Android 16 lets the Linux Terminal use your phone’s entire storage

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Pixel phones are taking a step towards becoming powerful portable PCs with the introduction of the Linux Terminal app in the March 2025 update. This app lets compatible Android devices run a full-fledged instance of the popular Debian distro in a virtual machine, opening the door to running popular Linux desktop programs alongside Android apps. However, the feature isn’t quite ready for everyday professional use, currently lacking support for critical features like graphical apps and audio output, and until recently, it was restricted to just 16GB of storage space, limiting the Linux VM’s capacity for apps and files. Thankfully, Google just lifted that storage limitation, allowing the Linux Terminal to use as much of your phone’s storage as needed.

With the release of the fourth Android 16 beta, Google has uncapped the disk resize slider in the Linux Terminal app’s settings. In previous releases, the disk size was capped at 16GB. In Android 16 Beta 4, however, the disk can be resized to occupy most of the host device’s remaining storage, leaving 1GB free to prevent the virtual machine from consuming all available space.

I tested this feature on a Google Pixel 9 Pro running Android 16 Beta 4, successfully resizing the Linux disk to 42.3GB. The process took only a few seconds, and after restarting the VM, the increased storage was immediately available. According to Android’s storage settings, the total size consumed by the Linux Terminal app (including the base app and the resized VM disk) grew to approximately 45.52GB.