The source code for Android 16 is now available, but OEMs like Samsung and Xiaomi have already had early access. Here's what that means.

However, since Android 12’s release, there’s no longer a guarantee that the Pixel OTA update and Android source code drop will happen on the same day, and there’s a good reason for that.

When Android 16 was released, Google uploaded the main system code to AOSP as usual. But this time, the source code that is specific to Pixel phones was missing, as reported by Android Authority.