The third beta of Google’s Android 16 has arrived! As teased earlier, Google has released another beta channel of its major Android 16 OS, beta 3 for all of its Pixel devices. With that, the build reaches its platform stability stage, and this way the latest Android OS moves a step closer for the stable rollout.
As Android 16 is currently at the stage of development, Google has significantly added a few noticeable features, including the Auracast Broadcast Audio support, Outline text for maximum text contrast, and finally, local network protection feature.
Specifically, the newly-added Auracast broadcast audio within Android 16 in order to enhance audio accessibility that will enable compatible hearing aids and earbuds to receive direct audio streamed from public venues such as concerts, classrooms, and airports.
Alternatively, with the Local Network Protection feature, the apps will require additional permission before communicating with other devices on the phone’s local network in order to Wi-Fi. In other words, Google is providing users more control over which apps can seamlessly access other devices on their local network. However, this feature seems only for testing purposes with Beta 3 and may not be included in Android 16 for now.
Finally, the update also introduced a Outline text feature that significantly replaces the high-contrast text that provides a largely opaque background under the text.
On the comparison side, Google’s Android 16 finally enters into its platform stability stage, thus it appears like the next major Android OS is on right track for June 2025 launch, while Samsung needs to put on some extra efforts to fasten its Android 15-based One UI 7 rollout, so that it could match the Android 16’s launch timeline as it will run over the top of One UI 8 software skin.
