Last year, a modification to the Android 11 Vendor Test Suite was noticed, indicating that phones launching with Android 11 and later would be needed to support known to be “seamless” updates. This feature permits a phone to get installed in a system update whereas it’s running and easily boot into the new surroundings with no user-facing delay. Sadly, that hasn’t panned out. In keeping with the most recent Android 11 Compatibility Definition Document (CDD), Google has walked back that demand, and they confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy S21 does not support seamless updates.
According to an Android-Police report, the Android 11 Compatibility Definition Document (CDD) has rolled back the necessity that declared that smartphones launching with the new OS can feature seamless updates. Google has been performing on this feature since 2016 to place it merely, the seamless update permits the device to induce updates within the background while it’s getting used. Whereas it had been expected to be a feature for devices that launch with Android 11, this has since been confirmed to not be the case.
Earlier, Android 11 has supported a method referred to as seamless updates since 2016. There is square measure a couple of alternative ways to implement it, like virtual A/B partition support, however, the short version is: it lets the phone install an update while it’s getting used in the background and you do not have to be compelled to sit for ages waiting on some progress bar in your bootloader, watching a phone that cannot even create emergency calls. The systems behind it conjointly cut back the possibility that an update will fail, creating it easier to revert.
Furthermore, the Samsung Galaxy S21 series is additionally confirmed to not feature seamless updates. The concept behind this new feature was to cut back the wait times behind the updates, particularly the bootloader bar, which makes the device unusable for a brief period of your time. whereas numerous OEMs like Google, Motorola, OnePlus, and even LG support it, Samsung still doesn’t support seamless updates on its devices despite the feature being proclaimed nearly almost 5-7 years.
The omission has been contentious for America here at Android Police since last year once the super-expensive Galaxy S20 series debuted while not getting the feature. Since Samsung has become one in every of the foremost timely phone makers once it involves updates, that’s an ambiguous double-edged sword. Yes, Samsung phones get exceptionally timely monthly security updates currently, which is undisputedly a decent issue. But, it conjointly suggests that Samsung phones pay tons of their time as useless bricks whereas putting in those updates over their period. It’s a minor purpose of frustration, however, a legitimate one when such a big amount of different devices support it, particularly at the type of premium costs Samsung charges.
According to the Android Report statement that is as follows:
Initially, we tend to thought Google had placed its foot down concerning the practice last year once a modification to the Android Vendor Test Suite indicated that virtual A/B partition support would be a demand. Mishaal Rahman of XDA Developers conjointly confirms seeing an early draft of the Android 11 Compatibility Definition Document (CDD), that declared that seamless updates would be needed for phones launching with Android 11. However, in keeping with the most recent Gregorian calendar month 2021 version of the Android 11 CDD, seamless updates don’t seem to be a demand, and Google is merely telling makers that they “should” support it. It might seem that Google has walked that demand back, maybe fraught with smartphone manufacturers like Samsung.
That is probably what happened. https://t.co/F1ZlvsOU9B
The original claim came from a comment left by a Googler on the AOSP Gerrit before the Android 11 CDD was finalized/made public. So they planned to require it (and a leaked draft I saw did say it was) but walked it back.
— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) January 24, 2021
Last year’s Samsung Galaxy S20 series conjointly didn’t support this feature despite the South Korean technical company being one in every of the few makers that provides timely updates. In different words, Samsung devices pay quite a little bit of time in their bootloader screens because of the frequent updates. Thus, while the updates are a plus point, the constant downtime is a con to their otherwise great update cycles.