I've been using Android 16 for two weeks — here's why I'm so underwhelmed

Tom's Guide

12 hours ago

Google's doing things a little differently with Android 16, compared to other recent Android upgrades. Not only has the software launched around 4 months earlier than Android 14 and 15, the biggest upgrades won't actually be arriving until later this year.
In my professional opinion, those two things are almost certainly related. And it shows with the amount of things Android 16 can actually do compared to Android 15 — which is to say, not a lot.
I've been using the final version of Android 16 for just under two weeks, and I have to say that I'm very disappointed.
As bland and uninspiring as previous Android updates have been, Android 16 takes it to another level — and it doesn't even feel like an upgrade.
The one thing that gets me most about Android 16 is that it's basically just a carbon copy of Android 15. I'm not saying that every version of Android has to be drastically different from its predecessors.
In fact I've argued that Android having bland updates isn't necessarily a bad thing, so long as the updates are actually present.
But that does need to offer something that you couldn't get on older software. Android 16 doesn't really offer that kind of experience.
After a few days of using Android 16 I had a sudden urge to double check that the update had actually taken hold. The experience was so close to that of Android 15 that it didn't actually feel like I'd updated, and I had to dive into the system menus to check my phone was, in fact, running Android 16.
To make matters more confusing, Android 16 is also only available on Pixel phones — and was released alongside the June Pixel feature drop.
That means features like the new Pixel VIPs arrived alongside Android 16, but technically aren't part of it, meaning Android 16 has even less to offer than some people might have suspected.
Sadly this doesn't change the fact that I think Pixel VIPs is a pretty useless feature that doesn't deserve the attention Google has been giving it. But sadly it's one of the only things Google actually can promote right now.
To make matters worse Android 16 is filled with a bunch of bugs — two of which I've experienced pretty frequently. One of the best parts of having an Android phone is the back button, and in Android 16 it only works about 70% of the time. Google's promised fix can not come soon enough.
The one big Android announcement we got at Google I/O was the Material Expressive 3 redesign. Android 16 was getting a whole new look, with the aim of making the software more personalized and easy on the eyes. Which is great, assuming you can get over Google's purple-heavy marketing, because Android has looked pretty samey for the past several years.
Other features of note include Live Updates, which offers something similar to Apple's Live Activities and lets you keep tabs on important updates in real time. Though this was confirmed to be limited to food delivery and ride sharing apps at first.
There's also an official Android desktop mode, officially called "Desktop Windowing." Google likens this feature to Samsung's DeX, and confirmed that it offers more of a desktop experience — with moveable app windows and a taskbar. It's unclear whether that would be limited to external displays, or if you could do it on your phone too.
These are all great things, but the slight issue is that none of them are actually available yet.
Material Expressive isn't coming until an unspecified point later this year, while Desktop Windowing will only enter beta once the Android 16 QPR3 beta 2 is released.
Since we're still on the QPR 1 beta, right now, it's going to be a while before anyone gets to use that particular future. Assuming they have a "large screen device," which sounds like this won't be available on regular phones.
Live Updates is an interesting one, because all Google material acts like this feature is already available. But I can't find any evidence that it's actually live and working. No mentions in the settings menu, nothing on social media and no tutorials on how it actually works. It's nowhere to be found.
Asking 3 features to carry an entire software update is already pushing it, but when those features just aren't available at launch, it begs the question of why Google actually bothered to release Android 16 so early.
Android 16's early release didn't do it any favors. It seems Google rushed it to ensure the Pixel 10 launches with it, but the update feels unfinished — virtually no different from Android 15.
Like Apple with iOS 18, Google is selling a future promise rather than a present product. Android 16 ends up being one of the blandest updates in years. Honestly, a short delay to finish key features would've been better.