No major surprises here: Earlier this month, Google announced that the Android 7.1 Nougat Developer Preview and its SDK tools would roll out to developers sometime later this month — and now that we have passed the middle of the month, the preview is indeed rolling out to those who have signed up for the Android Beta Program.
While the Android Beta Program is mostly geared toward developers, there’s nothing stopping you from giving Android 7.1 a try if you are simply curious about what this latest update has in store for you. It’s beta software, though, so keep in mind that it may still have plenty of bugs (I wouldn’t install this on my main phone, for example).
This is the same Android 7.1 that’s already on the Google Pixel, though, so we’re probably looking at a pretty stable release. Sadly, Google isn’t bringing all the Pixel’s best features to other devices. That means even though you may have 7.1 on your Nexus 6P, you still won’t get to use the system-wide Google Assistant feature, for example.
Google’s plan is to release another preview in November and then roll out the final version in December. If you currently own a Nexus 5X, 6P or Pixel C and are enrolled in the beta program, you should see the over-the-air update very soon. The final release will also come to the Nexus 9, Nexus Player and Android One devices, as well as the new Pixel phones.
As for the new features in Android 7.1, check out our post from earlier this month (spoiler: There aren’t that many, but the ones that are included are pretty useful).