This is a bit shocking to say the least. Google, yesterday, announced the new developer preview for Android N. Which started rolling out over the air yesterday and the factory images were also made available. However, many early adopters are not patient enough to wait for the OTA, and many don’t want to flash the entire factory image, as that means they’ll need to start from scratch. Typically, users are able to grab the link that houses the OTA updates and are able to sideload the OTA through recovery. Usually Google doesn’t make those links public, but with this developer preview they have done just that.
Those interested in sideloading the OTA can do so, just hit up the link down below. Remember that you do need stock recovery – which there isn’t a custom recovery available for Android N just yet, so that shouldn’t be an issue. Head into recovery and then sideload the OTA just as you normally would. It’s really easy and a great idea from Google, actually. Google also has instructions on how to do so, on the Android Developers site. For those that may be new to the whole sideloading.
The Android N Developer Preview debuted last month, and the second of 6 developer previews was launched yesterday. The preview came in at a total of 440MB as a OTA – which Google says that the OTA’s should be available within 24 hours. There’s not a whole lot that is new in this update. But there is still plenty to get excited about. We now have the Vulkan API in Android N. A few other API’s also got a nice update prior to the official Android N release in the fall. The Android N Developer Preview is a bit more stable than the first preview was, but it should still not be considered for your daily driver. As this is considered a beta and is definitely full of bugs. As you would expect. But if you’re a developer, it’s a great time to be able to download the preview and get your apps ready for Android N when it launches this fall.