An exciting development has occurred regarding the Essential PH1 smartphone that recently got stripped off for all future security updates and customer support. Essential PH1 will get Android 11 preview running in a matter of time.
Earlier this month, the Andy Rubin-led smartphone company announceda shutdown of operationsowing to a lack of financial support. Essential was on the edge of releasing the Project Gem smartphone. It wasan attemptto create some off-beat AI devices, in fact, Essentialpreviewedone as well.
Nevertheless, Android 11 is the last thing PH1 users can imagine on their device (officially), although, some custom ROMs could help the cause. As spotted by a developer Braden Farmer (viaXDA), Essential developers have created a new branch called “r-preview” on the company’s GitHub repo.
There’s some work going on in the Essential Phone device tree repo for supporting R Preview 1. 🤔https://t.co/T1pxqxkKS2
— Braden Farmer (@farmerbb1)June 10, 2025
The focus of r-preview is to make the Android 11 GSI run on PH1 after making all the necessary arrangements. If that happens, it will be the fifth major Android version to run on the Essential Phone, which itself is an achievement for any company.
For those who don’t know, GSI is an Android image that can be installed on any Android device that supports Project Treble, and PH1 is a top name in that list. Google recently launched Android 11 Developer Preview 1, showcasing thenew featuresof the next major Android version.
However, we shouldn’t expect Essential to release an official Android 11 update in the future. Users will be able to install the GSI on PH1, mostly through manual flashing.
