Android 16 looks to be even better for gamers than we expected

Although the Game Developers Conference isn’t until next week, Google made a surprising announcement anyway, introducing Vulkan as the new default graphics API for Android. Until now, developers could rely on either Vulkan or OpenGL, although the latter has been around for quite a long time.

This move to Vulkan as the default opens up a world of advanced rendering features for developers, such as ray tracing and multithreading. This can help enable richer, more immersive visuals for games that utilize it.

Normally, this isn’t that I would care all that much about, as I usually have one of the latest Android phones running the latest software. However, the move to making Vulkan the default for graphics will kick in when the final version of Android 16 arrives. That’s an important point of distinction when you’re deciding on what gaming handheld to pick up.

Echoes of Wisdom on the Ayaneo Pocket S

(Image credit: Andrew Myrick / Android Central)

With many of these handhelds, you won’t find the latest version of Android at the helm. Instead, companies include anywhere between Android 11 and, on very rare occasions, Android 14. But most of the time, you’re getting Android 13 with little to no hope of seeing newer versions.

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