Android 16 for FP6

Discuss The Industry
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Continuing the discussion from Smartphones to get a new EU label in June 2025. How will this affect Fairphone?:

Fairphone has mentioned working on Android 16 for FP6

What Android version does The Fairphone (Gen. 6) come with?

The Fairphone (Gen. 6) comes with Android 15 installed. Android 16 is expected later in 2025.

I think this is extremely ambitious given all the ongoing issues with the support and the ongoing work with Android 15 for FP4, but just remembered @gigimava comment and realised they might not have any other choice.

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FP6 how often do we get security patches?
Android 16 is coming to the Gen. 6 in April!
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The teams for the devices are normally not the same, thus working on one device should have no impact on the work on other devices.

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I understand that. Still delivering a major update usually generates some extra pressure on the support.

Plus it feels like a significant effort to be supporting four phones in terms of security updates (that’s not A16 related though)

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The question is whether Operating System according to the regulation is Android or Android 15.

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I am inserting here some relevant passages but obviously I welcome any interpretations

  • ‘operating system’ means the general type of pre-installed software that controls the execution of programs and that may provide services such as resource allocation, scheduling, input-output control and data management; it is normally subject to regular updates leading to the establishment of a range of major and minor versions; it includes any pre-installed software applications which the user cannot uninstall;

    ‘security update’ means an operating system update, including security patches, if relevant for a given device, whose main purpose is to provide enhanced security for the device;

  • ‘corrective update’ means an operating system update, including corrective patches, whose purpose is to provide corrections to bugs, errors or malfunctions in the operating system;

  • ‘functionality update’ means an operating system update whose main purpose is to implement new functionalities;

Operating system updates:

(a) from the date of end of placement on the market to at least 5 years after that date, manufacturers, importers or authorised representatives shall, if they provide security updates, corrective updates or functionality updates to an operating system, make such updates available at no cost for all units of a product model with the same operating system;

(b) (…)

(c) security updates or corrective updates mentioned under point (a) need to be available to the user at the latest 4 months after the public release of the source code of an update of the underlying operating system or, if the source code is not publicly released, after an update of the same operating system is released by the operating system provider or on any other product of the same brand;

(d) functionality updates mentioned under point (a) need to be available to the user at the latest 6 months after the public release of the source code of an update of the underlying operating system or, if the source code is not publicly released, after an update of the same operating system is released by the operating system provider or on any other product of the same brand;
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When is a16 is coming to fairphone gen 6 i hate a15?
(i hope its coming this month)

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Hello and welcome to the community

I have moved your post to the relevant topic. There’s no official information at the moment.

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Thanks for your awnser.

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What makes you dislike Android 15 and like Android 16? The differences between these major versions are on the surface not that far apart.

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Dont like the design of a15.

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And what changes with A16? As far as I know nothing (significantly).

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The version number is higher, which might give bragging rights, at least until somebody with an iPhone shows up.

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Giga calls it the biggest UI update since the introduction of material you.

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Thanks for the summary, I totally forgot about the noteworthily pepped up desktop mode.

(Which I realise is a sensitive topic on the FP6 *, but let me just acknowledge my mistake. I’m sorry.)

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Still I dont think there is a real design change coming with Android 16 which was mentioned above as reason to not loke A15.

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Indeed and if you don’t really like the Android design there are plenty options to change the look of your phone to your likings. A15 to A16 isn’t about design in the first place in my eyes. But really looking forward to see a first glimps of A16 on the FP6 :slight_smile:

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Fairphone stated that Android 16 was expected for the Fairphone 6 later in 2025. Since we are in 2026 and almost in February, does anyone know if there is any chance we will see Android 16 in the next update?

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When I purchased the FP6 in August, Fairphone promised that the Phone will get the Android 16 Update later in 2025. Now its early 2026. Is there any information on when Android 16 gets available for the phone?

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Hey Kirinaru, to not spread the same question/info all over the place I moved your post here to the existing topic regarding A16 for the FP6.

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It looks like they have updated the FAQs on their website. It now states that ‘Android 16 is expected later in 2026’. I find it odd that they just changed the release date from 2025 to 2026 without announcing anything.

While it is understandable that development might take a long time, they should at least communicate this so that we know what to expect.

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