Android 16 is here

Features:

Some small back-incompatibilities to irritate devs.
Moving menues around to irritate users.
More logs to spy on users.
More lags and freezes to stimulate upgrades.
Some evil shit for the sake of evil.
New wallpapers.
Some AI shit nobody asked for.
... More shit...
Even more shit...

Woah that’s more than 6.
- Rotate your phone 180 degrees.
If there was ever a reason to get grapheneOS...
New wallpapers? Sign me up! /s

Poor Seang Chau. They wrote this blog post in a total of three paragraphs, but Google was still like "WOULD YOU LIKE AN AI SUMMARY?" at the top.

Literally took me about 45 seconds to read all of the features, but Google is over here burning down another rainforest to process an AI summary of a three paragraph blog post with three pictures.

New OS versions feel like threats.

Nothing really useful. What I would like to see is better battery life and truly Open Source Android which can be easily degoogled and customized and works on many different devices. An entire ecosystem of Android mods, like me have for Linux. Yeah, that would be nice.

GrapheneOS. No need to even degoogle.
- Just a shame to have to buy google hardware (as well built as it is)
- I'm talking about an ecosystem and you listed one mod. I use graphene OS, it's great overall but I would like to have a choice. Maybe I don't want to use a Pixel phone? Maybe I want different set of features?
Small updates are fine but I find it a bit deceptive to increase the version number from 15 to 16 just for this
I heard they are adding a desktop mode to android 16, curious if it would be possible to use phone and have a similar experience to an actual PC by connecting monitor and mouse/keyboard, well just using a browser, at the very least.
EDIT: found it
Future updates will also bring even more productivity enhancements to Android, allowing you to connect tablets and phones to an external display for an expanded desktop experience
- I connected android phone to external monitor using USB-C like a year ago. I'm not sure what's new here.
Yeah, good luck with that, ain't gonna happen. Best we can hope for is open source teams being able to modify android into that.

Oh my god it is real!

https://xkcd.com/1813/
https://emojikitchen.dev/

This is Lemmy so...
BEANS!
Been real for a while, been using the barfing moon a lot.
they took out the eggplant and the peach emoji
- Yeah now we've gotta use the pickle.
- These? 🍑🍆

New Android 6 features tailored to steal more of your data behind your back. And now $500 more expensive!

Now to wait 10 months for samsung to update.

You people are getting updates?
I really hate that I cannot just do everything with the pocket computer I own that is running a supposedly free operating system.

Would you like to kill Son Goku?
- That is the duty of bacon. I do like birds though.

Mhh, the System Update page for 16 on my Pixel is dedicated to AI bullshit, nothing actually useful... Nice

They really need to take more time with major updates, what good is releasing a new version every year when it's just new AI slop?

These are all app features, not OS features.

The emoji thing is built into the keyboard, but it doesn't do like on-device generation or anything. They just have a list of pre-made(maybe AI generated) combos. I'm guessing they are AI generating them, then having humans approve it, before including it in the keyboard emoji list. It's kinda neat, in that it expands the options, but really not much. Overall the OS really feels the same. I haven't looked forward to an Android update in many years.
Also, as someone who doesn't use Google's launcher or keyboard, yeah, I get almost none of these features.
Everything in Android is an app tbh, even the launcher is a completely normal app.
- The launcher is, but not everything new in Android 16 could be just an app. The new desktop mode, for example likely requires much deeper integration with the OS.

Desktop mode finally? Anything meaningful?

At least it doesn't have super distracting glass effects everywhere.

And here i am with my phone still stuck on 14... I know it was a short time between 15 and 16, but still, catch up a little bit! Honestly, my only complaint about Android. I am not a fan of the pixel series either.

Edit: Never mind! I decided to check for an update and found it was ready as of early May, but for some reason, my phone didn't check. Installing now. Now to wait another 8 months for 16.

I so don’t regret saying fuck Google this year and getting an iPhone.

But youre getting liquid ▶️ass. As if that's a better option.
- Liquid ass that just works.
I have considered it, I used to be an.amdroid fanboy but I detest the privacy invasion concerns and AI.
That said iphones look shit not and are too locked down. Considering linux
- I’ve been an Android fanboy since 2009. Flashed roms and all that shit. I’ve always stated that Android is a better OS than iOS. Still do to an extent.
  But I can’t personally look past Sundar Pichai being directly at Trump’s inauguration in the front row or how fast Google immediately caved with erasure of DEI practices.
  I’ve had issues with Google since Pichai took over, but this year was just too much for me here. Yeah Tim Cook is an ass. And Apple like everyone else threw Trump bribe money to not be targeted.
  Yeah Apple runs Chinese sweat shops and their products are overpriced as fuck. But with the way things are at this time, Apple is the lesser of the two evils and I can’t go against my morals and support Google anymore.
  Times like these make me wish Samsung went all in on Tizen and made it actually good.
The one thing you'll get to look forward to is any features Android is getting right now you'll get in 5 years.
- For the low low price of supporting a sell out company that is willingly collaborating with the Trump regime, I’ll get Android 16.
  Loves me some Samsung, but am too disgusted with Google.