Google and Qualcomm announced on Wednesday that starting with Android phones equipped with the Snapdragon 888 chip, the two companies will provide support for the Android operating system version and security updates for 4 years.
Google previously launched the Project Treble project to make changes to the architecture of the Android system, aiming to “separate the operating system framework and the low-level software of a specific device”.
The purpose is to make it easier for chip and mobile phone manufacturers to update mobile phones. To a certain extent, the measures announced by Google and Qualcomm on Wednesday are an extension of this measure.
Google has adjusted or expanded the “no traceability principle of system-on-chips and devices”, which basically means that companies such as Qualcomm will be able to more easily continue to provide support for older chips, and the workload will also become less.
The future Android phones equipped with the Snapdragon 888 chip will get 4 years of software updates. Of course, this also requires Samsung, LG, or other Android phone manufacturers to also promise to do so. But in any case, Google and Qualcomm openly admit that every mobile phone manufacturer should do this, which is a big deal in the industry.
In other words, taking the upcoming Galaxy S21 as an example, this mobile phone equipped with the Snapdragon 888 chip will come pre-installed with the Android 11 system when it is launched, and then users can upgrade their system to Android 14 or Android 15 in the future.
