Final Developer Preview before Android 7.0 Nougat begins rolling out

Posted by Dave Burke, VP of Engineering

As we close in on the public rollout of href="https://developer.android.com/preview/index.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_developerpreview5_071816&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">Android 7.0 Nougat
to devices later this summer, today we’re releasing Developer Preview
5, the last milestone of this preview series. href="http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2016/06/android-n-apis-are-now-final.html">Last
month’s Developer Preview included the final APIs for Nougat; this preview
gives developers the near-final system updates for all of the supported preview
devices, helping you get your app ready for consumers.

Here’s a quick rundown of what’s included in the final Developer Preview of
Nougat:

• System images for Nexus and other preview devices
  
• An emulator that you can use for doing the final testing of your apps to
  make sure they’re ready
  
• The final N APIs (API level 24) and latest system behaviors and UI
  
• The latest bug fixes and optimizations across the system and in preinstalled
  apps

Working with this latest Developer Preview, you should make sure your app
handles all of the href="https://developer.android.com/preview/behavior-changes.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_developerpreview5_071816&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">system
behavior changes in Android N, like Doze on the Go, background
optimizations, screen zoom, permissions changes, and more. Plus, you can take
advantage of href="https://developer.android.com/preview/api-overview.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_developerpreview5_071816&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">new developer
features in Android N such as href="https://developer.android.com/preview/api-overview.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_developerpreview5_071816&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#multi-window_support">Multi-window
support, Direct Reply and other href="https://developer.android.com/preview/api-overview.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_developerpreview5_071816&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#notification_enhancements">notifications
enhancements, href="https://developer.android.com/preview/api-overview.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_developerpreview5_071816&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#direct_boot">Direct
boot, href="https://developer.android.com/preview/api-overview.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_developerpreview5_071816&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#emoji">new
emojis and more.

Publish your apps to alpha, beta or production channels in Google
Play

After testing your apps with Developer Preview 5 you should publish the updates
to Google Play soon. We recommend compiling against, and optionally targeting,
API 24 and then publishing to your alpha, beta, or production channels in the
Google Play Developer Console. A great strategy to do this is using href="https://developer.android.com/distribute/engage/beta.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_npreview_061516&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">Google
Play’s beta testing feature to get early feedback from a small group of
users -- including Developer Preview users — and then doing a staged rollout as
you release the updated app to all users.

How to get Developer Preview 5

If you are already enrolled in the Android
Beta program, your devices will get the Developer Preview 5 update right
away, no action is needed on your part. If you aren’t yet enrolled in Android
Beta, the easiest way to get started is by visiting href="https://android.com/beta">android.com/beta and opt-in your eligible
Android phone or tablet -- you’ll soon receive this preview update over-the-air.
As always, you can also download and href="https://developer.android.com/preview/download.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_npreview_061516&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#flash">flash
this update manually. The Nougat Developer Preview is available for Nexus 6,
Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9, and Pixel C devices, as well as General Mobile 4G
[Android One] devices.

Thanks so much for all of your feedback so far. Please continue to share
feedback or requests either in the href="https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/list?can=2&q=label%3ADevPreview-N">N
Developer Preview issue tracker, href="https://plus.google.com/communities/103655397235276743411">N Preview
Developer community, or href="https://plus.google.com/communities/106765800802768335079">Android Beta
community as we work towards the consumer release later this summer. Android
Nougat is almost here!

Also, the Android engineering team will host a Reddit AMA on r/androiddev to
answer all your technical questions about the platform tomorrow, July 19
from 12-2 PM (Pacific Time). We look forward to addressing your
questions!