At the beginning of December, Google indicated that the adoption of Android 16 was low. However, our tech-savvy audience is ahead of the curve, as most participants in last week’s poll are already using version 16 on their devices.
A small percentage (7%) upgraded because they purchased a new phone that came with Android 16 pre-installed. The majority of respondents (55%) received the update directly.
Approximately one-third of voters are still on an older version, either due to delays from manufacturers or because support for their devices has ended.
Interestingly, around 5% of users have deliberately chosen to remain on an earlier version of Android. They cite reasons such as updates removing features, reducing performance, or introducing unwanted changes to the user interface.
Many commenters expressed the sentiment that the pace of innovation seems to have slowed, and recent Android versions offer minimal changes. This perception contributes to a reluctance to upgrade to newer OS versions.
Although it was not an option in the poll, some users mentioned in the comments that they are running Android 16 through custom ROMs. As Android has evolved and manufacturer-specific UIs have offered more customization, the popularity of custom ROMs has declined, but they are still in use. However, the increasing number of devices with locked bootloaders poses a challenge to the future of custom ROM development.
