Android O Preview 4 is out—next stop, final release

The fourth O preview will hopefully fix some bugs, marks stable support library release.

Google has just announced the availability of the fourth and final Android O Developer Preview. As usual, the preview is available for the Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel C, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus Player, and the Android Emulator.

Like the third preview, we're not expecting much in the way of UI changes in this release. It will take some time to find out, but hopefully this preview is a little more stable and performant than the third release. Right now, our Pixel XL test device has a super-slow camera, frequent crashes, and lots of bluetooth issues running the third preview.

The Android O APIs have been stable since release 3, so the major news with these release seems to be a stable release of version 26 of the Android Support Library. Despite the name, the Android Support Library is actually a collection of libraries developers can add to their apps to bring some of the latest Android features to an app, regardless of the host OS version. Support Library 26 brings new physics-based animations, downloadable fonts and emojis, and an auto-sizing TextView.

This preview seems a little late. Google's schedule has previews pegged for each month, but they have come at the beginning or middle of the month. With the fourth preview, Google only has a few more days left in July. Next up is the official Android 8.0 "O" release, which Google says will be out "later this summer."