Android O is likely to first come with Google's Pixel 2 and Pixel XL 2 smartphones.
The one essential thing with smartphones is that they need to be constantly updated. There are software updates, security patches or other features streamed through OTA. With Android devices, considering there are a host of manufacturers who have partnered with Google, the update process is a little slower. Also, one of the major problems cheaper Android smartphones face is a lack of space. Devices come with as little as 4GB or 8GB internal storage, which soon get full with apps. OTA updates are generally heavy and require a minimum of 1GB free space, in most cases. It becomes impossible to download these updates or security patches for budget smartphone owners. Google finally seems to have a solution.
Google has announced a new feature with Android 8.0 – Streaming Update. The new feature replaces the previously announced ‘Seamless Update’ as the most significant feature. This basically downloads the update on the phone, even if there is no sufficient storage space. The update is aimed at devices with smaller internal storage as it will help all smartphone owners stay up-to-date with the latest Android versions. With the new feature, the storage space required drops down from 1GB to direct 100kb. The feature is basically an extension of the Seamless Updates that helped Google partition the disk for better efficiency. ALSO READ: This smart case brings Android on your iPhone
With Seamless Updates, Google introduced a dual system partition where the system would be divided into A and B. This helped it run the device seamless on A while the system update continued without hindrance on B. The division made the update a lot quicker as the device simply rebooted and switched from a to B once the update was complete. With Streaming Updates, the data will be prepared and will arrive in parts, in a ready-to-boot state. It will introduce the update directly to the offline partition system and without storing any files on the system, update it. ALSO READ: New Trojan Svpeng compromises Android banking apps in 23 countries: Report
The feature is already built into Android 8, which means smartphones running Android 7.0 and above will automatically get the Streaming Update on the smartphones. With streaming updates, even if the device update fails, users can continue to use the smartphone as Android will simply switch to the pre-update partition and run on the older system. As Google mentions on the Android Source blog, “The goal of this feature is to make updates fault resistant by keeping the unused slot as a fallback. If there is an error during an update or immediately after an update, the system can rollback to the old slot and continue to have a working system. To achieve this goal, none of the partitions used by the current slot should be updated as part of the OTA update (including partitions for which there is only one copy).”
While the new Streaming Update can be used even by third party OEMs Google partners with, it is not mandatory. While Pixel smartphones will get the new update with Android 8.0, it is unclear if any other manufacturers will employ the functionality. The Streaming Updates feature is already used by Google in Chrome OS where it has been successful.