9/8/25, 4:00 PM Migrate apps to Android 16 | Android Developers
Migrate apps to Android 16
This document offers a high-level view of typical development and testing phases that can
help you make a plan for readiness that's well-aligned with the platform release timeline and
ensures a great experience for your users on Android 16.
With each release of Android, we introduce new features as well as behavior changes aimed
at making Android more helpful, more secure, and more performant. In many cases your app
will work exactly as expected out-of-the-box, while in other cases you might need to update
your app to adapt to the platform changes.
Users can start receiving the new platform as soon as the source code is released to AOSP
(Android Open Source Project), so it's important for your apps to be ready, performing as
expected for users and ideally taking advantage of new features and APIs to get the most
out of the new platform.
A typical migration has two phases, which can be concurrent:
Ensuring app compatibility (by Android 16 final release)
Targeting the new platform features and APIs (as soon as possible after final release)
Ensure compatibility with Android 16
It's important to test the functionality of your existing app against Android 16 to ensure a
great experience for users updating to the latest version of Android. Some platform changes
can affect the way your app behaves, so it's important to test early and thoroughly and make
any needed adjustments to your app.
You can usually adjust your app and publish an update without needing to change the app's
targetSdkVersion . Similarly, you shouldn't need to use new APIs or change the app's
compileSdkVersion , although this can depend on the way your app is built and the platform
functionality it's using.
Before you start testing, be sure to familiarize yourself with the behavior changes for all apps
(/about/versions/16/behavior-changes-all). These changes might affect your app, even if you
don't change its targetSdkVersion .
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Get Android Flash an Android 16 system image to your device,
or download a system image for the Android
16 emulator.
Review Review system behavior changes to identify areas
where your app might be affected.
changes
Test Install your app on your device or emulator, and
run tests. Focus on system behavior changes, and
work through all app flows.
Update Make only the code changes required to adapt to
behavior changes or resolve issues. Recompile
with the same API level that your app originally
targeted - no need to target Android 16.
Publish Sign, upload, and publish your updated Android
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App Bundle or APK.
Perform compatibility testing
For the most part, testing compatibility with Android 16 is similar to ordinary app testing. This
is a good time to review the core app quality guidelines
(/docs/quality-guidelines/core-app-quality) and best practices for testing (/training/testing).
To test, install your current published app on a device running Android 16, and work through
all the flows and functionality while looking for issues. To help you focus your testing, review
the behavior changes for all apps (/about/versions/16/behavior-changes-all) introduced in
Android 16 that can affect how your app functions or cause your app to crash.
Also make sure to review and test for uses of restricted non-SDK interfaces
(/about/versions/16/changes/non-sdk-16). You should replace any restricted interface your app
uses with a public SDK or NDK equivalent. Watch for logcat warnings that highlight these
accesses, and use the StrictMode method detectNonSdkApiUsage()
(/reference/android/os/[Link]#detectNonSdkApiUsage()) to catch them
programmatically.
Last, make sure to fully test the libraries and SDKs in your app to make sure they work as
expected on Android 16 and follow best practices for privacy, performance, UX, data
handling, and permissions. If you find an issue, try updating to the latest version of the SDK,
or reach out to the SDK developer for help.
When you've finished your testing and made any updates, we recommend publishing your
compatible app right away. This lets your users test the app early and helps ensure a smooth
transition for your users as they update to Android 16.
Update the app's targeting and build with new APIs
Once you've published a compatible version of your app, the next step is to add full support
for Android 16 by updating its targetSdkVersion and taking advantage of new APIs and
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capabilities in Android 16. You can make these updates as soon as you're ready, keeping in
mind the Google Play requirements (/distribute/play-policies) for targeting the new platform.
As you plan your work to fully support Android 16, review the behavior changes that affect
apps targeting Android 16 (/about/versions/16/behavior-changes-16). These targeted behavior
changes might cause functional issues you then need to address. In some cases, these
changes require significant development, so we recommend learning about and addressing
them as early as possible. To help identify specific behavior changes that affect your app,
use the compatibility toggles (/about/versions/16/migration#using_app_compatibility_toggles) to test
your app with selected changes enabled.
The following steps describe how to fully support Android 16.
Get Android Install the latest version of Android Studio preview
to build with Android 16. Make sure you have an
16 SDK Android 16 device or emulator.
Update your targetSdkVersion and other build
configurations.
Review Review the behavior changes that apply to apps
targeting Android 16. Identify areas where your
behavior app might be affected, and plan how to support
changes them.
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Check Make code and architecture changes needed to
support Android 16's user privacy changes.
against new
privacy
changes
Adopt Take advantage of Android 16 APIs to bring new
features and capabilities to your apps. Recompile
Android 16 for Android 16.
features
Test Test on an Android 16 device or emulator. Focus
on areas where behavior changes might affect
your app. Try out functionality that uses new APIs.
Provide platform and API feedback. Report any
platform, API, or third-party SDK issues.
Final update Once Android 16 APIs are final, update your
targetSdkVersion and other build configurations
again, make any additional updates, and test your
app.
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Publish Sign, upload, and publish your updated Android
App Bundle or APK.
Get the SDK, change targeting, build with new APIs
To start testing for full Android 16 support, use the latest preview version of Android Studio
to download the Android 16 SDK and any other tools you need. Next, update your app's
targetSdkVersion and compileSdkVersion , and re-compile the app. See the SDK setup
guide (/about/versions/16/setup-sdk) for details.
Test your Android 16 app
Once you've compiled the app and installed it on a device running Android 16, begin testing
to ensure that the app works properly when targeting Android 16. Some behavior changes
apply only when your app is targeting the new platform, so you'll want to review those
changes (/about/versions/16/behavior-changes-16) before getting started.
As with basic compatibility testing, work through all the flows and functionality looking for
issues. Focus your testing on the behavior changes for apps targeting Android 16
(/about/versions/16/behavior-changes-16). It's also a good time to check your app against the
core app quality guidelines (/docs/quality-guidelines/core-app-quality) and best practices for
testing (/training/testing).
Make sure to review and test for uses of restricted non-SDK interfaces
(/about/versions/16/changes/non-sdk-16) that may apply. Watch for logcat warnings that highlight
these accesses and use the StrictMode method detectNonSdkApiUsage()
(/reference/android/os/[Link]#detectNonSdkApiUsage()) to catch them
programmatically.
Last, make sure to fully test the libraries and SDKs in your app to make sure they work as
expected on Android 16 and follow best practices for privacy, performance, UX, data
handling, and permissions. If you find an issue, try updating to the latest version of the SDK,
or reach out to the SDK developer for help.
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Test using app compatibility toggles
Android 16 includes compatibility toggles that make it easier to test your app with targeted
behavior changes. For a debuggable app, the toggles let you:
Test targeted changes without actually changing the app's targetSdkVersion. You
can use the toggles to force-enable specific targeted behavior changes to evaluate the
impact on your existing app.
Focus your testing on specific changes only. Rather than having to address all
targeted changes at once, the toggles let you disable all targeted changes except the
ones you want to test against.
Manage toggles through adb. You can use adb commands to enable and disable the
toggleable changes in your automated test environment.
Debug faster using standard change IDs. Toggleable changes each have a unique ID
and name that you can use to quickly debug root cause in log output.
As you prepare for changing your app's targeting, or while you in active development for
Android 16 support, the toggles can help. For more information, see Compatibility framework
changes (Android 16) (/about/versions/16/reference/compat-framework-changes).
Content and code samples on this page are subject to the licenses described in the Content License (/license).
Java and OpenJDK are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Last updated 2025-09-03 UTC.
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