All new Android smartphones will receive support for “seamless” updates

For many years, the reluctance of Android smartphone manufacturers to actively engage in updating released devices has been the subject of jokes from opponents of this system. Google has made many attempts before to force companies to implement new OS versions faster, but with the release of Android 13, the situation seems to change qualitatively.

Google gives an ultimatum to manufacturers

Starting with Android 13, each manufacturer will be required to integrate the seamless Updates feature into their devices. If he doesn’t, he won’t be able to get a license to use Google Mobile Services. Then smartphones will lose access to the Google Play store, Google Maps apps, Gmail and other basic software.

Seamless updates use part of the system partition, allowing you to quietly install OTA updates “in the background”. The only downtime that the user faces is restarting the device. You don’t have to wait for the installer to download the files and install the update, watching the progress indicator move sluggishly from one end of the screen to the other. Another advantage of seamless installation is the ability to quickly roll back to the previous version of the system, in case of an unsuccessful update.

There is nothing new in this feature, Google implemented it in the first generation of Pixel smartphones. For a long time, the function has been refined and eliminated the problems that arise, and now it will be transferred to smartphones of key Android manufacturers in the world. They say that the first smartphone that will receive support for seamless updates from Samsung is the Galaxy S23.

I wonder how Google’s new policy will affect small manufacturers and whether any companies that will not be able to adapt to the new rules will disappear from the market. After all, using Google Mobile Services is a matter of survival for them. This is clearly shown by the history of Huawei, which has greatly lost ground in the global market after losing the opportunity to cooperate with Google.