Android Compatibility Reference: Android 16-17 for Pixel 6-11

An Android app working perfectly on Android 16 doesn’t tell you much about how it’ll behave on Android 17. Permission models shift, layout defaults change, and memory handling gets stricter, often in ways that pass a quick functional test but still break something real.

This reference covers the compatibility-relevant changes between Android 16 and 17, the two versions Device Changer currently supports, on Pixel 6 through 11. We’re not trying to document everything Google changed in either release, there are release notes for that. We’re focused on the changes that can make an app behave differently: large-screen and foldable handling, memory limits, background audio, and the layout and permission requirements that became mandatory rather than optional.

We’ll keep this updated as Device Changer’s supported range changes.

Android 16

Android 16 continues the edge-to-edge transition by removing the opt-out for apps targeting API 36. If an app hasn’t learnt to handle window insets properly by this point, compatibility flags are no longer much of a safety net.

Large screens are the other big test area.

On displays at least 600dp wide, Android 16 can ignore an app’s orientation, aspect-ratio and resizability restrictions. An interface designed around “this screen will always be portrait” can suddenly find itself with much more horizontal space than anyone planned for.

That’s where stretched layouts, misplaced controls and state-restoration bugs start appearing.

Tablets and foldables should therefore be part of the Android 16 pass, not an afterthought. Rotate them. Resize the app. Move through configuration changes and check that state survives.

Predictive Back is another behaviour worth checking, particularly in apps that still rely on older back-navigation handling.

Android 17

Android 17 takes some of the warnings from Android 16 and turns them into harder requirements.

The remaining opt-out for orientation, aspect-ratio and resizability restrictions on large screens is gone for apps targeting API 37. If an interface only works because Android has been keeping it inside a fixed orientation or compatibility mode, that assumption needs to be tested again.

Memory behaviour deserves attention too. Android 17 introduces app memory limits that can produce MemoryLimiter exits, identifiable through ApplicationExitInfo. That’s useful when diagnosing a failure because it gives QA another possibility beyond treating every unexpected process death as a generic out-of-memory problem.

Background audio is another area to revisit, particularly playback, audio focus and attempts to change volume while the app isn’t in the foreground.

Closing

Every behavior above is something you can test directly on a Device Changer Pixel profile, no need to track down a physical Pixel 6 through 11 running each OS version to confirm it.