Google has worked hard for three years to finally make Android phones upgrade faster

The fragmentation problem of the Android system has troubled Google for a long time. Due to the open ecosystem, many third-party manufacturers will formulate system update plans according to their own new product release rhythm, but this also hinders Google's progress in promoting various new Android features, and even fails to fix security risks in a timely manner.

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Therefore, whenever Google is still struggling with the less than 10% penetration rate of the new Android system, iOS, which was launched at the same time, can easily achieve an upgrade rate of more than half within a month after its launch.

In order to change this situation, in 2017, Google introduced a mechanism called "Project Treble" in Android 8 Oreo at the time, hoping to cooperate with chip manufacturers to undertake part of the underlying programming work, thereby speeding up the adaptation efficiency of other customized Android systems.

The new mechanism has indeed achieved certain results. Recently, Iliyan Malchev, the project leader, revealed in the Android Developers Blog that in July 2018, before the official release of Android 9 Pie, Android 8 devices only accounted for 8.9% of the market.

But one year later in the Andorid 10 era, the market share of Android 9 devices has reached 22.6%, which means that more and more devices are willing to keep up with the latest system in a timely manner.

Google has also expanded its cooperation with third-party Android phone brands. In this year's Android 10 beta phase, the number of devices participating in the test increased from 12 devices from 7 brands to 18 devices from 12 brands. Some flashing enthusiasts also ported the beta system to another 15 old devices.

We also mentioned in our review of Android 10 that after Google released the official version update, in addition to its own Pixel series, Essential Phone, Redmi K20 Pro and OnePlus 7 series also released the underlying update package as soon as possible. This is in stark contrast to the situation a few years ago when it would take 1-2 quarters to push the update each time.

Google has also made a number of new moves to speed up Android system upgrades. One is the "Dynamic System Updates" feature introduced in Android 10. It can put the new system in a temporary partition first, allowing users to test the integrity of various functions in advance. If the user is not satisfied with the new system, the device can be returned to the state before the update.

According to Google, in the future, any Android phone that supports the Project Treble framework will be able to use this feature.

In addition, there is "Project Mainline", which allows Google to further simplify the update of small details. In simple terms, it is equivalent to encapsulating various parts of the system into modules. When they need to urgently fix a security or privacy vulnerability, they can do it directly through the Google Play App Store without waiting for the system push of a major version.

However, for domestic mobile phones that cannot integrate complete Google services when they leave the factory, there are obviously considerable obstacles in following up on mechanisms such as "Project Mainline" in a timely manner.

At present, most domestic custom ROMs downplay the iteration cycle of the underlying Android and instead emphasize the version upgrade of their own systems. The pre-installed applications and the entire account system have been "de-Googled." Of course, devices from mainstream manufacturers such as Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo still have the habit of updating Android security patches every month, and their response speed to security vulnerabilities is still much faster than before.