We had been looking forward to hearing a lot more about Android 11 this coming Wednesday, June 3 – and maybe trying it out – but Google has now decided to push back the launch of the public beta.
That’s according to a tweet from the official Android Developers account, which says: “We are excited to tell you more about Android 11, but now is not the time to celebrate.”
It’s not explicitly stated, but it would appear the ongoing unrest and protests in the US, sparked by the death of George Floyd, are the reason behind the move. Google will apparently be “back with more on Android 11, soon”.
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That leaves us with no official launch date for the Android 11 public beta, though a developer preview has been available since February. It remains to be seen whether the full release of Android 11 will still launch as planned in the third quarter of 2020.
The Android 11 schedule
Google traditionally uses its IO developer conference in May to tell us all about the latest version of Android. Given the global pandemic that we’re all living through, the 2020 edition got moved online and then canceled completely.
Nevertheless, we were expecting the roll out of Android 11 to happen more or less on the same schedule as previous editions of the mobile OS (in fact, the developer preview launched earlier than normal).
The developer preview is usually followed by a public beta that anyone can test – which was due to appear on June 3 – and then Google tends to push out the finished version of the software a few months later, before the annual launch of its Pixel phones.
World events have put that schedule in doubt, so we’re still waiting for a proper unveiling of Android 11 (though we do know a little bit about what’s coming). As soon as Google announces a new date for the Android 11 public beta, we’ll let you know.
