Every Android beta and quarterly platform release (QPR) ships changes that affect how organisations manage their devices. Most of the official documentation is aimed at app developers, and the underlying framework changes go entirely undocumented until they surface in a stable release months later.
This tracker fills the gap. Each entry below covers a single build and summarises what changed for enterprise management - focusing on what device policy controller (DPC) apps will be able to do, followed by broader platform changes that IT teams and EMM vendors should be aware of. Where a feature is still gated behind a flag or marked provisional, the entry says so.
The source data comes from automated firmware teardowns comparing successive builds of the DevicePolicyManager framework, enterprise apps, permissions, and related platform components. For full technical detail on a given release, see the corresponding "new in Android for enterprise" reports, such as New in Android 17 for enterprise and New in Android 16 for enterprise.
How to read the status labels:
true in the beta track; expected to shipfalse; may change before stableThese reports are generated with the assistance of AI, AI tears the respective build(s) down and extracts relevant data, with evidence. This is then reviewed and reported. Due to the nature of pulling factory OTAs and images apart, I won't ever claim 100% accuracy of the reports. Nor do I guarantee reported items will reach production builds; in fact following Google's move to trunk stable development, it will be very normal to catch previews of things that may not ship for several releases.
Track: QPR2 Beta | Milestone: December 2026 stable
Platform stability reached. The enterprise API surface is frozen. What ships in this build ships in the December 2026 stable QPR2 release.
DPC capabilities
Other enterprise changes
Track: QPR2 Beta | Milestone: December 2026 stable
Three enterprise flags graduated to enabled, and the DLP rules framework gained its set/get API.
Flag graduations
Three flags moved from provisional to enabled in this build:
policyStreamlining) - the master switch for the new type-safe policy interface is now on. DPC apps will be able to use setPolicy and getPolicy with proper typed identifiers and built-in multi-admin conflict resolutionmanagedEsimOutgoingTransferPolicy) - DPC apps can now query whether an eSIM profile is allowed to be transferred off a managed devicedpmSecurityLevelWpaOnly) - administrators can enforce WPA as the minimum Wi-Fi security standard, blocking connections to open or WEP networksDPC capabilities
Other enterprise changes
Track: Canary | Note: canary builds are forward-looking and may not ship in the next stable release
Introduces the registered app store role and content restriction enforcement.
DPC capabilities
DISALLOW_INSTALL_UNKNOWN_SOURCES_INCLUDING_REGISTERED_APP_STORES restriction (landed in QPR2 Beta 3), giving administrators a stricter sideloading option that also blocks registered storesOther enterprise changes
PolicyHandler, PolicyValidator, and PolicyHandlerFactory classes replace inline policy logic, moving toward a cleaner typed handler lifecyclePOLICY_SCOPE_LOGIN_SCREEN = 4 landed in QPR2 Beta 1)Track: QPR2 Beta | Milestone: December 2026 stable
Security logging decomposition, scoped certificate management, and policy engine expansion.
DPC capabilities
Other enterprise changes
Track: QPR2 Beta | Milestone: December 2026 stable
The first QPR2 build, with a notable architectural change to the policy engine and several new policy areas.
DPC capabilities
isOutgoingEsimTransferAllowed, clarifying its purposeOther enterprise changes
enforcingAdminExtraEnabled, enforcingAdminGetComponentNameEnabled, and setTimeCoexistenceLOCKSCREEN to LOCK_SCREEN)Track: QPR1 Beta | Milestone: September 2026 stable
The final QPR1 beta before stable, focusing on physical media, tethering policies, and certificate management improvements.
DPC capabilities
no_physical_media restriction with proper multi-admin resolutionOther enterprise changes
Branding namespace, improving organisation for branding-related policiesAdvancedSecurityOverrides with proper typed allowed/disallowed constantsTrack: QPR1 Beta | Milestone: September 2026 stable
Introduces real-time policy change callbacks and scoped key generation.
DPC capabilities
Other enterprise changes
Track: QPR1 Beta | Milestone: September 2026 stable
One of the largest enterprise builds tracked so far. Introduces the data leak prevention framework, policy namespace classes, scoped certificate management, and the foundation for policy engine V2.
DPC capabilities
Other enterprise changes
AdvancedSecurityOverrides, DeviceConnectivityManagement, and DateTime group related policies together, rather than keeping them all in a flat list. This is a structural improvement that scales to the volume of policies expected as Android and ChromeOS management convergepolicyEngineV2 flag and 27 per-policy migration flags appeared, all still off. These gate the next generation of the policy engine that will handle routing policies through either the V1 or V2 pathSTATUS_HEADLESS_SYSTEM_USER_MODE_REQUIRED constant was renamed to STATUS_INCOMPATIBLE_OS_BUILD, broadening its meaning beyond headless modeTrack: QPR1 Beta | Milestone: September 2026 stable
Introduces the device controller concept, content safety apps rename, and WPA enforcement constant.
DPC capabilities
Other enterprise changes
addUserInfoInProfileOffDeadlineAlarm, checkPersonalSuspensionForAllProfiles, and wipeDeviceWhenUserCannotBeRemovedassociateDisallowGrantAdminWithPermission and unsuspendNotSuspendedTrack: Canary | Note: canary builds are forward-looking and may not ship in the next stable release
Significant build that introduces scaffolding for device admin deprecation and expands the policy metadata system.
DPC capabilities
isDeviceAdminFeatureDisabled() check, all returning false for now. This is preparation for eventually disabling the legacy device admin APIRoleManager reference, adding role-based management alongside traditional owner-based managementOther enterprise changes
addUserInfoInProfileOffDeadlineAlarm, checkPersonalSuspensionForAllProfiles, crossUserSuspensionEnabledRo, and others moved to enabled in the canary trackhasAffiliationWithDevice and isDeviceProvisioned moved to an internal interface, cleaning up the public API surfacepolicyStreamliningTests flag used for internal validation was removedTrack: Android 17 Beta (stable track) | Milestone: June 2026 stable
A patch release that rolled back several flags to their safer defaults on the stable track.
What changed
increaseWatchStrongAuthTimeout, introduceGenericProvisioningError, and useHardenedFrpActiveCheck were all set back to disabled on the stable track. These remained enabled in the canary and QPR1 tracks, meaning the stable Android 17 release shipped without them while they continue development in quarterly releasesenterpriseEsimUsingCarrierPrivileges flag was re-added as enabled after being removed in earlier buildsThis build illustrates how the stable, QPR, and canary tracks can diverge: features that are enabled in QPR and canary builds get rolled back on the stable track when they need more baking time.
Track: QPR1 Beta | Milestone: September 2026 stable
Adds typed policy engine flags for several common restrictions and restores features that had been removed in the canary track.
DPC capabilities
Other enterprise changes
Track: Canary | Note: canary builds are forward-looking and may not ship in the next stable release
A lighter build focused on private DNS refactoring and overlay resource improvements.
DPC capabilities
Other enterprise changes
#import: directives, allowing one list to reference another. This enables cleaner configuration management for OEMs and enterprise deployments with complex overlay hierarchiesTrack: QPR1 Beta | Milestone: September 2026 stable
Introduces the kiosk user type, device controller role permissions, and assist content policy.
DPC capabilities
Other enterprise changes
USER_TYPE_FULL_KIOSK user type appeared, designed specifically for kiosk device management. This mirrors the kiosk app mode available on ChromeOSTrack: QPR1 Beta | Milestone: September 2026 stable
The first QPR1 build, laying groundwork for clipboard policy, factory reset protection improvements, and the policy serialisation framework.
DPC capabilities
Other enterprise changes
Track: Canary | Note: canary builds are forward-looking and may not ship in the next stable release
Establishes the multi-user provisioning state machine and moves supervision APIs to a dedicated manager.
DPC capabilities
Other enterprise changes
DevicePolicyManager to a dedicated SupervisionManager, with feature flags controlling the migration. This cleans up the DPM API surfacePolicyDefinitionFactory.buildAll() landed for metadata-driven policy registration, alongside EnumStoredAsBooleanPolicyHandler for handling enum policies backed by boolean storage. These are foundational policy engine componentsTrack: Android 17 Beta | Milestone: June 2026 stable
The near-final Android 17 beta, carrying the typed policy engine (present since earlier betas) and cleaning up legacy APIs.
DPC capabilities
setPolicy, getPolicy, getResolvedDeviceWidePolicy, and getResolvedPerUserPolicy are present with typed PolicyIdentifier parameters and built-in multi-admin resolution. These carry @FlaggedApi at API 10000 (provisional) and will ship when the backing flags graduateOther enterprise changes
PackageIdentifier and PackagePolicyValue landed, providing strongly typed infrastructure for policies that operate on specific packagesdeviceOwnerForAll, fixDisabledByAdminShortMessageNotShown, fixUsbDataSignalingRestrictionAfterRebootTrack: Android 16 stable | Note: this is the baseline build used for comparison when tracking Android 17 changes
The Android 16 April stable release serves as the comparison baseline for this tracker. Enterprise-relevant items here represent the stable production state against which Android 17 beta changes are measured.
Key enterprise state at this baseline
clearPolicy, getIntegerPolicy) was present. This approach was superseded by the typed PolicyIdentifier approach in Android 17DISALLOW_HANDOFF user restriction (A16 naming) was present, later renamed to DISALLOW_TASK_CONTINUITY_HANDOFF in Android 17Track: A16 QPR3 Canary (SDK 36.1) | Note: the first build processed by this tracker
The earliest build tracked, running on the Pixel 7 before the tracker switched to the Pixel 10. This canary sits on the Android 16 QPR3 branch and contains forward-looking enterprise plumbing.
What appeared