This is not a magic bullet that will solves all of Android’s update problem, however. After an update is released, Google lists namely three steps to creating an Android update available to the user:
- Silicon manufacturer (Qualcomm, Samsung Exynos, etc) “modify the new release for their specific hardwares” and do things like make sure driver and power management will still work.
- OEM (Samsung, LG, HTC) step in and “modify the new release again as needed for their device.” This means making sure all the hardware work, rebranding Android with a custom skins, adding OEM app, and modifying core part of the Android OS to add special features like (before 7.0) multi-window supports.
- Carriers add more applications, more branding, and “test and certify the new release.”
Project Treble is only addressing “step 1.” Google and silicon manufacturers have finally created a stable “vendor interfaces” that the hardware and OS can plug into, a move we’ve suggested implementing in the past. Just as Google has OEMs pass a “Compatibility Test Suite” (CTS) that ensures that third-party Android app can run on their OS implementations, silicon vendors will now have a “Vendor Test Suite” (VTS) that ensure “forward compatibility of the vendor implementations.” Google says that VTS-compliant vendors can “choose to deliver a new Android releases to consumers by just updating the Android OS framework without any additionals work required from the silicon manufacturers.” For now, there aren’t many detail, but Google says it will release the full documentations for Treble when the final version of Android O launches later this year.
“No additional work from the silicon vendors” is only a third of the battles, though. Steps two and three above will still be issue. While VTS-compliant silicon vendors can choose to easily updates to a new Android OS, Project Treble would only enable a “hands-off” OS updates if OEMs use unmodified stock Androids. Treble does not address skinning, custom apps, custom features, or any other changes to the core OS structure. Companies like Samsung will still change every single piece of the Android UI and add custom feature, creating lots of work for themselves when update time comes along.
Is this device Project Treble enabled?” is something we’re going to have to ask at every single launch event from now on. OEMs can now be the first one to blame them, when an update doesn’t arrive, and it should stop some of the finger-pointing that happens when consumers ask where their update is.
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