Well, it turns out BlackBerry’s Michael Clewley wasn’t messing with us for April Fools’ Day last Friday when he said that the BlackBerry Priv Android 6.0 Marshmallow beta is coming this month. As it turns out, the penultimate version of Android OS will start rolling out on select BlackBerry Priv devices next week, and those interested in making their very own Priv smartphone one of the “select” ones can already sign up for closed beta testing today. It’s currently unlikely that the Priv build of Marshmallow will go through a public beta phase, so this is your last chance to get Android 6.0 on the latest BlackBerry flagship before most other users. As BlackBerry revealed on its website, registrations will be accepted for two weeks, and the rollout wave will be exclusive to users who bought their Priv from Amazon, Carphone Warehouse, and ShopBlackBerry. That tells us that the closed beta will have numerous rollout phases though it’s yet unclear how long the first and subsequent phases will last. At the moment, the company only said that it’s planning to “slowly grow the program” over time.
It’s also worth noting that despite the fact BlackBerry is accepting beta registrations until the middle of the month, the number of participants is still limited so you probably want to hurry with registration if you want to check out how Marshmallow runs on Priv as soon as possible. You can register for the beta by following the link below and don’t be discouraged if the website says that “the program is currently full” because that only applies for the first planned batch of users who’ll get Android 6.0 on their Priv next week.
Naturally, although close to completion, this is still a product in a beta phase of development and the goal of the program is to test stability, performance, and general user experience with Android 6.0 running on Priv. In other words, you can expect problems with stability, performance, and general user experience. Sure, the bugs probably won’t be too bad and you may be lucky enough to not even encounter any, but that still doesn’t mean this is to be viewed as the finished product, so you should proceed carefully.