We have been stuck with Android 10 for a while now, and everyone is stoked to see what Google has up its sleeves for the next iteration Android- Android 11. That wait however, just got extended by a month or so. Google announced today, that it has decided to push the announcement of Beta version of Android 11 by a month.
This is the second time that Google has delayed Android 11 Beta launch within this month. Earlier in May, Google announced that COVID-19 related environment has led to the delay of Android 11 Beta launch. The company had then announced an online-only launch in the form of Android 11: the Beta Launch Show, after the offline event was canceled due to COVID 19.
The event, which was supposed to take place on June 3rd through an online medium, set the stage for the release of Android 11 Beta 1, the first stage of the new OS’ roll out. It was announced that Beta 1 would include final SDK and NDK APIs, as well as Google Play publishing support for Androids, and more versions would roll out subsequently.
However, the event has now been postponed, in an announcement made by “Android Developers” twitter account. The tweet read, “We are excited to tell you more about Android 11, but now is not the time to celebrate. We are postponing the June 3rd event and beta release. We’ll be back with more on Android 11, soon.”
The reason for this delay was not mentioned explicitly,but it’s pretty clear what Google meant. Nationwide protests have created a state of civil unrest, and people all around the country are being affected by the happenings. At a time like this, not only would an event seem irresponsible, but it would also lead to less viewership, which is bad for business.
Earlier, the launch announcement was supposed to happen this month, i.e. May, but was delayed after Google “decided to add a bit of extra time” to the release schedule from February. Instead, the company launched Developer Preview 4 instead, pushing back Beta 1 and all subsequent milestones back by a month. DP4 was launched for developers only, and was not made available for public use. The release included:
- The location services icon no longer shows in the status bar while location services are not in use.
- Icons in the status bar no longer run over the edge on certain devices.
It was announced that Beta1 would include the final SDK and NDK APIs with this release and open up Google Play publishing for apps targeting Android 11. Beta 2 was focused at Platform stability and Beta 3 was about releasing candidate builds for final testing.
This chart was announced to pave a path for Android 11’s release, which still holds true(partially), as Android 11 will probably hit the shelves some time in Q3.
