The final release of Android M won't be here until this fall, but the good news for developers and other adventurous users is that Google is distributing early developer preview builds for a handful of Nexus devices. The company tells us that it will provide Android M Developer Preview images for the Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 smartphones, the Nexus 9 tablet, and the Nexus Player set-top box.

As with last year's L preview, that support list may expand for the final consumer release. The 2012 and 2013 Nexus 7, Nexus 4, and Nexus 10 have all been upgraded to Android 5.1 and could theoretically make the move to Android M. That said, the original Nexus 7, the Nexus 4, and the Nexus 10 are all getting a little long in the tooth, and it wouldn't be surprising for Google to drop support for any or all of them.

Google says it has learned a couple of lessons from the L preview last year. First, it will "provide a clear timeline" for the update, something the company has been pretty bad about even with the Nexus, Android One, and Android Wear devices it updates directly—updates go out at different dates to different devices, which can be especially annoying if you bought Nexus hardware specifically for testing new Android versions. The company will also provide more updates to the preview build, something it didn't do much of last year.

Based on our experience with the L preview, we'd expect the initial M preview on Nexus phones and tablets to include some of M's features and APIs but not to be feature-complete or suitable for daily use. As for the Nexus Player, Google says that the main Android TV user interface is separate from the rest of the OS but that Android M will bring support for improved permissions and some of the other underlying features. Don't expect it to look too different from the software already running on your Nexus Player, in other words.

We'll update this post when these images are actually available—check the Android developer preview page for updates in the meantime. As with all beta software, you shouldn't install this on hardware that you rely on day to day, especially if the M preview is as rough around the edges as last year's Android L preview was. Use this software on test devices and save yourself some headaches.

Update: The images are live on the developer preview page linked above. These instructions will walk you through the flashing process, which will wipe all data on your device. Google says future developer build updates will be offered as OTAs, so you shouldn't need to wipe your device again every time there's an update.