Android 7.0 Nougat to be released later this month

Google's accelerated development cycle will result in Android 7.0 Nougat being released in August, a couple of months earlier than usual.

The search giant has been working hard to get the next release of Android in the hands of developers and OEMs. Till now we have seen 5 developer previews, higher than any previous generation of Android with the last preview even fit for daily use. Evan Blass (aka @evLeaks) added on Twitter that the update would be released this month with the August security patch but not for Nexus 5 owners.

We have heard that the Nexus 5 won't get an official update to Nougat, but the developer community will get right on it after the initial updates roll out. Adding fuel to the fire, a Redditor also received an update to Android 7.0 build NRD90M when he was trying to rollback to Marshmallow from Nougat Dev Preview on his Nexus 6P. Now, why does that excite us? Because the "R" in the build number says that its a release build which may have been created for internal testing.

One key to this puzzle is still missing. Every new version of Android comes with new Nexus devices which showcase the developments. But we haven't heard anything about the release of the HTC made Nexus smartphones. With the impending release of Android N, can we expect the new Nexus devices to launch this month as well? That is something we would have to wait to find out.

There have also been rumors that the Galaxy Note 7 will run on Android Nougat at launch, which would make it the first device to get the final build. We will know more about that tomorrow from the launch event.