Sony's developers in Sweden, China and Japan have been working feverishly on a program called Concept for Android, which was launched last year. Now, their hard work seems to have paid off based on the latest concept build that Sony launched on Nov. 8.
Android Nougat For Sony Xperia
The latest beta builds were built on Android 7.0 Nougat. The first was released last week for the Xperia X Performance and the latest is headed to the Xperia X.
The latest Concept for Android release offers a glimpse of several features that will ultimately form part of the system that will run future Xperia devices. These include Sony's interpretation of new Android functions like multi-window support, notification improvements, along with other key interface tweaks.
Crowdsourcing Android Development
Sony touts that Concept for Android will provide a fresh take on the mobile operating system. It is widely seen as part of the Japanese company's push to revitalize its range of smartphones. Their first build was based on Android Marshmallow and was rolled out for testers who owned the Z3 series.
Sony is also bundling its inTouch community service, which serves as a way for users to send feedback to its developers. This particular feature underscores the fact that the Concept for Android program is also a crowdsourcing tool to determine consumer preference based on real-time usage and feedbacks.
"We believe the age of user experience and development deference is over," Sony said in a blog post. "If you don't like something; a feature or app isn't serving your needs - we want to hear about it, to either make the experience better or remove it entirely and focus on something else."
Fans should also be interested to know that the new Concept for Android build is currently the only Xperia OS that is based on Nougat. Unfortunately, not everyone will have access to it even if you own a compatible Xperia device. It is only being launched in Europe and Sony has not confirmed whether the release will get a wider coverage.
How To Download Concept For Android App
To get the Concept for Android build on your X or X Performance device, just head to the Google Play store and download the Concept Installer app.
Before installing, users should be warned that some features are still experimental so they are likely to encounter bugs and stability issues.
On a side note, it is not yet clear why those who downloaded Marshmallow-based Concept for Android build for the Z3 range cannot just update their systems and this could indicate that future builds will roll out in the same way.
