Google surprised us all with an earlier-than-expected release of the first Android 11 Developer Preview late last night. However, the preview image is only for Pixel smartphones, excluding the original Pixel and Pixel XL. If you can’t wait to try out all the new features Google is working on, here’s how to install Android 11 on your phone.
Note: This is a developer preview and will likely have bugs. The software may crash and your data may be lost. It is not recommended (by Google or us) to install this software on your daily drive. Proceed with caution and at your own risk.
Android 11 Developer Preview Supported Devices
Android 11 DP1 supports the following smartphones:
- Pixel 2 (OTA download)
- Pixel 2XL (OTA download)
- Pixel 3 (OTA download)
- Pixel 3XL (OTA download)
- Pixel 3a (OTA download)
- Pixel 3a XL (OTA download)
- pixel 4 (OTA download)
- Pixel 4XL (OTA download)
How to Install Android 11 on Your Phone Immediately?
There are two ways to install Android 11 on your compatible Pixel smartphone. If you have not unlocked the bootloader on your phone, you can use the first method and if you have a Pixel with the bootloader unlocked, you should use the second method.
Note: Installing Android 11 will delete all your data so make sure to back up any important files you have on your phone before proceeding.
Install Android 11 using ADB and Sideload
If your supported Pixel smartphone does not have an unlocked bootloader, you can easily install the update file on your phone to update it to Android 11 DP1. Here’s how:
- Download the OTA file for your phone from the links aboveand extract it to the folder where ADB is installed.
- Connect your phone to your computer using a USB cable. Make sure USB Debugging is enabled in Developer Options on your phone and tap ‘Yes’ at the prompt asking you to allow the connection on your phone.
- Open command prompt (or Terminal on Mac) and type the following command
adb reboot recovery
- Your phone will enter recovery mode. choose ‘Apply update from ADB’ on your phone and then type the following command
adb sideload <file>.zip
The update will be installed on your phone. Once the process is complete (it took about 10 minutes to load on our Pixel 2 XL), select ‘Reboot system now’ on your phone and it will open with Android 11 Developer Preview 1 running on it.
Install Android 11 using Fastboot (for Unlocked Bootloaders)
If your phone has an unlocked bootloader like our Pixel 4 unit, you’ll need to flash a factory image on your phone to update it to Android 11. You can do this as follows.
Note: While this method should also work on macOS, in our test the fastboot command was failing on a Mac. We recommend flashing the image using a Windows machine.
- Download the factory image of your phone from: this link and extract the ZIP file to the location of ADB and Fastboot files on your computer.
- Connect your phone to your computer using a USB cable making sure that USB Debugging is enabled.
- Start command prompt and type the following command
adb reboot bootloader
- This will reboot your phone to its bootloader. now only Double click on ‘flash-all.bat’ file on your Windows computer to run. On Mac, you will need to run the “flash-all.sh” command in Terminal.
The process will take some time, but once it’s done, your phone will boot into Android 11.
Flash Android 11 to Your Pixel Now
Once again, let me warn you that these are developer previews and may cause your phone to crash or brick and also cause data loss. If this is a risk you are willing to take, you can follow the steps outlined above and install Android 11 Developer Preview 1 on your smartphone.
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