Google has announced the launch of the Android 7.1 Developer Preview for its Nexus Lineup. Earlier this month Google had announced that a developer preview of Android 7.1 would be available to flash soon. Now Google has kept its word and users can finally get the OTA .zip file of the Android Nougat preview on their Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X and Pixel C devices from the Android Beta Program Page.
In a post on Android Developers, Dace Burke, Vice President Engineering, Google stated, “Since 7.1 has already launched on Pixel, we’re delivering the initial Developer Preview at beta quality for the Nexus lineup of devices. The goal is to tease out any device-specific issues. We’ve finalized the new APIs as API Level 25. We’ve opened up publishing on Google Play for apps targeting the new API level, so you can update your apps soon as you are ready.”
On the Android 7.1 Developer Preview users can test their app on the new platform and test new features such as app shortcuts and image keyboard support. There is also an updated SDK along with tools, documentation, samples, emulators and device system images for running apps on supported devices.
To install the developer preview, users can either sign up for the Android Beta program which will give them the ability to download the developer preview OTA. Alternatively users can get the factory images as a TGZ file and use the flast.bat method to test them. Then again users may also download the OTA zip file.