Android system has a major update! No need to envy Apple fans anymore

Although mobile phone users of the two major platforms, Android and iOS, do not get along with each other, it is undeniable that Android users still envy iPhone users in terms of mobile phone system version update support.

For example, according to the official list of supported devices for Apple's latest iOS 14 system, the oldest model is the iPhone 6s series released in 2015. Although you may question whether users holding devices from 5 years ago will upgrade to iOS 14, they will at least have the option to upgrade.

However, the situation where Android users envy iOS users may become history, because Google, the developer of the Android system, has now announced a major news that it will provide updates for the Android operating system for 4 years.

Today, Google announced a partnership with Qualcomm. Starting with the Snapdragon 888 mobile platform, Google will provide 4 years of support for future Android phone operating system versions and security updates. Among them, Google promised to provide 3 major system version updates for the Android system, and 4 years of support for security updates.

Although there are no mobile phones equipped with Snapdragon 888 on the market yet, Xiaomi 11 has been confirmed to be the world's first. According to this official commitment, Xiaomi 11 will be pre-installed with Android 11 system (the latest version at present), which means that in principle it will be upgraded to Android 12, Android 13 and Android 14 systems without hindrance in the future; and after stopping major version system updates, it can also get an additional year of security patch updates.

Careful friends have discovered that we emphasized that Xiaomi 11 can be upgraded to Android 14 "in principle". This is mainly because, although Google is the developer of the Android system, Google is an open source system, and the UI and OS of domestic mobile phone manufacturers are deeply customized based on open source Android, which means that only if domestic manufacturers are willing to respond to Google's call can this promise be realized.

In fact, this is not the first time that Google has done homework on Android system updates. As early as the Android 8.0 era, Google launched the Project Treble mechanism, which reduced the workload of OEM manufacturers to upgrade the Android system adaptation. The workload of the underlying part was saved. After the AOSP source code was released, OEM manufacturers only needed to upgrade the Android system framework according to their own needs; it can be said that it made Android system upgrades easier.

However, this new move by Google to upgrade the Android system may be supported by domestic mobile phone manufacturers. On the one hand, Google has brought in Qualcomm. Given Qualcomm's industry influence in Android phone manufacturers, its Snapdragon mobile platform is widely used in Android phones. The cooperation between the two may further reduce the workload of system upgrades.

On the other hand, domestic mobile phone manufacturers have been trying their best to improve some inherent impressions of the Android system, such as lag. At present, Huawei announced that its Mate40 series can maintain no lag for 36 months, OPPO announced that its Reno5 series can maintain no lag for 30 months, and Xiaomi said that MIUI can maintain no lag for 18 months...

As mentioned earlier, the subsequent updates and upgrades of the Android system have always been a concern for Android users. We believe that domestic mobile phone manufacturers may take this opportunity to further shorten the gap with iOS in system updates.