Category: Android Nougat

The Android team at Google has released what is slated to be the last Developer Preview of Android Nougat 7.1.1.  The update is already pushing out to devices that are enrolled in the beta program which now includes the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9 and Pixel C.  The builds you are looking for are NPF26F (Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9), NPF26H (Pixel C). For developers, Google has outlined that this is a near complete version of what will ship in early December to consumers and are urged to get their apps ready.

Developer Preview 2 is a release candidate for Android 7.1.1 that you can use to complete your app development and testing in preparation for the upcoming final release. In includes near-final system behaviors and UI, along with the latest bug fixes and optimizations across the system and Google apps.

To help developers, API Level 25 Platform updates have been rolled out to Android Studio 2.2.2 as part of the announcement today so final preparations and updates can be made to apps.

Twitter has rolled out an update to their Android app that brings support for App Shortcuts.  It makes them just the latest to offer the new feature, something that is coming natively to Android Nougat 7.1 but can be experienced in other devices with launchers that support them.  Specific to Twitter, this updated version gives users the ability to send a new direct message, a new Tweet or to do a search of Twitter for specific content.  Once you select the shortcut you want, the app launches to that particular feature automatically.  This makes it super quick to send a new message or a new Tweet.

Today the Android team released their distribution report meets install base report and Android Nougat has made its debut in the report.  While the number is small – .3% – it is a positive sign that it has hit this report after a month on essentially only Nexus devices.  Given that other manufactures and Google themselves have rolled out the new Pixel lineup with Nougat, this number is only going to go up and likely at a faster clip than that of Marshmallow.  Speaking of Marshmallow, that build had a healthy bump in usage this month, up to 24% of the install base.  That’s up several percentage points over the October report.

Interesting, king of the hill remains to be Android Lollipop.  That now 2+ year old version of Android is on 34.1% of all devices that hit the Play Store for the week ending November 7, 2016.  Given the huge number of devices that are out there running Lollipop and that will never see an update to Marshmallow, it is likely that KitKat’s install base will continue to be high for quite some time.

Today Huawei pulled back the covers on their latest flagship Android phone, the Mate 9.  The 5.9″ display device has some impressive specs that will meet most power user needs when it hits the market in December.   It is the first phone that will have Huawei’s new Kirin 960 octa-core process and it will have the new ARM Mali-G71 GPU coupled with it.  Add to that 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage and a 20MP dual camera setup, you have all the makings of a solid device that will be priced at around $776.

OnePlus has released a 6th beta of their Android Nougat based OxygenOS release for the OnePlus 3.  The new build, version 3.5.5, brings a lot of changes as the company gets ready for a public release of the update in December.  If you already have the beta installed on your OnePlus 3, this update to the home-brew version of Android for the OP3 will come to you via an OTA update.  If you are not a part of the beta program, you can sign up and then do a manual flash of your device to this latest build.

As for what is addressed in this update, it is pretty extensive and for those in the beta program, its well worth the update.

With orders now starting to arrive to those who ordered the new Google Pixel or Pixel XL, Google has posted both the factory images and the OTA updates for both phones on the Android Developer website.  This follows the trend that the company has had the last two device rounds (Nexus 5X/6P and Marshmallow & Nexus 6/Lollipop).  This means that, like the Nexus lineup before it, the Pixel lineup will have images that those who want to manually update their devices can use as soon as the images are released instead of waiting for the standard over-the-air updates.