Google: Android P updates could be ready up to 3 months earlier by Treble

According to Google, close collaboration with Qualcomm, MediaTek and Samsung on Project Treble means that Android P updates for smartphone makers can be ready up to 12 weeks earlier than has been the case so far.

Google is working closely with Qualcomm, MediaTek and Samsung System LSI to develop Board Support Packages, which contain soc-specific code in addition to code for Android Open Source Project. By involving the chip manufacturers at an early stage in the development and co-developing, Google expects that the smartphone manufacturers will be able to have the BSPs about three months earlier. Qualcomm confirms that claim: “Devices with Snapdragon-socs could have Android P up to 12 weeks earlier than before.”

If the manufacturers have the code, the next step begins, customizing Android to their liking and making the OS suitable for the individual models. Next, mobile providers must check the code before it is rolled out to end users. Until now, there was a lot of overlap in the periods in which the chip designers and smartphone makers started working with the code. Still, the actual period in which the updates can be ready depends on the time and effort that smartphone manufacturers are willing to put into it.

Android’s fragmentation and slow updates has long been a thorn in Google’s side. For phones that come out with Android version 8.0, Google therefore requires support for Treble. Treble makes Android a modular OS from which many elements have been extracted that delay the release of upgrades. Among other things, it has been adjusted that soc designers have to release new drivers every time Google comes with a new Android version.

On the left the old release schedule, on the right the new