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Essential Phone Android 8.0 Oreo beta 2 available to download
- The second Oreo beta adds features like picture-in-picture, smart text selection, and more.
- It also contains a number of bug fixes for issues in the first beta release.
- It’s available as an OTA update for Essential Phone Oreo beta 1 users.
As promised by Essential last week as part of its latest Reddit AMA session, the company has released the second public Android 8.0 Oreo beta update for its Essential Phone. Owners who have already installed the first beta release can get the second beta build via an over-the-air download, but everyone else can grab it manually on Essential’s website.
According to the changelog for the second beta, as posted by Droid Life, this release is 142.2 MB in size. It includes some Oreo features such as picture-in-picture, smart text selection, support for Instant Apps and Google Play Store security scans. It also includes faster startup and app sign-in.
The second Oreo beta also has some improvements compared to the first beta release, including more support for Project Treble, improvements for Android Auto, and better battery life. It also contains some bug fixes, including some that fix reported data tracking issues with some unnamed US carriers.
If you are an Essential Phone owner and did not download the first public beta, note that you will have to sideload the second beta onto the Essential Phone using the latest ADB tool. The full instructions on how to do just that are available on the Essential website.