Today the second Developer Preview of Android Oreo 8.1 was released to those in the Android Beta Program. The update brings the November 2017 Android Security Update to the beta program and OTA updates for those with devices enrolled should start flowing today and throughout the next few days.
This will be the last Developer Preview of Oreo 8.1 before it is generally released next month. You can read about all the major updates & changes coming in Oreo 8.1 here.
The 2nd preview more-or-less fixes bugs and other issues found in the first preview released last month. The new Pixel Visual Core, which was not in DP1, is now enabled in this second preview. For those that are familiar with this feature, it is Google’s first co-processor for image processing and Machine Learning. Currently it is only available in the Pixel 2 lineup.
Among other notes, the audio issue that impacted Nexus 5X owners on DP1 is now resolved and API level 27 is finalized in this preview which will make life easier for developers as they update their apps. Finally, the Neural Networks API for on-device Machine Learning is finalized in this build.
As mentioned, this OTA update for those in the beta program should begin rolling out today. It make take several days before it gets to everyone.
For those that are thinking of joining the beta program, remember that Developer Preview 2, while almost code complete, is considered beta so support is limited and you could still run into a bug or two with apps also being non-responsive as they may not be updated to a supported API level yet. Unless you are a developer, there isn’t a big reason to join the program to get the new bits. They will be public next month anyway.
