A beta of Android Nougat 7.1.2 from Google is now available for the Pixel and Nexus devices. Usually, during the annually I/O developer conference which is held in May, Google announces the Android preview. But in 2016, before being officially announced, the Android 7 developer preview version was made available; so many users could test it.
Now, Google is repeating the process, with the latest version the Android Nougat 7.1.2, with the wider roll-out of Android 7.1.1 still ongoing. There two different ways you can take in order to test the Android Nougat 7.1.2 through the traditional developer way or through super-friendly Android Beta Program way.
A public beta program is a ‘work in progress’ that’s released and made available to users earlier to a consumer rollout of the final form software. The reason for Google to offer a beta build is to collect and incorporate users’ opinion and feedback.The purpose is to tease out issues with specific devices and let developers update apps to support Android 7.1.2’s new features or modifications if there are any.
For now, Google is offering Android 7.1.2 beta built only for a selected device such us: Pixel, Pixel XL, and Nexus 5 X, Nexus Player, Pixel C and Nexus 6P. As this Android 7.1.2 beta was made public, it should be stable and approaching completion, but you should expect that some features are still to be subjected to change and there may be some performance glitches or incompatibilities.
Google is offering the Android Beta Program to users registered to update their Android handsets to the preview and receive over-the-air updates. As you probably know the same beta program was used for Android 7.0 and 7.1 and you don’t have to get involved in flashing updates or something complicated.
How to get Android Nougat 7.1.2 on your smartphone via Android Beta Program:
1. If you own one of the above mentioned supported devices, go to android.com/beta and sign-up to the Beta Program.
2. Sign into your Google account.
3. On the next page, your eligible Android devices will be listed, click to enroll in the Android Beta Program.
4. Updates will arrive at your device over the air direct to your device.
If you have used before the Android Beta Program and enrolled your device previously, you will see that your device will be on the list and will receive the updates automatically once they become available.
In case you don’t want those updates, after you have followed the steps from above, click to “unenroll device”.
How to get Android Nougat 7.1.2 on your smartphone via the traditional developer way
If you want to follow the traditional way to get the Android Nougat developer preview, go to the system image/manual flashing site, you can find and download images from Google and then flash them on your Android device and also step-by-step instructions, but you should know that it will be a fresh install, with everything erased from your device.
Because flashing a system image will wipe all the data from your device, make sure you backup your important data before proceeding. Moreover, flashing additional Android preview images will cause more data wipes and if you choose this way, you will not receive automatic OTA updates like you will do using the Android Beta Program.
