Last week, we told you that Blackberry was looking to roll out the Android 6.0 Marshmallow on its first android device the Blackberry Priv. The device currently runs on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. The news of the planned roll out was preceded by a video that leaked showing the device running on the latest android version. BlackBerry has been releasing monthly security updates to the device to guarantee user security one of the hallmarks of the proprietary Blackberry 10 OS.
Blackberry asked users of the device to become beat testers with priority given to those who purchased the devices via through Amazon, the BlackBerry Store and other select retailers. The beta version has now begun rolling out in user devices for the first batch of users and if no issues reported, the roll out will be extended to most of the beta testers before the end of the week. Android Marshmallow brings with it several features like the ability for users to grant specific permissions to apps and Doze mode, a feature that puts apps that are not in use into deep sleep to avoid draining the battery.
Even so, Blackberry’s first android device has failed to take off as the Canadian company had hoped, a fete blamed on the high price of the device as well as failure by some carriers to carry the device earlier on with only 600,000 devices sold. During their recent earnings call, the company said it was looking to launch 2 mid-range android devices before the end of the year.
