Google has changed Android’s open source base to make over-the-air updates to its Pixel smartphones much faster. An optimization that other Android smartphones could soon benefit from.
Google Pixel 7 Pro // Source: Chloé Pertuis – Aroged
Seamless updates should improve on Google’s Pixel smartphones with faster installation. An improvement that could benefit all other Android smartphones thereafter.
Google optimizes updates on Pixels
Android expert Mishaal Rahman said on Twitter that “Google is working to make OTA updates faster. A new set of fixes has been submitted to AOSP to speed up OTAs on devices that use the virtual A/B update mechanism with compression.”
Google is working on making OTA updates faster. A new set of patches has been submitted to AOSP that speed up OTAs on devices that use the virtual A/B with compression update mechanism. Combined, these improvements bring a full OTA install time from ~23 minutes to ~13 minutes! pic.twitter.com/2hDliWzUZZ
— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) November 30, 2022
A so-called “OTA” update (over the air) on Android is carried out remotely and almost invisibly. It downloads and installs in the background without the user having to do anything except restart their smartphone to complete the installation.
As for the virtual A/B update mechanism, it consists of two partitions (A and B), in which Android is divided. The operating system is active on partition A and the new version is downloaded to partition B. Once the installation is ready, partition B becomes active and Android restarts there.
The A/B partition system facilitates Android updates (Schematic by XDA Developers)
The advantage of this method is that it saves the user from having to wait a while for their phone to install the update without being able to use it. According to Mishaal Rahman, Google has succeeded in reducing the installation time of OTA updates significantly. He gives the example of a 2.2 GB file that could be installed in 13 minutes instead of 23.
For this, Google has optimized the batch writing of so-called copy-on-write operations by placing them in a cluster, to save four minutes in the example mentioned. The other optimization is on using two threads to compress virtual A/B “snapshots”; a compression that saves an additional six minutes.
Towards a generalization of “Seamless Updates” on Android
As Android Central notes, this patch “aims to improve Google’s Seamless Updates feature,” which allows users to precisely use their smartphone while a system update is downloading and installing in the background. A change that always requires restarting your smartphone once the installation is complete.
The Google Pixel 7 Pro screen (right) is very bright // Source: Chloé Pertuis – Aroged
There are still manufacturers of Android smartphones and tablets that have not integrated Seamless Updates into their devices, such as the slow installation. But we know that Samsung wants to bring this feature to the next version of its interface, One UI 6, which will be based on Android 14. The manufacturer has been behind on transparent updates for several years and intends to catch up . It could also be that the next Samsung Galaxy S23 will be entitled to the A/B partition system and therefore to these Seamless Updates.
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