Earlier this morning during the 2015 Google I/O keynote, the developer preview of Android M – the next update to the Android Operating System – was announced.
Dan is currently in the US at I/O and managed to find the time to load the preview on his Nexus 6 for a quick look at Android M including a heap of screen shots of various new features.
I’ve seen a few people asking about what devices its compatible with and how to load the preview, so here we go.
First things first: If you follow this process, you WILL lose all data on your device. If you choose to do so, it’s at your own risk; please back up your data before you begin the process. Make sure (unlike I did this afternoon) that you leave yourself enough time to complete the upgrade ideally without interruption to avoid silly mistakes.
Compatible Devices
At this stage theres only a few compatible Nexus devices with the developer preview. The Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 9 and Nexus Player so unless you’ve got one of these or are prepared to spring for one at short notice you’re out of luck if you’re looking to check out the preview.
How to download and install the preview
The list below assumes you already have the SDK installed and basic knowledge of Fastboot.
- Download the preview for your device from the Android Developers Site
- Extract the file you’ve downloaded to a location you will remember
- In the folder you’ve just extracted, you’ll find image-volantis-MPZ44Q.zip which also needs to be extracted due to the flash-all files being broken
- Once you’ve done this, plug your device into the machine you have downloaded the preview to
- In your console type the following commands in order
- fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-flounder-3.47.0.0125.img
- fastboot reboot-bootloader
- fastboot flash boot boot.img
- fastboot flash cache cache.img
- fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
- fastboot flash vendor vendor.img
- fastboot flash system system.img
- fastboot reboot
This should see you through to the initial load of Android M and it’s time to enjoy the new look and feel of Android.
If you’ve already loaded it, what do you think of Android M? If you’re yet to load; what do you want to know about?
