Android 16 Beta 2 is here with improved camera and media features

With Android 16Google is releasing Android platform updates on a different timeline than before. The next big release of Android is confirmed to launch in Q2 2025, and we have already received a few previews of developer and Betas. Today, Google Android 16 Beta 2 releases supported Pixel smartphones, so grab the update OTA if you are an app developer or an enthusiast.

Android 16 Beta 2: announced changes

With Android 16 Beta 2, Google has announced the following changes:

Camera Updates: Hybrid Auto exposure

With Android 16 Beta 2, Google adds new hybrid auto exposure mode to Camera2 API. This will allow third -party apps to manually control specific aspects of exposure while allowing Auto -Exposure (AE) algorithm to handle the rest. With it, apps can allow users to control ISO and AE or exposure time and AE, and provide greater flexibility compared to the current approach, where you either have full manual control or are completely dependent on automatic exposure.

Camera updates: Precise color temperature and color tone adjustments

Android 16 also adds camera support for fine color temperature and color tones to better support professional video recording apps.

Media Updates: Motion Photo Capture

Android 16 also adds a standard action action to capture and display movement images.

Android 16 adds support for Ultra HDR images in the HEIC file format, in addition to the existing JPEG format. Google says it also works with AVIF support for Ultra HDR.

Android 16 also adds several parameters to Ultra HDR, including the ability to get and set the color tag where Gain Map Math will be used and support for HDR-coded base images with SDR reinforcement maps.

Seam We predictedWith Android 16, users can customize their measurement system in System> Language and Region. For example, “0.5 inches” in English (USA) will be “12.7mm” for a user who has put his phone into English (Denmark) or who has put its phone in English (USA) with the metric system as the measurement system’s measurement system Preference.

Mandate to edge-to-edge apps

With Android 15, Google revealed that apps would show content edge to Kant as standard. To help developers with the transition, however, Google added an API to let apps opt out of this change.

With the Android 16, this transitional therapy has been outdated. Apps directed at the latest Android version must display the app content edge to Kant, and there are no longer any means for apps to opt out.

Standardized images and sound quality framework for TVs

Android 16 offers a set of standardized APIs for access to audio and image profiles and hardware-related settings on TVs. This allows streaming apps to ask about profiles and use them dynamically with the media. For example:

• Movies mastered with a wider dynamic area require greater color power to see subtle details in shadows and adapt to ambient lights, so a profile that prefers color power rather than brightness can be appropriate.
• Living sporting events are often mastered with a narrow dynamic area, but are usually seen in daylight, so a profile that prefers brightness over color authority can produce better results.
• Fully interactive content wants minimal processing to reduce latency and want higher frame rate, and that is why many TVs are broadcast with a gaming profile.

API lets apps switch between these profiles, thus allowing users to enjoy the benefits of setting backed TVs to match the content.

How to install Android 16 beta 2

As the name implies, this building of Android 16 is still very a beta release. It probably still contains errors and problems that need to be ironed out in the coming months. So installing this Android 16 beta 2 update on your daily driver is not advisable.

If you are fine with the risk of a non-functional phone and loss of phones, you can Register your Pixel device in the Android Beta program on Google’s website. Once registered, you will receive an OTA update on your device that you can install as usual to restart in the new update. Users already in the Android Beta program will automatically be offered an OTA update to Beta 2.

Note that downgrading the device back to Android 15 is likely to result in a factory reset, so make sure you have backed up all important data before registering for the program and installing the update.

Have you installed Android 16 Beta 2 on your device? How do you like it? What is your favorite feature and what change do you dislike the most? Let us know in the comments below!