Android 16 Beta 2 Rolls Out to Beta Testers With New Digital camera Options, Privateness Enhancements

Android 16 Beta 2 started rolling out to builders and testers on Thursday. The most recent testing model of Google’s smartphone working system arrives with options designed to enhance the digital camera efficiency of handsets operating on Android, together with a hybrid auto-exposure mode and UltraHDR HEIC photographs. New privateness enhancements have additionally been launched on the second Android 16 beta The corporate is anticipated to launch the secure model of Android 16 to eligible Google Pixel smartphones within the second quarter of 2025.

Android 16 Beta 2 Arrives With Improved Color Changes, Hybrid Auto-Publicity

After updating to Android 16 Beta 2, builders can have entry to a brand new hybrid auto-exposure mode that allows entry to auto-exposure changes, whereas permitting changes to each publicity time and ISO. These modifications are a part of the Camera2 API, and may enhance the expertise of professional customers with Android smartphones.

With Android 16, skilled video recording purposes will even be capable to carry out “exact changes of white stability primarily based on the correlated color temperature” utilizing COLOR_CORRECTION_MODE_CCT on Android 16. Till now, white stability settings had been managed by way of CONTROL_AWB_MODE, which supplied just a few presets similar to Incandescent, Cloudy, and Twilight.

UltraHDR help is increasing to HEIC pictures
Picture Credit score: Google

Google says it has added two new intent actions have been added to Android 16, and these will allow purposes to request the seize of a movement photograph. Smartphones operating on Android 16 will introduce help for UltraHDR pictures encoded within the Excessive Effectivity Picture Format (HEIC) file format, and Google says it’s engaged on doing the identical for AV1 Picture File Format (AVIF) pictures.

Privateness and Well being Options on Android 16

Android 16 will embody new protections towards intent redirection assaults, which may allow a maliciously crafted app to achieve entry to personal recordsdata or parts. Builders will now not be allowed to decide out of edge-to-edge show mode, which signifies that their apps might want to prolong their content material to the sides of the display screen, for a extra immersive look.

Google additionally says apps designed for Android 16 might want to request granular permissions to learn information from Well being Join, which is the default information repository on a person’s smartphone, as an alternative of the BODY_SENSORS permissions. Android 16 additionally provides a key sharing API that allows sharing entry to keys within the Android Keystore, with different purposes on the identical machine.

Android 16 is anticipated to achieve platform stability within the coming weeks, and the corporate’s launch timeline signifies that the secure model of the working system will probably be launched by Q2 2025, or the tip of June. The replace is anticipated to roll out to eligible Pixel smartphones, whereas different firms might roll out the replace to their handsets in subsequent months.