You might have noticed some reporting a few days ago that Android 17 was rolling out in beta form, but that didn’t happen. For reasons Google still has not explained, the release was canceled. Two days later, Android 17 is here for real. If you’ve got a recent Pixel device, you can try the latest version today, but don’t expect big changes just yet—there’s still a long way to go before release. Google will probably have more to say about feature changes for Android 17 in the coming months, but this first wide release is aimed mostly at testing system and API changes. One of the biggest changes in the beta is expanded support for adaptive apps, which ensures that apps can scale to different screen sizes. That makes apps more usable on large-screen devices like tablets and foldables with multiple displays. We first saw this last year in Android 16, but developers were permitted to opt out of support. The new adaptive app roadmap puts an end to that. Any app that targets Android 17 (API level 37) must support resizing and windowed multitasking. Apps can continue to target the older API for the time being, but Google filters apps from the Play Store if they don’t keep up. Some improvements to media and camera support are also included in the first release. The updated API will allow apps to switch between camera sensors more smoothly rather than starting new activities each time. The system also has “professional-grade” support for the Versatile Video Coding (VVC) standard. That means more efficient video encoding and decoding capabilities in Android. Google also says Android 17 Beta 1 debuts new performance optimizations with better management of system resources. The OS will use what Google calls generational garbage collection, featuring more frequent and less CPU-intensive removal of unneeded processes from memory.