It seems like yesterday that Android O entered the beta testing phase at Google I/O 2017. Time stands still for no one though and Google need Android O to be stable soon, especially if the rumoured final release in August is to go ahead. Today they have started rolling out the next installment in the shape of the third developer preview.
Bringing in a finalised API Level 26 with Android O DP3 Google have made it now possible for developers to begin publishing apps to the Play Store that are targeted at Android O.
If your device (Nexuses 5X, 6P, Player and Pixel, Pixel XL and C) is already enrolled in the the Android Beta Program it will be receiving the OTA notification anytime from now. I checked my Nexus 6P early this morning and it had the OTA notification (unfortunately due to it being used in a review my 8yo son is doing for Ausdroid I have not been able to install it just yet). If you are yet to enrol your device in the Android Beta Program it is not too late, just head on over to the Android Beta Program website and sign up the device(s) you wish to enrol. The OTA will arrive on your device not long after.
For the impatient ones, of which I usually included in, you can download the full factory image from the Android Developers Preview website. If you just want to grab the OTA and flash that manually you can do that too. Find them here:
The new Android O DP3 brings a host of new changes including Google Autofill functioning as it should, camera redesign, battery animation, new media cover art notification customisation possibilities, new icons (teardrop), updated clock app, and a window animation scale. We will go into these in more depth as we get our head around all the changes.
The description of the build in About Phone confirms what we all very strongly suspected too — that Android O is a full version bump, version 8. Now we just need to know how many Oreo packets we need to buy to get the free Nexus 7 2017, once the name is announced.
Have you installed the new Developer Preview yet? What is the biggest change you have noticed? What do you like or dislike about the new preview?
I’m hoping that it will be a Chrometab 7. Android tablets are dead now that ChromeOS runs Android apps.
You tease. A new Nexus 7 would be great.