Android N Developer Preview 5 Released; Public Rollout “Later This Summer”

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It’s happening folks! We can just about see the public release of Android 7.0 Nougat in the distant future, but before that, we are being treated to one final helping of the Developer Preview. Coming to us in the form of Developer Preview 5 for Android 7.0 Nougat, this build labelled NPD90G is available for flashing for all supported devices.

What’s new? Google hasn’t mentioned a whole lot in this section, but they note that the Developer Preview 5 includes the “near-final” system images for supported devices and the Android emulator. Also included is the final API level 24, with which app developers can publish apps onto the Google Play Store in all release channels. This API includes all the latest system behaviours and UI which app developers can make use of.

Since this is the cutting edge of Android software and not meant for the general public, there are a few bugs and stability issues that still need to ironed out. Namely, multiwindow, camera and Do Not Disturb have some issues, while some more issues like those related to Screen Zoom, Vulkan API and Android Auto will be fixed via updates to the buggy apps or mediums.

Google has not yet given any formal date for the release of stable Android 7.0 Nougat, but the announcement post does state that public rollout will be “later this summer”, which puts it around September 2016. With the timeline of how the Developer Previews went, there might just be some hope that we can see Android 7.0 Nougat released for the public as early as mid-August. But then again, Google hasn’t tied itself up with a fixed date, so there’s plenty of room to wiggle.

If you have a supported device, you can download the OTA image or the system image as per your flashing convenience. Links to the system images are also down below:

Also, tucked away in the announcement post was an invitation for developers to pose technical questions to the Android engineering team:

The Android engineering team will host a Reddit AMA on r/androidev to answer all your technical questions about the platform tomorrow, July 19 from 12-2 PM (Pacific Time). We look forward to addressing your questions!

Have you flashed the final Developer Preview yet? Are you excited for the final release of Android 7.0 Nougat? Let us know in the comments below!