The preview period of Android 11 will last one month longer than planned, according to Google. The delay will postpone the release of the beta version of the mobile OS to the 3rd of June, 2020.
With the release of the Developer Preview 3 in April, special builds for developers had initially come to an end. The next step would be to roll out a private beta in early May. That upcoming private beta has been postponed to the 3rd of June, which means that the subsequent scheduled beta versions will also be released a month later than planned.
The last beta version (version 3) is now scheduled for August 2020. This new schedule could be problematic for Google as the company still plans to release Android 11 to costumers in the third quarter of 2020. For the time being, that plan remains, but the choice to postpone the previous beta versions was a logical choice given the current circumstances with the Coronavirus:
“At the time we started planning Android 11, we did not foresee the current changes that affect us all. These have challenged us to be flexible and find new ways to collaborate, especially with our community of developers. To face these challenges head-on, we will release Developer Preview 4 today and move the first beta version to the 3rd of June,” Google said.
The Developer Preview 4 of Android 11 brings hardly anything new to the table compared to the previous releases. However, the release is accompanied by a series of bug fixes and a few adjustments to some APIs.