Google drops the Android 7.1 Developer Preview for a few Nexus devices
When Google announced the Pixel and Pixel XL, it was announced that those devices would be running Android 7.1 Nougat out of the box. That announcement left those with “older” Nexus devices wondering when would they be able to get in on the fun.
Then, last week, Google announced that Android 7.1 would be coming to Nexus devices in the form of a Developer Preview later this month. Turns out that today is the day as Google has released the Dev Preview for the latest version of Android for the following devices:
- Nexus 5X
- Nexus 6P
- Pixel C
Nope, there’s no Nexus 6 or Nexus Player support, but that may come at a later time. For now, it seems that these 3 devices will join the Pixel and Pixel XL as the first ones to run Android 7.1 Nougat.
Here’s a highlight of some of the new changes that will be coming once you have loaded Android 7.1 on your devices:
- App shortcuts API — lets you surface key actions directly in the launcher and take your users deep into your app instantly. You can create up to 5 shortcuts, either statically or dynamically.
- Circular app icons support — lets you provide great-looking rounded icon resources that match the look of Pixel and other launchers.
- Enhanced wallpaper metadata — lets you provide metadata about your wallpapers to any picker displaying the wallpapers as a preview. You can show existing metadata such as label, description, and author, as well as a new context URL and title to link to more information.
If you want to check out everything that’s new in Android 7.1, you can check out the full list here. If you aren’t signed up for the Android Beta Program, you can check out Phandroid’s tutorial here and get all the Android Nougat-ey goodness you want today.
Notably, you won’t receive the latest version of the Pixel Launcher for obvious reasons, but at least you’ll get the cool new app shortcuts as well as the circular icons. Let us know in the comments below how the latest developer preview is running for you after it’s up and running on your device.