Leaker claims Android P will be released on August 20th

[Marwan]

If a new leak is to be believed, Android P will launch almost a year to the day after its predecessor. This week, leaker Evan Blass shared a calendar for the month of August with a green P on the 20th. It doesn’t take much detective work to figure out that he is claiming the public release of Android 9.0 P will take place on Monday, August 20th, which just so happens to be exactly 364 days since the release of Android 8.0 Oreo.

If you’ve been paying attention to Google’s progress in recent weeks, you’ll know that the fourth (and final) Android P developer preview arrived last week. The final previews for both Nougat and Oreo hit about four weeks out from the public release, so it stands to reason that Google will once again aim for late August.

We already know most of what 9.0 will have in store for Android users, such as actions within apps, new system navigation, adaptive battery, easier rotation control, and a host of Material Design changes. There will likely be more than a few surprises to discover when the software update rolls out as well, but as always, we’re especially interested in learning the real name of Android P. Is it Pumpkin Pie? Popsicle? We’ll know a few weeks.
Finally, it’s worth noting that the public release of Android P won’t mean much for a vast majority of Android users. As of July 23rd, 2018, only 12.1% of Android devices are running Android 8.0 Oreo. Of those users, only 2% are running Android 8.1. It has been over eleven months since Android Oreo rolled out, and yet 88% of Android users still haven’t updated. There’s hope that Android P will have a faster uptake, but unless you own a Pixel, don’t expect to get any of the benefits of the new version of Android anytime soon.