Android 7.0 is out! I’m really wondering about the split view mode and the new notification. I wanted to upgrade my Nexus 6P as soon as possible. The update was not available as an OTA for my phone yet so I had to take a simple measure to make it available. Furthermore my phone is rooted so I had to use a flash tool or the adb/fastboot tools to upgrade. First, we will enable the update. Then we download it. Next we use FlashFire to flash the firmware to the device (dangerous). Finally we will hopefully try to boot into the newest Android version.

The steps below will most certainly work for all recent Nexus devices like the Nexus 6 and Nexus 5X. The older Nexus 5 is not supported officially so it will depend solely on community effort.

This short article is a note to self and is provided without any warranty. It is actually quite easy to break your phone so only continue if you fully understand the risk and accept that you are the only one responsible for any effects.

Enable the Android beta program

Android beta program sign up page
Android beta program sign up page

To enable the download of the OTA update package you have to either wait until Google makes it available to you or otherwise sign up (temporarily) for the beta program. We will do the latter as waiting is no fun. Browse to the Android Beta program management page. Login to your Google account if not done already. Scroll down to the list of your devices and click the button to register.

Download and flash the Android 7.0 firmware

The update is really big. Ensure a proper internet connection.
The update is really big. Ensure a proper internet connection.

Now, wait a minute or two and navigate on your device to settings, about phone, updates. Check for updates, the Android 7.0 OTA update should appear. Download it by clicking the text at the bottom of this page. The download is over a gigabyte so take care downloading using roaming or slow networks.

Now the download is finished, don’t restart the phone. This will not work if your device is rooted. Open the FlashFire application instead. This is a root-only tool by the well known Dutch Android developer Chain fire.  It will automatically start looking for the OTA update file. Flashfire will come up with the suggestion to generate update actions for the OTA update which is fine. Just accept this. I flashed with default actions.

Accept the suggestion to generate an update action.
Accept the suggestion to generate an update action.

Don’t be too afraid of waiting when starting your phone after the update. It could easily take 10 or 15 minutes to boot and then it still has to optimize all apps which takes even longer. This, however, is a one time occasion.

Finally, we’re done! Enjoy your fully updated feature rich Android 7.0 phone.

A new feature of Android 7.0 is splitscreen mode, whoohoo!

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