Google has made available to download Android 8.0 O Developer Preview 1 for Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel C and Nexus Player devices.
Android O is available to download as a factory image file, and you can find more details on the installation at the bottom of this post. It’s important to note that Android O in its current form is strictly meant for developers only and should be avoided on primary devices.
As far as new features go, Android O brings background limiting for apps running in the background, picture-in-picture mode to smartphones and tablets, wide-gamut color support for apps, adaptive app icons, new notification channels, and much more.
In a blogpost, Google detailed some of the biggest changes coming to Android smartphones and tablets with version the new version O, which by the way doesn’t have a version number yet but will likely get 8.0 on release:
Background limits: Building on the work we began in Nougat, Android O puts a big priority on improving a user’s battery life and the device’s interactive performance. To make this possible, we’ve put additional automatic limits on what apps can do in the background, in three main areas: implicit broadcasts, background services, and location updates. These changes will make it easier to create apps that have minimal impact on a user’s device and battery. Background limits represent a significant change in Android, so we want every developer to get familiar with them. Check out the documentation on background execution limits and background location limits for details.
Notification channels: Android O also introduces notification channels, which are new app-defined categories for notification content. Channels let developers give users fine-grained control over different kinds of notifications — users can block or change the behavior of each channel individually, rather than managing all of the app’s notifications together.
As for how to download, as mentioned earlier, Android O is currently only available on select Nexus and Pixel devices, and is strictly meant for developers only. Also, Google is currently only offering it as a factory image file that you will need to flash on your device. It might come to Android Beta Program later but for now, you will have to install it the old school way.
Factory images of Android O Developer Preview 1 for supported devices can be grabbed from here:
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