BlackBerry Priv owners are being given the opportunity to help the company test builds of the impending Android 6.0 Marshmallow upgrade, as part of a public beta program. Space in the program is quite limited, however, with initial slots being completely filled less than an hour after the blog post announcement was published.
The program is continuing to take signups from qualified users, with more applicants admitted as testing gradually expands. Only devices purchased unlocked from retailers are eligible during the earliest stages, meaning that carrier-branded units won’t be considered until an unspecified later date.
Besides filing bug reports as problems are encountered, members of the program are expected to enable background diagnostic reporting so that handsets can automatically send pertinent feedback to BlackBerry engineers.
Registration will remain open for the next two weeks. The actual beta will kick off next week and last between four and eight weeks, followed by an eventual deployment of Marshmallow to all unlocked Privs. The company has yet to commit to a window for such a deployment, with Priv having first gone on sale in November 2015.