Android 17 Beta 1: straight to beta

Beta 1 was the first Android 17 build Google gave developers, on 13 February 2026. No Developer Preview came before it: Google replaced that phase with the Android Canary channel. Most of what later breaks on targetSdk 37 was already in this build.

Google calls the build “suitable for development, testing, and general use”, with the warning that the system and apps “might not always work as expected”. It reached Pixel phones two days later than planned: 9to5Google reported a two-day delay before the rollout began on the 13th.

Why there was no Developer Preview

Google’s Beta 1 post says Android “has replaced the traditional ‘Developer Preview’ with a continuous Canary channel”. Features and APIs land in Canary once they pass internal testing, Canary updates over the air, and the beta starts closer to final. The same post set the year’s plan: the Q2 release is the only one with planned app-breaking behaviour changes, and a minor SDK follows in Q4.

Behaviour changes in Beta 1

• Large screens. Apps targeting API 37 on displays with a smallest width of 600dp or more can no longer opt out of resizing or orientation changes. screenOrientation, setRequestedOrientation(), resizeableActivity, minAspectRatio and maxAspectRatio are ignored there. Apps declaring android:appCategory="game" are exempt.
• Fewer activity restarts. CONFIG_KEYBOARD, CONFIG_KEYBOARD_HIDDEN, CONFIG_NAVIGATION, CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN, CONFIG_COLOR_MODE and some CONFIG_UI_MODE changes no longer recreate the activity; it gets onConfigurationChanged(). android:recreateOnConfigChanges opts back in.
• Lock-free MessageQueue for apps targeting 37. Code that reflects on its private fields breaks.
• static final is final. Changing one by reflection throws IllegalAccessException; doing it through JNI crashes the app.
• Custom notification views get strict size limits for apps targeting 37, closing a loophole that used URIs to bypass the old ones.
• Background audio. Playback, focus requests and volume changes fail silently when the app is not in a valid lifecycle state. Beta 4 later narrowed this rule.
• Cleartext traffic. Google announced that android:usesCleartextTraffic is deprecated; the release notes say the deprecation takes effect with a future SDK level, and apps should move to a network security config.

New APIs in Beta 1

• ProfilingManager triggers for cold start, OOM and excessive CPU use.
• CameraCaptureSession.updateOutputConfigurations() switches between photo and video without closing the session, and LOGICAL_MULTI_CAMERA_ADDITIONAL_RESULTS returns metadata from every active physical camera.
• H.266 (VVC) support for devices with a hardware decoder, and MediaRecorder.setVideoEncodingQuality() for constant-quality recording.
• A public Service Provider Interface for HPKE hybrid encryption.
• Medical device and fitness tracker profiles in CompanionDeviceManager, and setExtraPermissions() to fold nearby permissions into the pairing dialog.

Google’s post also listed ART’s generational garbage collector as an Android 17 change. AOSP shows it was already on in Android 16 QPR2; see “Worth knowing” in the overview above.