.NET 11 RC1 / Android workload availability question

### Android framework version

net11.0-android (Preview)

### Affected platform version

VS 2026 Insiders [12202.211}

### Description

@jonathanpeppers

I hit an unexpected setup/build issue after moving one of my Android projects from .NET 11 Preview 7 to .NET 11 RC1, and I wanted to check whether this is expected behavior or a tooling/channel mismatch.
Environment
· Visual Studio Community 2026 18.11.0-insiders
· Windows
· Project target framework: net11.0-android37.0
· Solution was previously building on .NET 11 Preview 7
· Workspace uses global.json

What happened
Early yesterday, Visual Studio Insiders prompted me to update/install RC1. After that, I updated global.json to use the RC1 SDK:
· 11.0.100-rc.1.26425.128
dotnet --list-sdks showed that SDK as installed.
However, immediately after changing global.json, the project failed to build with the missing Android workload error (NETSDK1147 / missing android workload).
The fix was to manually run:
· dotnet workload install android
After that, the project built and ran again as before.

Why I am asking
Later on in the afternoon, I saw your release note on Discord – probably related to the time difference in Australia, as I noted your message on Discord was 8.24am, compared to my late afternoon time when I read it.
· .NET for Android 37.0.0-rc.1.2257
which says:
This release is not yet available from the Visual Studio installer.
That seems consistent with what I experienced, but it is confusing because Visual Studio Insiders appeared to move me onto RC1 territory, while the Android workload was still not available through the normal Visual Studio installer path.

Specific question about version numbers
One thing that may just be normal, but I want to confirm:
My global.json SDK version is:
· 11.0.100-rc.1.26425.128
But the Android release you mentioned is:
· 37.0.0-rc.1.2257
I assume these are expected to be different because:
· global.json selects the .NET SDK version
· 37.0.0-rc.1.2257 is the .NET for Android workload/release version
Can you confirm that this version mismatch in numbering is expected and not a sign that I picked the wrong SDK?

Main question
Is the following expected for RC1?
1. Visual Studio Insiders can have the .NET 11 RC1 SDK available
2. global.json can correctly select that RC1 SDK
3. but the RC1 Android workload is not yet installed/provisioned by Visual Studio Installer
4. so Android projects require a manual:
· dotnet workload install android

I’d like to get this right before I go any further.

### Steps to Reproduce

N/A

### Did you find any workaround?

See above

### Relevant log output

```shell
N/A
```

Start with the reported global.json SDK version, the NETSDK1147 failure, and the Visual Studio Insiders workload-install path; compare them with the manually installed android workload and the cited .NET for Android RC1 release. There is no source file or test identified, so done means confirming whether this SDK/workload availability and version-number difference are expected, or documenting the required installer behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.