As it happens, March 14 is also international Pi Day

Mar 6, 2018 06:49 GMT  ·  By

With Android 8.1 already available for some time now, it looks like Google is finally ready to launch the first Developer Preview for Android P soon, maybe even this month.

Google doesn’t wait around for Android 8.x to get picked up by a large chunk of the users. In fact, the adoption rates of Android 8.x are quite low (1.1%), but that's not stopping Google from already building the next iteration of the operating system.

Of course, the community will once again put all of their hopes into Android P, only to be squashed again when the new version turns out to be pretty much the same, at least on the surface and with the exception of a few visible features.

Adoption rate for Android
Adoption rate for Android

Not a small upgrade

On the other hand, rumors about Android P have been flying around for some time, and it looks like it’s more than just a simple upgrade. Google is, in fact, looking into upgrading the Material Design guidelines, which in turn might change the way the interface looks.

Google is also looking into providing support for atypical displays, which is just a fancy name for notches. Many companies seem to have adopted the notch, but they also had to make the operating system work around it since Android doesn’t officially provide support for it.

Since the notch is nothing else but an intermediary feature until a good way to integrate the camera, speaker, and sensors into the display is found, it stands to reason for Google to offer third-party developers some support for it.

In the meantime, famous leaker Evan Blass revealed on Twitter that Android P Developer Preview 1 should arrive sometime in mid-March. A good bet is that it’s going to be launched on March 14, which also happens to be Pi Day. Since the name of next Android starts with P, it’s not a far-stretched theory.  

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