Android P will officially be released during Q3 2018
After plenty of speculation, Android P is finally here – well, sort of. The first developer preview was officially released on March 7, 2018, and while it's still incredibly buggy and unstable, gives us an early look at what we can expect for the software's final release. Thanks to a timeline that was recently shared on the Android Developers site, we now have a better idea as to when that'll happen.
In early May, Google will release Developer Preview 2. This will see Android P exiting the alpha stage and entering its official beta, and we should get an announcement for this change during Google I/O that's scheduled to take place between May 8th and the 10th.
Also, while it's not officially confirmed quite yet, DP2 should also see Android P open up as a public beta that anyone can access if they so choose.
Early June will see the release of DP3, and this will introduce Android P's final APIs, Play publishing, and official SDK. DP4 will follow later in the month as a release candidate for testing, and DP5 will come out in either late July or early August as a final release candidate.
Lastly, Google will push the final build of Android P at some point in August. That's a good six months from the time of publishing this article, but as more developer previews are released during that time, we'll be able to see Android P change and mature into what'll be available at launch.
Based on what we've seen so far, what are you most excited for with Android P?
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Joe Maring was a Senior Editor for Android Central between 2017 and 2021. You can reach him on Twitter at @JoeMaring1.