We’re going to start this off by declaring that the Android N preview/ unofficial Beta is not a consumer ready project, while noting, of course, that neither Google or the Android team have ever said it was.
The Android N Preview, as the name might imply, is a preview is for developers to test their apps against the new version to fix app incompatibilities. Case in point at the launch of the N Dev Preview the Commbank app which simply didn’t work. Jump forward to last week, and we got an update that now has the app N ready and working. This is cool.
We say all that to acknowledge that any complaining or whining that Android N isn’t ready yet is because, frankly, it isn’t. However, at Google IO, David Burke, Senior VP of Android, did say that the 3rd preview would be at a similar stage as a Beta. The Beta title indicates that the build is far enough along for Google to have confidence in its usability, whilst still acknowledging there will be some reliability issues in places.
So with all of that out, have you taken the plunge? Have you made the switch to Android N on your daily driver? If you have we’d like to hear from you. How’s your experience, which apps don’t work partially or at all, how’s the reliability of the current N Preview?
I’ll get the ball rolling, I can’t get OneDrive from Microsoft to even update on my Nexus 6 running dev preview 3. That’s it, all of the other apps I had issues with have been updated to support N and work well.
Got anything to add? Let us know below.
Found the split screen today – google keep shopping list in the top screen and recipe in the bottom (which I’d forgotten to add to the shopping list) – was really easy and worked like a charm.
Have you tried the “Ok Google, add x to shopping list” command?
you can actually swap out Shopping and create other lists as well.
No, but I do most of my list building on the computer so it’s not really come up yet.
Annoyingly, this doesn’t work on Wear. I have to walk over to my phone or shout at my Nexus 9. 🙁
I’ve used Android n as my daily driver since it first came out via OTA. I have encountered zero issue’s, no freezing lagging. Out of all the apps on the app store I’ve only come across one game that didn’t work, the rest worked without issue’s. Most productivity work flawlessly. I have nothing bad to say at all about any of the Android n previews. High performance all the way,long battery life. Great reception aswell on my LG Nexus 5X.
Oh, wifi hotspot doesn’t work anymore. It worked at the start, but now just doesn’t. Also, bluetooth is different. Doesn’t connect to an older speaker (but connects to everything else)
I have not updated just because Skype isn’t working and I use it extensively .
The Pokemon go field test isn’t compatible with the N beta yet, loads up alright but then it’s just a black screen.
The Opal card app can’t add money to the card on the latest N preview.
Installed it about 48 hours ago on my Nexus 6p so it’s a bit early to tell.
Loving the new notification/pull down.
Pocket Casts and Google Maps working fine.
As far as I can see programs are updating fine.
Google Fit tracking seems to be less accurate. I’ve noticed much less consistent numbers with my daily walk to work.
I drove down a side road off the highware – a proper sealed road mind you – and Fit though I had jumped out of the car and started cycling. At 100km/h 😮 😀
that had me laughing
nexus 6P stock no root, been using since DP1 which i would classify as a beta, DP2 which was definitely an alpha, DP3 currently no app incompatibility whatsoever, good bat and SOT, beta+
Skype seems to have errors in its video facility, still works for but that’s flaky too ? sorry Nexus 6p dev
I used to have a problem with videos in the NBA App and CommBank Tap & Pay but they both work now.
I’m using it on my Nexus 9 as a daily driver
Netflix doesn’t work and that makes me sad
All my other daily use apps work fine
I’m only using N on my Pixel C and the only app I’ve run into issues with is Clicker Heroes (won’t connect to Google Play Games and throws up an “unauthorised access” toast on startup).
Telstra 24×7 app won’t get past startup screen, but other than that, most apps I use work well.
I’ve been using dp3 as my daily driver on my 6P since it was released. Pretty solid. Only a couple of apps have issues. Battery life is much better than on any M build. I do recommend doing a factory reset instead of a dirty upgrade.. things work better this way.
Loving the feedback, keep it coming, I’m going to send a link to this post to the app developers/ owners we know how to get in contact with.
D
Pressing the home button from a landscape app, takes me to the Google Now screen, not the home page. Nexus 6.
Looks like they’ve fixed this in dev preview 4. Yay!
I use it at my daily driver on my Nexus 6. Pretty stable and good battery life. But I do have Fitbit, Ticketmaster and a couple of other apps occasionally stopping for no reason.
Telstra, St George Bank are 2 apps which don’t work at all. All my other apps work fine.
The Telstra 24/7 app won’t let you login. I’ve also had some random crashes of Google Inbox and get some errors with some VPN apps.
+1 and all so the air share app. Both say try again soon
I’m on the Build “NPD35K” (the OTA beta program)
I get constant crashing of background apps, Hangouts is really unreliable and the preformance is a lot more sluggish than the Stock Nexus 6P image.
Tap to Pay on the Commbank app does not Work.
Hi Jason, there was an update last week (link above) that seemed to get it working. Some of us had to reset app data after the update. hope this helps.
Thanks, had to clear data. Seems to be working now.
Great
I’ve used it as a daily driver on my Nexus 6P since the 3rd preview was released. I’ve noticed only a few app incompatibilities, but strangely, CommBank was not one of them. Sure, it threw up a strange warning, but it didn’t stop it from working.
Apps I’ve noticed that don’t work at all are Telstra 24×7 and Skype for Business.
I haven’t noticed any major performance issues as of yet either.
Yeah, same. It always worked for me, just threw up the toast about missing libraries.