Earlier today, Google introduced the first Developer Preview for Android O. Yep, that means we are that much closer to getting the latest version of Android on our favorite devices.
However, with this announcement, there’s a pretty standard question that everyone is probably asking. When am I going to see Android OÂ on my personal device?
Unfortunately for many, the answer is one to damper your mood a bit. Despite today marking the launch of the first Android O Developer Preview, we’re not expecting to see an official launch until Q3 2017.
In fact, developers aren’t likely to see the next preview update until sometime in May. However, what this does is give Google and developers enough time to tinker with all the new changes, while updating their apps to support Android O.
Over the course of a new version of Android, there are generally 5 different stages, and here’s a quick breakdown:
- Preview 1 (initial release, alpha)
- Preview 2 (incremental update, beta)
- Preview 3 (final APIs and official SDK, Play publishing)
- Preview 4 (near-final system images for final testing)
- Final release to AOSP and ecosystem
Preview 1, as everyone knows, has launched today. Preview 2 is expected to launch sometime in May, but before June. We’d put our money on seeing it launched during Google I/O 2017, which is scheduled to start on May 17th.
Preview 3 will launch sometime in June, with the final developer preview launching sometime in July. The “final release” is where Google has stated we’ll be seeing it sometime in Q3 2017. That time frame ranges from July until September. Yeah, we know, definitely nothing concrete.
In the meantime, we’ll be keeping everyone up to date on the new features and changes as they are added and/or removed. Plus, if you missed out on the news, you can hit the link here and check out everything included in Android O.
Let us know what you’re most excited for with Android O, and what you think the “O” will actually stand for?
