intent in an extras field of an ("top-level") Intent. This can lead to the attacker app launching private components in the context of the victim app, triggering privileged actions, or gaining URI access to sensitive data, potentially leading to data theft and arbitrary code execution.

Opt out of intent redirect handling

Android 16 introduces a new API that allows apps to opt out of launch security protections. This might be necessary in specific cases where the default security behavior interferes with legitimate app use cases.

Important: Opting out of security protections should be done with caution and only when absolutely necessary, as it can increase the risk of security vulnerabilities. Carefully assess the potential impact on your app's security before using this API.

For applications targeting Android 16 or higher

You can directly use the removeLaunchSecurityProtection() method on the Intent object.

val i = intent
val iSublevel: Intent? = i.getParcelableExtra("sub_intent")
iSublevel?.removeLaunchSecurityProtection() // Opt out from hardening
iSublevel?.let { startActivity(it) }

For applications targeting Android 15 (API level 35) or lower

While not recommended, you can use reflection to access the removeLaunchSecurityProtection() method.

Caution: Using reflection can make your code more fragile and prone to errors, especially if the underlying API changes in future Android versions. Whenever possible, update your compile SDK to target Android 16 or higher to use the API directly.

val i = intent
val iSublevel: Intent? = i.getParcelableExtra("sub_intent", Intent::class.java)
try {
    val removeLaunchSecurityProtection = Intent::class.java.getDeclaredMethod("removeLaunchSecurityProtection")
    removeLaunchSecurityProtection.invoke(iSublevel)
} catch (e: Exception) {
    // Handle the exception, e.g., log it
} // Opt-out from the security hardening using reflection
iSublevel?.let { startActivity(it) }