Essential Phone users can now join the Oreo beta with a simple OTA update

Sideloading is still an option, but why would you want to bother with that?

Although we’re still waiting for the Essential Phone to get a public Oreo update, the company’s been running an Oreo beta since November. The process for getting the beta isn’t the simplest around, but Essential is now making it much easier to sign up and join.

Up until now, if you’ve wanted to sign up for the beta to get Oreo on the Essential Phone, you’ve had to manually sideload the software onto your device. This isn’t an overly complicated process, but if you aren’t careful with what you’re doing, there’s always the chance you could accidentally brick your phone. Thankfully, Essential is eliminating this barrier and allowing you to join the Oreo beta with a simple over-the-air update.

To do this, the process couldn’t be any simpler. Just head to Essential’s beta page, choose the “Over-the-Air” option under “How Would You Like to Install the Beta?”, and then enter your name, email address, and device serial number. Once you do this, your Essential Phone will receive an update to download Oreo.

The last Oreo beta was released on Valentine’s Day, and with it came an update to 8.1, a fix for jittery scrolling, and the latest February security patch.

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