I was able to install 1.85 build 440 from the play store in the US, only a day after it was apparently released. Perhaps Google also likes the rebuilt Android Auto.
What’s a little odd, is that when I look in ARC itself, I don’t see anything that indicates its early access. I believe 439 is the equivalent production build.
As you say, ARC 1.85 has a production release 1.85.439
Maybe the .440 early access release is so numbered because it was released afterwards just to bring parity with production.
However, you are right about it not being held up in the play store. The .439 production release was updated on my phone within hours of the announcement.
By contrast, my phone never was updated to 1.84 and the previous three or four releases took 2 weeks or more to arrive.
Early Access is currently ahead of Production, so it will show the current version with a higher build, i.e. 440.
I suspect this is just a number change to bring it ahead for the next round of community testing.
I should have been clearer in my first post. I wasn’t questioning if production or early access had the higher version number. What caught my attention is that in ARC itself on the settings page, there is no “early access” or “ea” tag visible. I’m pretty certain that there was previously, but perhaps I’m mistaken.
Maybe, but as I said, this EA version is simply the Production version on the Play beta channel, so this may be the reason.