Over the past few years, the problem of getting major Android updates to users has become faster than ever, but at the same time, deployments seem to be more sporadic and haphazard than ever. Is this really a problem? Let’s discuss.
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For many years, Android updates have been a laughingstock for the operating system. Sporadic use of different operating system versions, random availability of features, length of time over which updates have been made available, and more. It was all very difficult to keep track of, giving the platform a less than ideal reputation. But things have changed, especially in the past few years a lot.
While the first few Pixel phones only get three years of updates, Google now supports the Pixel 8 series for an industry-leading seven years. Samsung, which regularly takes the better part of a year to release a major Android update a day, is currently rolling out the Android 14 update to dozens of devices, a process that began just a month after the Pixel phones were updated. Google continues to offer more and more flexibility in updates as well, with many new Android features being introduced through methods outside of a traditional system update.
However, there is a noticeable trend continuing.
Android updates, although their cadence has improved, seem more sporadic nowadays.
First, let’s look at pixels. Google’s feature drops have become a quarterly event we look forward to, but things have changed since the first event. The first arrived mostly as a surprise, and it mostly managed to get all of its new features into the hands of Pixel owners within a day. Fast forward to today, and the December 2023 feature release has taken some time to actually arrive for many. In the days after OTAs were not visible to many users, and even after installation, some features were not widely rolled out to everyone.
To some extent, gradual rollouts are just part of Google’s playbook. When a company announces a new feature, you can expect it to take several days to reach everyone. There are benefits to this, which we’ll get to, but it’s understandably frustrating for some.
Another obvious, and arguably larger, example of the increasingly sporadic nature of Android updates is Samsung.
The One UI 6 rollout for Samsung Galaxy devices began quickly, bringing Android 14 to more than a dozen devices within just a few weeks of Pixel devices. But there wasn’t much rhyme or reason to the startup. The Galaxy S23 series first got the update on October 31, but that update didn’t arrive in Korea (or widely in the US) for a few weeks. The company’s latest devices, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Flip 5, were updated after a while, but took about another two weeks to finally reach the unlocked models.
Samsung rollouts typically take this route, where updates take a while to fully roll out to all regions, variants, and carriers for a given device, but it’s still very frustrating. 9to5Google It maintains a list of Samsung’s update progress, but even that can’t go further in detailing where these updates are available because it’s too complicated.
This brings us to the important question.
Is this actually a bad thing?
Android updates are complex, especially for more devices with a large variety of variants. There may be changes that require separate setup for some carriers, even on an unlocked device. The massive undertaking of pushing online travel agencies to hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, of customers simultaneously is a huge undertaking. As such, there is a lot of room for something to go wrong, and this is the only place where this gradual and gradual rollout makes sense.
When updates start rolling out, something happens that causes a problem, and we’ve seen many examples of these deployments being stopped before they affect all users. In 2021, Google paused monthly patching for the Pixel 6 due to connectivity issues spotted during the initial rollout. Likewise, Nvidia took a break during a major Android TV rollout for the Shield TV to fix some issues.
However, it was clear that Google, at least to some extent, wanted this to be better. For a while now, Android’s “Check for updates” button has actually done what it said it did. But now, it doesn’t always work out. Even if an update is announced and available, you may not be able to get it right away.
Personally, I’ve always been torn on this, but it seems like there’s room for a better balance in how we do these updates, and it could be fairly simple. If Check for Updates actually works, companies that need to check for issues can do so with users who want that update right away. And for many, a lot People will arrive online when they arrive, just like always. That sounds like a win to me.
The most important news of this week
The Beeper Mini is bringing iMessage to Android… for a few days
iMessage on Android has been a dream for many years, but Apple clearly isn’t interested in making it happen. As such, there have been a lot of third-party efforts to bring Apple’s service to Android, mostly through Mac server farms that have less than ideal security. However, the Beeper Mini was different, as it reverse-engineered iMessage to deliver an “authentic” experience.
But, unfortunately, after less than a week, the app seems to have stopped working. It worked great, but it looks like Apple has been able to stop it.
See our coverage of Beeper below.
Google Gemini here
In the world of artificial intelligence, Google has introduced its latest big model. Gemini is the new workhorse of the Bard and comes in three versions – the Gemini Nano which can run on the device, the Gemini Pro which runs the Bard and NotebookLM, and the Gemini Ultra, which will arrive next year with even greater capabilities.
OnePlus 12 has gone official in China
Meanwhile, in China, OnePlus has officially launched its next flagship, the OnePlus 12. The global launch is expected early next year, but there’s a lot to look forward to here.
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In recent years, the speed at which Android updates are being released has increased significantly, with new features and improvements being rolled out to users at a much quicker pace. However, this rapid pace has also led to updates becoming more sporadic, with some devices and users receiving updates at different times and others being left waiting for extended periods. This trend in the Android update cycle is raising questions about the consistency and reliability of the platform, as well as the potential implications for users and their devices.