Google has recently announced a change in the way future issues of the Android platform will be tested. Instead of releasing individual preliminary issues of Android Developer Preview, a separate constantly existing Android Canary branch will now be available for developers to test changes and improvements made to the API in the early stages of application development. The beta launch of Android, focusing on testing user-visible functionality, will continue as usual.
The main difference with this new model is that Developer Preview releases were previously separate and required manually flashing devices each time, whereas Canary is a continuously updated test branch that reflects the current state of platform development. Devices flashed with the Canary branch will automatically receive all future updates with changes in OTA mode. The Canary branch is currently available for Pixel devices and will soon be accessible in Android Emulator.
One of the advantages of the Canary branch is its independence from official releases, allowing developers to continue testing new APIs even after the next release of Android enters the beta testing stage. Previously, Developer Preview builds were tied to releases and ceased after the appearance of beta issues, preventing testing of experimental APIs that were not yet ready for inclusion. With Canary, developers can experiment with raw APIs at any stage of development, although it is not guaranteed that all experimental features in the Canary branch will be included in the next release.