One Googler says that "AVF is mandatory starting from Android 16."

AVF, if you aren't aware, is the Android Virtualization Framework. It provides a set of APIs for system apps to run payloads in an Android or Linux virtual machine. It's also notably what enables the new Linux Terminal app in Android 16.

Almost every OEM has devices supporting AVF, with the lone exception of Samsung (possibly due to conflicts with Knox). I thought this would change with the launch of the Galaxy S25 series, as they launch with vendor software built for Android 15, and AFAIK, VSR-15 still has a clause mandating that devices launching on API level 202404 support AVF. So I'm not sure what happened here, but hopefully the requirement is actually real in Android 16, at least for newly launching devices.

The supported Linux kernel versions for Android 16 have been revealed. They include:

Upgrades:

- android11-5.4
- android12-5.4
- android12-5.10
- android13-5.10
- android13-5.15
- android14-5.15
- android14-6.1
- android15-6.6
- android16-6.12

New launches for devices with chipsets not under GRF:

- android15-6.6
- android16-6.12

New launches for devices with chipsets under GRF:

- android13-5.15
- android14-5.15
- android14-6.1
- android15-6.6
- android16-6.12

---

Yes, this means that there could be new Android 16 devices shipping with a kernel/vendor software built for Android 13.

✨Google Photos will now add an invisible watermark to images edited with Reimagine

Photos will start using SynthID, a technology that embeds imperceptible digital watermarks into images, to mark images edited with Reimagine.

🔗 https://www.androidfaithful.com/google-photos-reimagine-watermark/

⌨️ Android 16 could finally let you remap keyboard shortcuts

Google's working to let you reassign the key combinations that perform Android system actions.

More details 👇

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-customizable-keyboard-shortcuts-3524017/

Android 16 may give you a heads up when your phone's time zone changes

Google is working on a "time zone alerts" feature that notifies you when your phone's time zone has been automatically updated.

🔗 https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-time-zone-alerts-3524074/

A look at how technology companies handle naming and territory disputes.

https://www.makeuseof.com/google-maps-gulf-of-mexico-name-change/

This is brilliant! Think of the possibilities.

AI haters build tarpits to trap and trick AI scrapers that ignore robots.txt
Article, Comments

Ask HN: AI bots everywhere – does anyone have a good whitelist for robots.txt?
Article, Comments

It literally pays to save those old Firmwares offline. Always Archive.

Google Pixel 4a old firmware is gone, trapping users on the buggy battery update
Article, Comments

Define Irony ..

Exposed DeepSeek database leaking sensitive information, including chat history
Article, Comments

I have no words here... They fail me...

https://www.makeuseof.com/cancel-culture-insurance-policy-protects-celebrities/

The 5 reasons do check out. Ubuntu is old reliable for beginners but if you haven't seen everything other distros offer. The best part of Linux is true freedom of choice.

https://www.howtogeek.com/why-i-stopped-using-ubuntu/

You know our policy on Chrome extensions is DON'T. Anything that can remove AI junk out your way could be good if it was available for Librewolf instead.

https://www.makeuseof.com/pre-ai-chrome-extension-search-web-without-ai-content/