Last October, Google announced
and shortly afterwards released the latest model of their Pixel smartphone
line. In terms of hardware, the Pixel 4 boasts a nice dual rear-cam setup with wide
and telephoto lenses. Software-wise however, the best reason to pick up this
device is, due to coming from Google, it is the first Android-using smartphone
to receive updates on the mobile OS (currently Android 10). Previous Pixel
users however tend not to notice such updates due to Google releasing them
exclusively to the line in little increments that are often overlooked. This
week, Google announced some changes in updating.
The Verge tells us that Google is planning to shift their Android
feature updates on the Pixel product line from releasing each new thing as they
are ready, to bunching them up together for scheduled batch upgrades. Announced
Monday, December 9, the “feature drop” system tends to make up for Google’s
poorly-planned haphazard introductions of incremental updates to Pixel phones’
Android MOS. As a batch of additions that would be released in a regular
fashion on fixed dates, users will more likely pay attention to what new
improvements or additions their Pixel phones have acquired.
As Google VP of product
management Sabrina Ellis puts it, they are looking to schedule the Android
feature drops for Pixel smartphones on a “quarterly basis” per year. The move
to group together MOS updates has also triggered changes in the Android development
quarter, with Ellis saying, “Setting that type of structure up front is helping
our teams understand how they can set their development timelines.”
Furthermore, the very terminology used, “feature drop,” is being used by Google
as a hip catchphrase for additional hyping of the Pixel 4, which so far has
received somewhat mixed reviews from tech critics.
To further spotlight some exclusivity
of certain Android OS feature updates, Google is mentioning “Pixel-first”
features in the very first feature drop to be done for their smartphone line. One
notable upcoming new thing is an improvement on the memory management of
background apps. The Google Pixel 4 will get it first, when other Android
smartphones could potentially not receive it until possibly the next version of
Android after 10. The first Android feature drop for the Pixel will be done
this month, and its reception will determine if this new direction on Android
updates for Google will pan out.
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