Android 8.1 Oreo beta starts rolling out to the Essential Phone

Essential has just announced that Android 8.1 Oreo is now available for the Essential Phone in the beta form. The US company confirmed last month that it will update the flagship directly to Android 8.1 Oreo, thus skipping Android 8.0.

The first beta build of Android 8.l Oreo is being pushed OTA (over the air) to those who've been using beta builds of Android 8.0. Otherwise, you'll have to download the file from Essential's website and flash it manually on your smartphone.

We also have a complete changelog that contains all the new stuff added by Essential, such as smart text selection, instant apps, picture-in-picture, as well as faster startup and app sign-in. Also, the update contains the February security patch, dynamic Calendar and Clock icons, and slow scrolling jitter fix.

The file weighs in at around 500MB, so make sure you have enough storage before attempting to download Android 8.1 Oreo beta. It is yet unclear when the stable version of the update will be released, but it shouldn't be long now.

On a side note, Essential has a new announcement scheduled for February 15, but we have no other info on what the company may reveal tomorrow, so stay tuned for more.

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