In previous years Google have released full version name updates to Android with a new device. This year that looks set to change with two credible sources confirming that Android O will be arriving on August 21. The second generation Pixel phones are not expected to arrive until later in the year.

David Ruddock, Managing Editor of Android Police tweeted out a few rumours the other day saying that Google are “planning some degree of spectacle” around the arrival of Android O. He said that Android O will receive it’s name on the 21st of August, although at the time he could not verify this.

https://twitter.com/RDR0b11/status/895720628426166273

He followed this up today with the following tweet stating that the Android O update for the Pixel phones is scheduled for this same date:

https://twitter.com/RDR0b11/status/896094402568794112?s=09

Not long after this was also confirmed by serial leaker Evan Blass:

https://twitter.com/evleaks/status/896191945701249024?s=09

It is very unusual for Google to be releasing such a big update to an old device when there is a new one in the wings. Could they be trying to get in before Apple release the iPhone? Or are they just releasing it once it is ready? Or, and I really like this theory, the Pixel MarkII devices are ready to go as well and they will be arriving next week as well; this seems very unlikely though.

Source: David Ruddock Twitter.

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    Fred

    If they are really trying to tie in with the eclipse, I would have expected them to have booked a location in the path of the eclipse, and told journalists to turn up too.

    I still hope they go with a dessert name tied to ‘orange’ – even if it is an ‘orange oreo’, but not as much as I wish there were something worthwhile in the ‘new’ OS to get excited over.

    Manoj Bhandari

    Pixel MarkII; Canon would have a fit.

    Shannon

    The solar eclipse starts in “Oregon”. I think this almost guarantees Android Or will be called “Oreo”
    https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/

    Scott Plowman

    that fits. i was wondering how the eclipse would be significant (I suspected it was but had no idea). The O symbol looks a bit like an eclipse too

    Dean Rosolen

    Didn’t Google do the same thing last year with Nougat?

    Luke Vesty

    Yep, I believe Android 7.0 was announced and then the Pixel launched with Android 7.1 a little later.