Sony announced today that its Xperia X Concept program is coming to an end but that the company’s InTouch forum – where the announcement was made on April 19 – will remain open. A new forum similar to InTouch will be created for Sony’s newest flagship, the Xperia XZ Premium. As you might have already guessed, that means this expiration is technically not an end to the ideas behind Concept for Android. The company included in the announcement that the program will continue for that above-mentioned device. This particular end only applies to those users who are currently enrolled with an eligible device and a final update to the program will signal that end sometime in the next month – in early May, according to the announcement.
In addition to no longer receiving concept updates, it is important to note that users who continue with the Xperia X Concept software will not be receiving any further updates at all. That includes security updates, so users will want to return to the stock system software for their devices in order to keep on getting those. Those devices running the original factory software will still receive security updates and possibly other updates as well even after the program ends.
Sony’s Concept for Android program has been around since 2015 and has provided the company with a lot of feedback about future software ideas. Most recently, the program helped its users to gain access to Android 7.1.2, but it has also served almost as a PR tool in general since it has consistently provided users with a great way to interact with representatives and engineers at the company itself. Unfortunately, there is no official word yet about when, exactly, Sony’s Xperia XZ Premium will be eligible for the program or for when the associated forum will be up and running. Obviously, that device was only just announced in February at MWC 2017 and it will need to be officially released first. Beyond that, there has also been no indication as to which variants of the XZ Premium will be able to participate when the new program finally launches. The current Concept program is only accessible to users with a specific variant of the Sony Xperia X, so it’s possible that not every owner of the newest flagship will be able to take part. In the meantime, Sony has only promised that further information will be made available “soon.”