Android 6.0 M Update: Nexus 5, Nexus 6/9, Nexus Player

Android 6.0 M for Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 9 and Nexus Player has finally been made available in the form  of a developer preview. As the name suggest, these are easy to flash half baked Android M images which are aimed at developers so that Google may improvise before the final release.

Android M Developer Preview

That’s right, Google didn’t waste any time yesterday after the keynote when we were able to get our hands on the developer preview build for Android 6.0 M update. Some people are upset that it wasn’t made available for the Nexus 4 or even the 2013 Nexus 7 but rumor has it that Google will be/has already retired those and they won’t get Android 6.0 M update at all. As of right now, you can download the Android 6.0 M update Developer Preview build for the Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 9 and the Nexus Player. This is just like we saw last year with the Android L developer preview builds and they should be treated as such.

This means that what we’re looking at right now is not the final code for Android 6.0 M update. Several features like Google Now on Tap are not available in the builds at this time. You can long-press on the home button and a little card will appear at the bottom but it just tells you that this feature is not yet available. Something that has changed from last year though is that these builds will receive OTA updates. That’s right! If you install an Android M Developer Preview on your Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 9 or even Nexus Player device then you’ll actually receive OTA updates for each new iteration of Android 6.0 M update. However, we shouldn’t expect that these OTA updates will take us from the developer preview to the final version when it is released. This might happen but I have my doubts right now.

How to Download And Install Android 6.0 M on Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 9 And Nexus Player

So, how do you get Android 6.0 M update onto your Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 9 or Nexus Player device? The first thing you need to do is download the factory images for your specific device. Again, these builds are only available for the Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 9 and the Nexus Player but we are hoping that the community can whip up ports of these for some of the older Nexus devices soon. Once you have the images downloaded and extracted onto your computer, then you’ll want to enable USB debugging on your phone or tablet. This feature can be found in the Developer Mode for your device so you’ll have to activate that hidden menu before you can enable it.

You’re also going to need to install Google’s USB drivers as well as installing the ADB and Fastboot tools too. Once those are on your computer, you’ll need to put the factory images in the same folder as the ADB and Fastboot tools. You can choose to copy the factory images into the fastboot directory or copy the fastboot tools into the factory images 

directory. Either way should work. Then launch a command prompt in that folder and type the command ‘adb reboot bootloader’ without the quotes and press enter on the keyboard.

Then you’ll need to type ‘fastboot oem unlock’, again without the quotes, and then press enter. Once the bootloader of your Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 9 or Nexus Player is unlocked, you’ll then want to type the command ‘flash-all.bat’ and press enter on the keyboard. If everything was done correctly then you should see Fastboot copying all of the factory images onto your device. When finished, your smartphone or tablet will reboot and then you’ll be taken directly into the Android 6.0 M Developer Preview.