Believe it or not, immediately marks precisely one month since Android 11 arrived on this planet, all fresh-faced and bare-bottomed — and but as of this second, exactly one Android device-maker has managed to get the no-longer-so-newborn software program into the palms of its highest-paying clients.Yes, certainly, Google is the only real firm to ship out Android 11 in any widespread, non-beta method, a full 31 days for the reason that software program’s launch. That’s a step backwards from final 12 months, the place we no less than noticed one different producer getting the present Android model out to its newest flagship telephone inside that first month.But the notion of Android upgrades being a painfully gradual affair typically is unfortunately nothing new. Most firms outdoors of Google have just about all the time handled working system updates as a low-priority, low-investment afterthought — and regardless of the closely pushed narrative that improve supply occasions have been enhancing over the previous few years, by and enormous, not a lot has modified.As somebody who intently covers (and makes use of!) each Android and Chrome OS and has seen how each working methods have developed through the years, I’ve been doing a whole lot of pondering recently about how the 2 platforms are alike and the way they differ. Google’s labored tirelessly to align Android and Chrome OS and make them extra constant and related going all the way in which again to 2016, if not even earlier, and persevering with by way of immediately.So this is the query I current to you now — the million-dollar Android-Chrome-OS query, because it have been: What if Google have been to proceed that alignment by bringing the Chrome OS improve mannequin into Android?It’s a wild thought, I do know — one which’d upend the whole lot we expect we find out about the way in which Android upgrades work. It definitely would not be a easy or black and white shift, and issues could not presumably work out on Android precisely as they do on Chrome OS.But, properly, it certain is an attention-grabbing thought to mull over. And it may very well be a transformative — and likewise fairly revealing — change.The Android-Chrome-OS improve disparityLet’s begin with some context on how upgrades work on Chrome OS and the way that setup compares to Android. On Chrome OS, y’see, working system updates come out each few weeks, with minor fixes, and roughly each six weeks with extra important version-number-worthy bumps. Those updates are all dealt with immediately by Google, with none actual producer involvement, in order that they arrive near the identical time on all present gadgets, no matter who made ’em.Of course, the asterisk there may be that on Chrome OS, the software program is totally constant from one gadget to the subsequent. The firms that make Chromebooks cannot do a lot to customise the interface and put their very own “marks” on it (or, um, insert their very own data-harvesting and spammy ad-plastering methods into it) like they will on Android. That’s why Google is ready to exert that stage of management and make upgrades a persistently optimistic expertise on Chrome OS — as a result of the whole lot’s roughly the identical in all places, so Google is ready to deal with the method completely by itself.On Android, the state of affairs is dramatically totally different. Android has all the time allowed producers numerous leeway in modifying the software program and making it look and work nonetheless they need, inside sure boundaries. And meaning the model of Android you get on a Samsung telephone is sort of unrecognizable from the one Google places out or sends to its self-made Pixel and partner-made Android One gadgets. Because of that, it is clearly unimaginable for Google to deal with all rollouts throughout the platform by itself — which suggests the onus falls upon every particular person device-maker to take each Android replace, muddle it up the way in which they need, after which ship it out to their very own clients.And that is the place the Android replace bottleneck begins — with the truth that phone-makers, the businesses that make their cash purely by promoting {hardware}, are tasked with processing and delivering software program updates that they’ve zero incentive or motivation to prioritize. Unless they begin seeing an impression on their gadget gross sales because of their poor improve supply efficiency, why would they presumably care about getting updates out in a well timed and dependable method?So that brings us again to our query — the notion of the Chrome OS improve mannequin being introduced into Android. The thought of introducing a constant software program expertise throughout device-makers on Android most likely is not reasonable at this level; for higher and sometimes for worse, range and the power for phone-makers to deliver their very own customizations (and enterprise pursuits) into the working system is a large a part of what made Android as profitable as it’s immediately, and Google would have a troublesome time taking that again.What Google might do, although, is undertake the Chrome OS improve philosophy — and actually shake up the established order we have all grown accustomed to accepting on Android.An Android-Chrome-OS improve alignmentConsider this: Why does Android nonetheless have an improve setup that emphasizes a single new model every year? It makes for a splashier presentation, certain, however Android updates themselves are not often all that thrilling anymore. These days, they’re largely about under-the-hood enhancements in areas like efficiency, privateness, and safety — necessary stuff, definitely, however not the kind of parts that get common phone-owners a-talkin’.More than something, it appears to come back all the way down to a legacy kind of carryover — together with, maybe, the reluctant acceptance of device-makers’ indifference to delivering even these once-annual updates and the concern of how they’d deal with something greater than that.But the annual replace cadence is definitely a disservice to most of us. It locations undue emphasis on a single yearly occasion that just about all the time looks like a letdown to most informal observers, and it retains necessary efficiency, privateness, and safety enhancements from reaching us 11 months out of the 12 months.So what if, as an alternative, Android upgrades arrived each few weeks with minor patches and fixes — the equal of the month-to-month safety updates offered now — after which each six weeks with a meatier model that contained a handful of extra important under-the-hood enhancements together with the occasional front-facing addition or enhancement?Each a kind of updates could be a fraction of the scope of a present annual Android replace, however over the course of the 12 months, they’d add as much as a complete lot extra — and a way more well timed, customer-focused strategy on high of that. There’s a purpose Chrome OS is about to succeed in model 87 whereas Android is just on model 11, although Android’s been round since 2008 and Chrome OS has solely been publicly obtainable since 2011. There’s far much less emphasis on every particular person Chrome OS replace, however the collective impact of them over the course of a 12 months is staggering.In a way, Google is already doing thisWhat’s particularly telling right here is that in a way, Google is already doing this — no less than, to a point. Google’s been working to separate many historically system-level parts out of the working system on Android and switch ’em as an alternative into simply updatable, standalone parts for a decade. Everything from the front-facing system-like apps for e mail, calendar, messaging, maps, images, keyboard and so forth to the behind-the-scenes utilities like Google Play Services (which powers all kinds of location-, privacy-, and security-related parts on Android gadgets) now get up to date quite a few occasions a 12 months — immediately from Google and unbiased of any formal working system rollout. That’s fairly a distinction to what you see on a platform like iOS, the place all that very same stuff is baked into the working system and up to date far much less ceaselessly.Over the previous couple years, the listing of unbundled Android working system parts has expanded to incorporate a variety of more and more superior system capabilities — the whole lot from parts that management media playback on a telephone to these associated to community performance. With Android 11, the gathering is rising much more formidable, and Google says that with subsequent 12 months’s Android 12 launch, it will truly acquire the power to ship complete new APIs — the typically-OS-connected programming interfaces that permit apps to work together with gadgets and are important to each privateness and safety enhancements and have expansions — by itself, with none formal Android model rollout or producer involvement.Between that and all the opposite out-of-operating-system updatable parts, Google virtually is pulling off a Chrome-OS-like replace strategy on Android; it is simply doing it covertly and as one small a part of a broader technique. Moving from this to a extra formalized effort that mixes these non-OS-connected parts with the extra formal, OS-associated updates would not even be such a leap. It’d be a pure, nearly apparent development.There’s only one extra variable to contemplate.The revamped Android improve actualityIf Google did ever begin sending Android updates out on a extra frequent, ongoing foundation, how would the device-makers who already battle with getting a single replace out every year reply? How would that truly play out?Well, assuming that schedule would contain a mixture of bundled standalone parts and extra formal, manufacturer-involvement-requiring updates, it looks as if one in all two issues might occur.First, device-makers may very well be pressured to step up their recreation and begin caring. Being 4 to 6 months behind on a serious Android model could also be one thing Samsung, LG, and Motorola can get away with with out a lot repercussion — but when they fall, say, six variations behind the present Android commonplace, as they may in the event that they’re perpetually six months behind with a month-to-month replace cadence, that may be greater than savvy decision-makers in areas just like the enterprise could be prepared to tolerate. And if some updates revolve round these unbundled parts whereas others focus solely on extra formal, conventional rollouts, they might actually discover themselves in a pickle.The different likely-seeming chance is that many producers would simply be painfully behind the curve always — or would take it upon themselves to roll out updates much less ceaselessly and ship, say, a biannual compilation of the previous six months’ price of releases. That, in flip, would emphasize the superior nature of Google’s personal Pixel telephone association and its considerably extra frequent replace setup, which might give Google further ammo in advertising its selfmade gadgets (once more, significantly in areas just like the enterprise, the place having gadgets fall woefully behind the curve on software program is one thing firms do not usually prefer to see).Either manner, it’d arguably be an enchancment from the present established order, significantly from Google’s perspective — and definitely from the attitude of us, as customers of those diverse gadgets. It’d additionally serve to emphasise the benefit of Google’s current system for delivering frequent common updates to so many system-level parts, one thing that is nearly all the time ignored and underplayed in Android-iOS comparisons.What’s fascinating with all of that is that Google truly did deliver a few of Chrome OS’s software program updating strategy into Android all the way in which again with 2016’s Android 7 (Nougat) launch. That software program noticed the introduction of a Chromebook-like system for background-based replace downloading and set up. It’s what permits for a extra seamless and invisible transition into a brand new working system model — one thing that completely was not current in Android as much as that time.Now it is time for Google to complete what it began and produce the remainder of the Chromebook replace strategy into the world of Android. The splashy annual releases are a relic of a bygone period and a useless limitation on this fashionable age. Chrome OS has demonstrated that fairly successfully — and now, Android must comply with go well with.Will Google ever truly make this occur? That’s a fairly large “if,” particularly given the fragile dance it is pressured to do when negotiating with its Android companions and making an attempt to maintain everybody completely satisfied. If it labored up the cajones, although, it would be one heck of a step ahead for Android — and one desperately overdue restart for a system that clearly is not working.Sign up for my weekly e-newsletter to get extra sensible suggestions, private suggestions, and plain-English perspective on the information that issues.[Android Intelligence videos at Computerworld]

Copyright © 2020 IDG Communications, Inc.