So there’s good news, and there’s not-so-good news. But you might have trouble recognizing which category this one belongs to, as Google has recently announced that Android N’s seamless “in the background” updating will not make it to current generation Nexus devices. Google says there is a legitimate reason behind this decision, and one of those is to not make things any more difficult for current gen Nexus owners.
The seamless update feature of Android N is borrowed from Google Chrome, where the updating happens on a device or gadget with two live system partitions. The update is downloaded in the background, installed, and is ready the next time you reboot your device. To make this happen, say on a Nexus 6P or a Nexus 5X, would require repartitioning the entire phone.
This is why Google has decided not to bring this feature to bear on the current devices, it wouldn’t be possible for an end user to complete the repartitioning without hooking the phone up to a computer, so it would just cause a lot of trouble, especially for users who are not techy enough to do the said process.
It’s a bit sad that the feature will not make it to the phones we have today, but Google counts this more as avoiding potential trouble than anything else. And in light of the aftermarket developers’ community, I’m sure there will be a way to do this on current gen phones for those people who really know what they’re doing.
VIA: Android Police
Why don’t they at least allow us who are smart enough to be able to repartition it ourselves if we want? I’d wipe my phone for that.
Agreed. It’s a non-answer. Linux has this thing called gParted, you cannot tell me this isn’t doable. It’d look a lot like a factory reset. Back to stock, download from latest backup, up and running again. Lame.
Meh. It is just going to cause a big pain in the ass for future root users trying to update android. Hopefully the OTAs will still be downloadable. But applying updates is already problematic enough. I don’t mind having to manually flash since you have to manually unroot. Now if we want to talk about a federal addendum to “Implied warranties of Merchantability and Fitness for a Particular Purpose” such that you legally can’t sell a device that can’t be rooted… Well then we’re on a pro-consumer right track.
How stupid can they get? As it is it’s only the nexus users ahead in using Google’s latest updates rest of the users are so behind as the other companies roll updates late. Now they don’t wanna give the update on Nexus 6P as well. Poor business decision
Which mobile devices will then have the update