Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Android N Developer Preview available for download now

Surprise! There had been some rumblings about this previously, but we’d be lying if we said we were expecting to see a public preview of Android N available for download today, but that is exactly what Google has delivered.

If you are the proud owner of a Nexus 6, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus Player, Nexus 9 or Pixel C, you will be able to join the new Android Beta Program later today and you will receive the latest developer previews directly to your device by OTA.

This is an awesome change for both sides as developers get an earlier look at the new OS, which should in turn get Google feedback at an early enough stage to make a real difference in Android N before Google needs to get it to OEMs.

While you are waiting for the Android Beta Program page to go live you can hit up the Android N Developer Preview page to read up on the details and check out this Medium post by Android and Chrome OS head Hiroshi Lockheimer for more on Google’s thoughts regarding this new philosophy.

Here’s a few of the highlight features for the Android N preview:

Multi-window
Pixel C users in particular are going to be rejoicing over this one, it is a sorely needed feature to take advantage of the larger tablet screen.
Direct reply notifications
Very much as it sounds this will allow you to quickly reply directly from the notification shade.
Efficiency
This is an evolution of Doze mode that helps battery life as soon as the device is turned off rather than requiring that the device be lying still.