In addition to laying out what’s new, Google today provided a timeline for Android 11. There will be six releases in total with the first half considered developer previews, and the rest as betas. Similar to past years, Android 11 will launch sometime in Q3 2020.
With Android Q last year, all six versions were classified as having “beta” quality by Google. The first three Android 11 builds from February to April are classified as developer previews:
- Developer Preview 1: Early baseline build focused on developer feedback, with new features, APIs, and behavior changes.
- Developer Preview 2: Incremental update with additional features, APIs, and behavior changes.
- Developer Preview 3: Incremental update for stability and performance.
Come May — and Google I/O, the Android 11 Beta will be available as an OTA for easier, public install. Beta 2 with the final APIs will be available in June, but the last beta is only listed as coming in Q3, along with that final release.
- Beta 1: Initial beta-quality release, over-the-air update to early adopters who enroll in Android Beta.
- Beta 2: Platform Stability milestone. Final APIs and behaviors. Play publishing opens.
- Beta 3: Release candidate build.
- Final release: Android 11 release to AOSP and ecosystem.
Google this year is focussing on Platform Stability to allow developers to start final testing several weeks earlier than usual. This milestone will see Android 11 reach “final internal and external APIs, final app-facing behaviors, and final non-SDK graylists.”
We expect Android 11 to reach Platform Stability at Beta 2 in June 2020. From that point, you can expect no further changes affecting your apps.
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