Google will force OEMs to ship devices with an up-to-date version of Android, says leaked report

Google has been struggling to bring the Android platform together for its entire existence. Despite what many have cited as a chronic fragmentation problem, Android has overtaken the mobile market, and now makes up the vast majority of new phones sold. As Android matures and becomes more entrenched, Google is increasingly exerting control to keep OEMs in line, and that might extend to some new restrictions on how OEMs can release phones. A leaked document reportedly reveals Google’s plan to enforce a minimum OS version on all new Android devices.

Putting some hard limits on Android versions is something fans of the platform have been hoping Google would do for years. For much of Android’s history, it wasn’t uncommon for device makers to release devices with versions of the platform that were a year or more old, usually with a vague promise to update them in the not too distant future. Sometimes they lived up to that promise, and other times not so much.

The document in question is reportedly from a notice sent out to Google’s OEM partners and makes it clear the company will no longer certify Android devices running older versions of the platform. How old? Well, it varies. Android 4.1 and older expired on February 1, so OEMs are working only with version 4.2 or newer now. Android 4.2 expires on April 24 of this year, and 4.3 is slated for sunsetting on July 31. This works out to nine months for an OEM to move on from an old version of the platform when its successor is announced. That should mean all devices are no more than two API versions behind the Nexus program.

Google is apparently planning to enforce this with the Google Mobile Services (GMS) license. Every Android device that hits the market running Google Play, Gmail, Maps, and all the other first-party apps have been tested and approved by Mountain View. If this leaked policy turns out to be the real deal, Google would simply refuse to certify anything running a particular version of Android version after the cutoff date. It’s also important to note the GMS approval windows are determined by API levels, not the codename. So Android 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3 are treated as separate entities with distinct windows even though they were all “Jelly Bean.”

There is, of course, nothing stopping an OEM from rolling out an Android phone or tablet on an older version of the platform without Google’s services. Android is open source, and an OEM could build a ROM based on any previous version. However, the appeal of such a device would be limited not only because of the missing apps, but because the software would be old in the first place.

While this would be a step in the right direction, it won’t solve all of Android’s update problems. This change only affects new devices — it has nothing to say about deviceupdates. Google’s update alliance, which was announced several years ago at Google I/O never went anywhere. There are simply too many forces at work — including government regulators, carriers, and OEM customizations — to guarantee updates on any particular schedule. The GMS certification windows will simply keep new phones from coming with grossly outdated versions of Android.

The change won’t make much difference when it comes to the top-tier of phones — the Galaxy S5 and HTC One successor will be using a build of Android that is, at most, one version out of date at launch. A change like this would be great for keeping the mid-range devices from shipping with old software that leaves them obsolete in short order. If updates do happen, that’s even better, but not required by this supposed rule. It could also push OEMs to step it up in edge cases, like when the HTC One shipped with Android 4.1, which was a little over 9 months old at the time.

This isn’t a sea-change in the way Android works, but it may be the beginning of something big. Google could be leveraging its proprietary services to keep the platform at least a little more unified. It this all turns out to be true, Google could potentially tighten the restrictions over time to make a bigger impact.

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