Google Keep might be joining the ranks of Android system apps

Google Keep is being upgraded to a system app on Android 16 devices, joining the ranks of other Android apps that provide essential services like calling and messaging, reports Android Police.

Google’s free note-taking app appears as a system app on the latest Android 16 beta, Android 16 Developer Preview 2. Anyone upgrading to this OS version will no longer be able to uninstall the app unless they have root access.

Google integrated Keep with its Tasks feature in April after last year’s upgrades broke a trend of ignoring its note-taking app. Yet all of a sudden, it’s apparently considered a core feature vital to Android’s operating system, like Google’s Phone, Contacts, and Google Play Store apps.

Google has yet to explain the change, but this suggests the company could be planning on upgrading Google Keep with more powerful features so it’ll play a more central role in Android 16. It’s possible Google could be planning on integrating it with other core Android features, for example.