- Google announced the first Android P developer preview for its Pixel smartphones.
- Because of its unstable and buggy nature, Google advises developers to download the developer preview on a secondary device.
It arrived a bit earlier than expected, but the first Android P developer preview is available for Pixel phones. This is the end of the road for major platform updates for the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P.
With no final name for Android P in sight, the first developer preview seemingly focuses on changes that will affect developers. One such change is support for a notch at the top of the display, which should come in handy for the incoming wave of Android smartphones with notches.
Other notable changes include a multi-camera API that lets developers access simultaneous data streams from several cameras, Wi-Fi Round Trip Time (RTT) for indoor positioning inside of apps, and the new “MessagingStyle” notification type that includes recent lines from your conversation. These lines can include avatars, photo attachments, and Smart Reply suggestions.
We will continue to tally all of the included features and update this article accordingly.
Before you jump to the Android developer website and download the developer preview, make sure you keep in mind its unstable nature. Ensure that you have another device next to you, since you will not want to install the developer preview on your main smartphone.
As previously mentioned, that second device must be a Pixel smartphone. The Android P developer preview is not available for the Nexus 5X or Nexus 6P, and this could be the end of major updates for either smartphone. The two phones will still receive security updates through the end of 2018.
You can download the first Android P developer preview at the link below. It is available for the Google Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, and Pixel 2 XL. The good news is that there will be an Android Beta release at some point.
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