Google launches early Android 17 Beta for Pixel devices targeting app scalability

Google has skipped their usual Developer Preview of the next version of Android, instead jumping directly to releasing the first Beta of Android 17 for Pixel devices. 

The Android Beta program is available for Pixel devices from the Pixel 6 and upwards, including the Pixel Tablet, with the Android Beta website allowing you to enroll your eligible devices directly and prompt an Over-The-Air (OTA) update to your device.

In terms of what’s inside Android 17, Google has focused on developer-side changes at this stage, though we’ll hear more ahead of the full release at Google I/O later this year.

Google will be broadening app scalability focusing on apps being able to run across phones, foldables, tables, desktops, car displays, and the upcoming Android XR platform. Apps targeted at Android 17 will need to offer an app capable of adapting to a variety of display sizes. 

Google will also be improving performance, with new garbage collection making it less CPU intensive. Google will also improve camera performance including fixing stretching issues when switching displays, and fixing switching cameras in apps. 

The timeline for the full launch of Android 17 is pretty broad from the estimated timeline, with Google saying that the final release will happen ‘several months’ after they reach a  Platform Stability milestone in March – likely after Google I/O in May and before the launch of the Pixel 11 expected around August. 

If you want to give the new Android 17 Beta a try, you can enroll your eligible Pixel device through the website – bearing in mind it’s a Beta and could be quite unstable.

If you don’t have a Pixel, you can always give it a whirl in the Emulator in Android Studio.