Google releases the first beta of Android 17, adopts a continuous developer release plan

Google on Wednesday released the first beta of Android 17, which brings performance improvements and a way to add new features to media and camera apps. Most importantly, it’s changing how developers get access to new APIs and features of the latest version.

With this release, the company is ditching developer betas and adopting a continuous Canary channel to push updates for developers. This is similar to how Google approaches web browser development, as Google has a Canary channel for the Chrome browser, too.

The company said that because of this approach, features and APIs become available to developers as soon as they are approved in internal testing. Plus, the Canary channel allows for over-the-air updates, benefiting developers with more integrated workflows and better ways to test their apps.

Google said it’s targeting March for platform stability, with the planned release of Android 17 in Q2 2026. With Android 16’s release last year, Google adopted a two-release structure in a calendar year, with a major SDK release in the first half and a minor SDK release in the second half of the year. The company made this move to give time to device makers to roll out the latest version more quickly to devices and reduce fragmentation in the Android ecosystem.

Android 17 will restrict developers from opting out of resizing restrictions. This means developers can’t force orientation or resizing on large-screen devices. This is Google’s way of making more apps work better on tablets and foldables in different orientations and window sizes.

Google is also adding more camera capabilities to Android 17. It’s adding APIs to let developers handle camera transitions more smoothly, support for VVC (H.266) video codec, better handling of loudness across apps to maintain consistent volume, and stricter controls for background audio.

Android 17 also brings performance improvements, decreased missed frames, and a better garbage collection mechanism for memory clean-up. The company is improving Wi-Fi connectivity with better proximity detection and secure peer discovery, as well.