Android 12 schedule: Three developer previews, first of four betas in May

In addition to highlighting what’s new, Google today provided a launch schedule for Android 12. There will be eight releases in total before public availability sometime after August.

Similar to last year, Google is partitioning the releases. The first three Android 12 builds from February to April are classified as developer previews:

• Developer Preview 1: Early baseline build focused on developer feedback, with new features, APIs, and behavior changes.
• Developer Preview 2: Incremental update with additional features, APIs, and behavior changes.
• Developer Preview 3: Incremental update for stability and performance.

Come May, the Android 12 Beta will be available as an OTA for easier, public install. Google is adding an extra beta release this year that arrives in August.

• Beta 1: Initial beta-quality release, over-the-air update to early adopters who enroll in Android Beta.
• Beta 2-3: Incremental Beta-quality releaseBeta 3: Release candidate build.
• Beta 4: Platform Stability milestone. Final APIs and behaviors. Play publishing opens.
• Candidate: Release candidate build.
• Final release: Android 12 release to AOSP and ecosystem.

That last beta will be the “Platform Stability” release to allow developers to start final testing several weeks before the official release. The milestone will see Android 12 reach final SDK/NDK and internals APIs, as well as app-facing system behaviors. More details on the Android 12 launch schedule for developers is available here.