Google accidentally updates Developer Preview site with Android 11

The search giant has since reverted the change

After accidentally pushing out an update about Android 11 to its Developer Preview site, Google has reverted the site back to Android 10.

Spotted by Android Police, Google’s Developer Preview site briefly detailed Android 11, the upcoming update expected later this year. Typically, Google launches a beta and developer preview program for new versions of Android in the spring — the last few releases had previews beginning in March.

What follows is several iterations of developer preview, usually coupled with new feature highlights at Google’s I/O developer conference in May, before a final release in late summer (usually August or September).

While kicking off the developer preview in February does fall within the typical Android preview timing, it’d be about a month early based on past releases. However, it appears Google updated its Developer Preview site to Android 11 by mistake, as it’s since reverted back to Android 10.

Unfortunately, that brief window of access to the Android 11 Developer Preview site didn’t reveal anything about the upcoming update. We already know a few rumours about what’s coming with Android 11, such as a scheduling system for dark mode and a ‘Share-to-Print‘ feature.

Android 11 Developer Preview site mentions new APIs, privacy features and foldables

The Developer Preview site added a few vague things to that list. It mentioned the following three items that developers should expect with Android 11:

• Behaviour changes: System changes that may affect your app when it’s running on Android 11.
• Privacy features: New safeguards to protect user privacy that you’ll need to support in your app.
• New features and APIs: APIs for foldables, sharing, connectivity, media, NNAPI, biometrics and more.

The mention of foldables hardly comes as a surprise. Google has worked with manufacturers for some time to optimize Android’s foldable support, most notably with Samsung’s original Galaxy Fold. Android 11 looks set to bring more direct support for foldables.

Beyond that, everything else seems pretty par for the course. The Android 11 page did not provide any hints about upcoming features. One other interesting note is that Google refers to it as the ‘Android 11 Developer Preview.’ Last year, Android 10 debuted as the ‘Android Q Beta.’ The departure from the alphabetical dessert-based naming scheme is likely behind this change.

Further, none of the links on the page worked. That meant users couldn’t enroll their devices in the Preview Program, couldn’t download the factory images or anything like that. Instead, the links lead to pages for the Android 10 Preview Program.

Going to the site now lands you on the Android 10 page and ultimately it seems like everything is back to normal. While the mishap didn’t reveal much about what’s coming with Android 11, it does suggest that Google could plan to launch the Developer Preview soon. If history is anything to go by, we could see Android 11 betas starting in March.

Image credit: Android Police

Source: Android Police, 9to5Google