Google has finally made the first developer builds available of its upcoming Android O update. The new version brings a wide range of backend as well as frontend features including better app optimisation, redesigned settings panel, snoozing options for notifications, dynamic icons, and a whole lot more. If you own the latest Pixel smartphones or the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus Player, Pixel C, you can download it and try it out yourself now. Here’s how to do it.
Ofcourse, you should be aware of the fact that these are extremely early images and will be packed with bugs, glitches. So, make up your mind before proceeding.
- First off, head over to Google’s developer page and download the flash image fro your respective handset.
- Next, you’ll need to download the Android Studio in order to install ADB tools.
- In your phone’s settings -> “About phone”, tap the build number seven times, go back and open developers options. Turn on USB debugging.
- Now, connect your phone to the computer, open up terminal/command, and type “adb devices”. If nothing shows up, repeat the step 2 and 3 carefully.
- Before flashing the files, you will also need an unlocked bootloader. This process will completely wipe off all the data from your phone, therefore backup before heading to the next step.
- Enable “OEM unlocking” in the developers options.
- Execute the command “adb reboot bootloader” on your computer. The bootloader screen will pop up and once it does, execute “fastboot oem unlock”.
- Confirm the prompted warnings.
- Extract the .tgz file you downloaded, open it, extract the .zip file where you will find the boot loader, OS image, vendor image, and a radio image.
- Run the command “adb reboot bootloader”.
- Next, the command line will need to be shifted to the build’s location on the computer. Use “cd /Users/<yourusername>/Downloads/<filename>” (could be different on your PC).
- Once that’s done, execute “./flash-all.sh” if you’re on Mac/Unix or “flash-all.bat” on Windows.
It will now take roughly five or more minutes for the phone to complete the process. In the meantime, have an oreo (or oatmeal cookies?) to get into the spirit. As soon as the update is installed, the phone will reboot which will take quite some time, mostly about 10 minutes.
That’s about it, you are now running the new Android O. Let us know in the comments section below if you’re stuck at some point or share any substantial bugs you came across.