Mishal Rahmaan of Esper suggests that Google has been working on speeding up the OTA software updates on Pixels. As per Rahmaan, Google has submitted a patch to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) that reduces the time taken for OTAs to install on Pixel phones.
Google is working on making OTA updates faster. A new set of patches has been submitted to AOSP that speed up OTAs… https://t.co/JvTxkglF3S
— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) 1669834491000
The said patch works on smartphones using the virtual A/B partitions, employing a new compression algorithm. These two together can reduce the installation time by 10 minutes, bringing down the time taken for installation from 23 minutes to 13 minutes.
The patches took ten minutes, almost half the time required to install a 2.2GB OTA update on a Pixel 6 Pro. Further, the patches reduced the time taken to install a 376MB incremental update to 16 minutes, down from 22 minutes.
Earlier, Pixel smartphones took around 10-15 minutes to install an OTA update. Then, in 2016, Google introduced “Seamless Updates” with Android 7, Nougat.
So, in the Seamless Updates, the OTA updates install in the background on a secondary virtual partition, allowing users to use the phone as usual. Upon rebooting the phone, the phone turns off in the inactive partition for an update, and when turned on, it reboots in the active partition. While it is not a major improvement, the technique reduces the total time by a few minutes.
With Android 13, Google introduced virtual A/B partitions, reducing the additional storage space required for the seamless update. The phones running Android 13 are mandated to come with virtual A/B partitions. So, soon you would have to wait for less time for your phone to install the updates, and it may just not remain exclusive to Pixels but could also come to other Android smartphones also.
For all the latest Technology News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.