Joe Maring / Android Authority
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TL;DR
- Android 16 is now the most used version of Android, representing 25.4% of active devices, up from 7.5% in December 2025.
- Android 17 has only reached a 1% adoption rate despite being available in June 2026, and even Android 8.1 has a larger share.
- Android fragmentation remains an issue, with 43.6% of active devices still running Android 13 or earlier.
Android 16 has finally become the most widely used version of Google’s mobile operating system, but the latest Android distribution figures suggest that getting users to use newer software remains a challenge.
Although Android 17 has been available on more devices since its release in June, the latest software only represents 1% of active devices. The figures also show that a surprisingly high number of Android users are still using versions that are several years old.
According to the latest figures shared by heise.de via Android Studio, Android 16 accounted for 25.4% of active Android devices in October 2026. This is a huge increase from the 7.5% adoption seen in December of last year, when Google last updated its distribution figures.
Meanwhile, Android 14 is the second most used version, with 15.3% of devices still using it, while Android 15 follows with 14.7%. Together, the two versions represent 30% of active Android devices.
Even more surprising, Android 13 and Android 11 continue to have a fairly significant presence, with 11.8% and 10.5% shares respectively. Android 12 is not far behind with 9.6%. In other words, more than 30% of active Android devices are still running Android 13 or earlier.
Google’s figures show that 56.4% of active devices are running Android 14 or newer. While this is a majority, it also means that more than four in 10 devices have not yet upgraded to Android 14 or later.
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It’s worth remembering that these numbers don’t come from a real-time survey of every Android phone. Google no longer publishes a regularly updated public distribution table. The company only offers cumulative adoption figures through Android Studio. The latest estimates are derived from these figures and cover devices that contacted the Google Play Store over a seven-day period.
There’s also a temporal caveat when comparing Android 17 with its predecessor. Android 17 had less time to reach devices than Android 16 when the previous distribution snapshot was released. Still, its 1% share highlights how slowly the latest version is reaching the broader Android ecosystem.
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