Android 12 may be released on October 4th

Android 12 may be released on October 4th, according to an internal document shared by XDA Developers. The next version of Google’s mobile operating system features the new Material You visual design and has been in public beta since May.

The document is used by Google to inform OEM partners when it will stop approving software builds for the various versions of Android (which it does for every software update to maintain compatibility with Google Mobile Services), according to XDA Developers. October 4th is the date Google lists as the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) release of Android 12 in the document. XDA editor-in-chief Mishaal Rahman notes that these AOSP release dates typically fall on the same day as the launch of a stable release of Android 12 for customers. You can see Rahman’s tweet containing a screenshot of the document below:

There’s an easy way to lend credence to that October 4th date: compare the release dates of Android 11 and Android 10 to what the document contains. The stable version of Android 10 was released out of beta on September 3rd, 2019, just like the document lists. September 8th, 2020, the day Google says was the AOSP release of Android 11, was also the same day the software was released to the public. That’s not hard confirmation, but it does make October 4th, 2021 seem a lot more likely as an Android 12 release date.

Targeting some date in October would also put Android 12 in the general ballpark of when Google is expected to finally announce (as in stop teasing and actually detail) the Pixel 6. Rumors spun out of Google’s own marketing target October 19th for the launch of Google’s flagship. Starting the rollout of Android 12 a couple of weeks before certainly seems like a possibility.