Parts of Google’s modular phone are hot-swappable

Parts of Google’s modular phone known as Project Ara will be hot-swappable. Only to exchange the screen and the CPU, the user has to switch off the device.

Project Ara’s modular phone will run on a modified version of Android L, of which Ara’s developers have adapted, among other things, the Android framework and the Linux kernel, Phonebloks writes. After the software is ready, those changes will appear in the regular version of Android so that the Ara phones can get updates just like other smartphones.

The base of the Ara phones will be the UniPro switch, unlike the soc in regular smartphones; it is the only part that is always in the frame of the phones. All modules such as WiFi and camera can switch users without turning off the device. Modules are for sale in a separate store.

The application processor, modem, working memory and storage can be connected to it. That application processor can also be a soc with gpu and isp, but it doesn’t have to be. “Consumers will decide what they prefer,” a Google chief said during a presentation two weeks ago.

Google will show a fully functional prototype of Ara at a developer conference in December, with the software expected to be ready by next spring. Then the first device of Project Ara must also be released.