Google has started rolling out the last developer preview of Android 7.0 Nougat before the general release scheduled later this summer.

This release is the fifth and final preview release, offering developers and beta testers the "near final system images" for supported Nexus devices, the Pixel C, and the General Mobile 4G Android One. Google doesn't mention support for the Sony Xperia Z3 (D6603 and D6653 models) in this preview as it has in past releases.

The update gives developers the final user interface and APIs to test their apps against, and ensure they're ready for Android behaviour changes, such as the battery and memory optimisations with Doze on the Go, Google's Project Svelte background optimisations, and security related permission changes.

Some of the features end-users are likely more keen to experience when using Android apps are the running apps side-by-side, new Unicode 9.0 emojis and the ability to reply directly to messages within the notifications interface.

While Google is now one stage away from the public release, the preview still contains a number of stability issues and bugs in Android Nougat features. These include MapView possibly being blank or out of focus when resized in multi-window mode, and that Do Not Disturb mode made trigger a reboot.

Google is fixing a screen zoom issue that affects multi-APK apps via a forthcoming update to Google Play services and fleshing out support for the Vulkan graphics API, a low-overhead API for high-performance, 3D graphics. Finally, Google notes crashing issue when Google Maps is used with Android Auto will be fixed in an update to Maps in coming weeks.

Supported devices that are enrolled in Google's Android Beta program will receive the latest preview as an over-the-air update.

Finally, any developers or fans who've been trialling the Android 7.0 Nougat preview and have technical questions for Google about its platform, the Android engineering team will be on hand to answer all questions at a Reddit AMA today at 12-2 PM Pacific Time (8pm in the UK).