It’s been a long wait, but Surface Duo owners might finally be kicking off the first month of 2022 with a treat. That’s all according to the latest rumors from Windows Central’s Zac Bowden and Daniel Rubino, who indicated that Android 11 was recently being tested internally on Duo devices at Microsoft.
Per the latest Windows Central podcast, which can be heard here (skip to the 21-minute mark,) Android 11 builds have been self-hosted by Microsoft employees on internal Surface Duo devices for a while now. In addition, Bowden revealed he believes the final build was also shipped out to Google, but due to Google’s own policies, it has to be verified before hitting consumer devices. The holidays and the fact that Google and Microsoft are both on vacation also means that there’s a delay in the verification, which is why there’s a long wait.
Even though Microsoft committed to 3 years worth of updates for the Surface Duo, the release for Android 11 has been a source of unrest for Microsoft fans. The Duo ships with Android 10, and Microsoft originally indicated in September that the original dual-screen device would get the Android 11 update by the end of 2021.
Yet, that time has now passed, just like the original summer timeframe previously hinted at by the company. Microsoft, though, did bring some of Android 11’s visual design elements over to the original Surface Duo with a recent launcher update, which gave the community some extra hope.
