Everything you need to know about Android 7.0
Google officially launches its Nougat-flavoured mobile OS. Darren Yates looks at the new security features within Android 7.0... and why your device probably won’t get this new OS.
It looks like a season of change is hitting Google-land, with rumours the long-serviced ‘Nexus’ brand is to be retired ( tinyurl.com/jmu6gyd) and replaced by ‘Pixel’ and ‘Pixel XL’ monikers ( tinyurl.com/gu9q6aa), plus the first shoots of a new from-the-ground-up operating system (OS) called ‘Fuchsia’. But it’s the release of the new Android ‘Nougat’ update that, for the moment, is catching eyes.
No doubt you’ve already read about the more up-front features such as split-screen multitasking, Doze on the Go and Notification Direct Reply. But with greater interest in mobile security and privacy than ever before, the latest security measures inside Android 7.0 are well worth a look. Also, we’ll dive into the issue of Android OS updates, which devices are likely to get Nougat — and why yours probably won’t.
BRIEF FEATURES LIST
But just in case you missed them, briefly, here are some of Nougat’s bigger-ticket items.
Arguably, the most noticeable is new split-screen multitasking that allows you to run two apps either above-and-below or side-by-side on larger phones and tablets. As we mentioned in the July issue of APC, the Recents button (that’s the square one on the right) will split in two when you’re multiwindowing and you can resize the windows by dragging the centre border between the two. There’s also the new quick-switch system that lets you double-tap the Recents button between the two most recent apps, with copy-and-paste support.
New ‘Doze on the Go’ is a tweak to the Doze power management feature introduced in Marshmallow/6.0 that auto-reduces power consumption when the phone is left alone. In Nougat/7.0, Doze gets updated to handle when you’re on the move, allowing the device to remain in sleep mode, saving battery power.
But for ‘most popular feature’, our money’s on Notification Direct Reply, which enables you to reply to messages in the Notification panel without having to open up an app.
NEW JIT COMPILER
Back when Google launched Froyo/ Android 2.2, it heralded the arrival of a new Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler that took Java application code and compiled it right before it was required by the device’s processor — as the name says, ‘just in time’. The performance gains compared with Éclair/2.1 were extraordinary, as anyone using Android back then would attest to — as much as five times faster. But as device processing power cranked up, Google changed tack and introduced a new
“Anyone who’s used Android for more than the last year or so will know how much fun Android updates can be.”
‘ahead of time’ (AOT) compiler in KitKat/4.4 called ‘Android RunTime’ or ART. The idea was that, as CPU hardware was no longer so constrained that we couldn’t afford to compile apps before using them, we could now move to a more overall-efficient compiling setup. From Lollipop/5.0, AOT compiling became the exclusive option.
However, in a surprise move, Nougat is sending us back to the future with a new JIT compiler ( tinyurl.com/jde8mvx) — but this time, working in conjunction with AOT compiling to improve app installation times by as much as 75% and reduce app size on your device by up to half.
NEW SECURITY FEATURES
These days, however, there’s as much interest in security and privacy provisions within new Android updates as there is in any shiny new toys we get to play with. Google knows this and continues to beef up security in its latest update, while at the same time, making these features more userfriendly.
One of these receiving a user experience overhaul is Trusted Face, Android’s facial recognition lock system. Originally known as ‘Face Unlock’, Trusted Face has been available since Lollipop/5.0, but Google says Nougat now has a new ‘face recogniser’ that copes better with varied lighting conditions, glasses, even how you hold the device. The downside is it’ll only be available on ‘selected devices’.
FILE-BASED ENCRYPTION
Encryption in one form or another has been around in Android since the days of Gingerbread/2.3. Come KitKat/4.4, it evolved into full-disk encryption (FDE) where everything on the device was encrypted with a single minimum 128-bit key. By Lollipop/5.0, fast encryption was added to only encrypt storage blocks that had data stored in them, helping speed up first-boot times ( tinyurl.com/hcgfe3u).
Now with Nougat, Google introduces file-based encryption (FBE) that encrypts individual files with separate keys and overcomes the problem of FDE locking up almost everything bar the power button without you first entering your credentials into the device. According to Google, FBE allows Nougat a new feature called ‘Direct Boot’, which enables booting into the lock screen as well as other nonprivacy-threatening actions such as answering phone calls, without having to first unlock the device.
FBE creates two separate encrypted storage areas — Credential Encrypted (CE) and Device Encrypted (DE) storage. Credential Encrypted storage is the default option but requires the user to unlock the device before access is allowed, while Device Encrypted storage is available in both Direct Boot mode and after unlocking.
However, it looks as though FBE may add some overheads — Google doesn’t say “FBE takes a chunk of your device’s performance”, but it does suggest “manufacturers electing to use FBE may wish to explore ways of optimising the feature based on the system-on-a-chip (SoC) used”. Further, it also lists a minimum encryption speed at the kernel of 50MB/second “to ensure a good user experience” ( tinyurl.com/znvwhvj).
SEAMLESS FIRMWARE UPDATES
Anyone who’s used Android for more than the last year or so will know how much fun Android updates can be. We’ll delve deeper into this shortly, but first, it looks as though Android 7.0 is about to address this with what it’s calling ‘seamless updates’.
Rather than having to drive the process yourself, Nougat will download Android updates in the background to a second storage partition. You’ll get an alert when the new update is ready and the next time you reboot the device, the active partition will switch over to the new update — or so we believe, given there were no devices supporting ‘seamless updates’ as of Nougat’s launch. However, it’s not expected to be a ‘Windows 10’-style compulsory update and you’ll be able to choose whether to or not.
Still, it sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Hold your horses — that requirement for two partitions
apparently isn’t set in concrete, which means seamless updates could be optional for phone makers. And it won’t work on existing devices, either, since they typically only have the one partition and trying to turn one partition into two could go pearshaped real quick (unless, possibly, you gain root-access, wipe and flash a custom ROM from scratch). Another downside is that since you’ll need two partitions with full Android systems on each at some point, it’s going to require a fairly chunky phone in terms of on-board storage for it to work — and how much storage you’ll have left is anyone’s guess at the moment ( tinyurl.com/han89x8). But most of all, it’s still unclear when or how often these updates will actually appear.
WHO GETS NOUGAT?
So which devices will get Android 7.0? As you’d expect, a decent number of the Nexus-branded devices, including the Nexus 5X, 6/6P and 9 will soon receive an update, if not already. So, too, the Pixel C. Sadly, anything older looks like getting the chop — including the LG-built Nexus 5. We’ll explain why in a moment.
As for new devices, LG’s upcoming 5.7-inch V20 should be first cab off the rank with Nougat pre-loaded, powered by Qualcomm’s Kryo-cored Snapdragon 820 chip. If you’re lucky, the LG G5 may also be one of the first existing non-Nexus devices to get Nougat by the end of the year.
WHAT ABOUT OLDER DEVICES?
As for other kit already in your pocket, a decent chunk of Sony phones are said to be lining up for Nougat, including most recent Xperia Z-series models
from the Z3+ up, as well as the Xperia X-series. Samsung hadn’t said anything official at time of writing, but the S7 and S7 Edge would likely be safe bets for Nougat updates, as would the Galaxy Note 7, depending on what happens after the recent recall ( tinyurl.com/zuen3yz). Meanwhile, HTC is said to be aiming for One M9, One A9 and 10 updates by the end of the year and the Motorola Moto G4 Plus is also thought to be on the list. Still, we’ll be surprised if any updates get past local telcos before the end of the year.
WHAT ABOUT THEM?
However, for many Android users, this is all likely to be academic. The one question every Android user asks at this time of year is “When will my device receive the new OS update?” and the most likely answer is “It won’t”.
Android OS updates have become a bit of a lottery and it can seem as though there is little rhyme or reason as to which devices get the lollies and which ones don’t. Conventional wisdom has been that whether or not a device receives an update is up to Google, your device manufacturer and your network provider. All three need a conveyor belt of testing — the update itself, the update on the device and then the update on the device on the network — before you get the ‘warm fuzzies’ of an update alert.
SNAPDRAGON 800/801 SOCS
Frankly, we imagine the process is like trying to herd cats. However, there’s actually a fourth feline in this update roundup — the device CPU or ‘SoC’ (System on a Chip) maker. The vast majority of smartphone makers don’t manufacture their own chips — they leave that to the likes of Qualcomm, MediaTek, HiSilicon and others. However, rumours are swirling that any device with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 or 801 SoC inside will not receive an official Nougat update ( tinyurl.com/jyh7l28). If the rumours are true, it’ll leave a sizeable chunk of the class-of-2014 off the update list. We already know LG’s Nexus 5 is officially a Nougat no-go, but it could also potentially affect the Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC One M8, LG’s G3 and the Sony Xperia Z3 range. There’s a terrific read over at XDA Developers on the subject ( tinyurl.com/gwc7bvu, warning: gets technical).
NEW RULE-OF-THUMB
This would also follow our normal update rule-of-thumb which surmises that, if your device is less than a year old, you’ll likely get the new OS update; less than two years old, maybe you’ll get it; and two-years or older, just forget it. But with the continued rise of new, very low-cost pre-paid Android smartphones being sold in Australia, that rule-of-thumb advice also needs updating: if you have a new budget pre-paid Android phone, expect full OS updates to be a very rare event indeed.
Because there are so many hands involved in getting an update to a device, it’ll likely continue to only be flagship and upper-mid-range devices that see full OS updates. Or in other words, the chances of your device receiving a full OS update go up the more you spent on it.
TIME FOR A CHANGE?
But this is the problem — the current Android OS update ecosystem is a mess. Take a look at Google Dashboards and see the fragmented trail of past OS numbers ( tinyurl.com/m7zm5cu). The most notable thing is that more than a quarter of all currently-used Android devices (29.2%) are still on three-yearold Android 4.4/KitKat and as of the 1st of August, after nine months on the market, Marshmallow/6.0 is still running on less than one in six phones (15.2%). By comparison, 88% of all possible Apple devices run iOS 9 after just one year on the shelf (as of the 29th of August).
However, in fairness, from personal experience, running even iOS 8 on an iPad 3 hasn’t been frustration-free and the iPad 3 won’t make it to iOS 10. Older devices with insufficient CPU power to handle everything a new OS has to offer can often lead to as much gnashing of teeth as not getting the update in the first place. But Apple gets props for at least offering that option (although I’d give them more if you could revert back to your old OS).
And did someone say ‘security updates’? The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) certainly did — earlier this year, they began lining up mobile OS makers, phone builders and telcos for a ‘please explain’ on the whole security updates process ( tinyurl.com/zjdfyfz).
Rumours are Google has a list of which vendors drag the OS updates chain the most and may make it public ( tinyurl.com/hpurnbu). It probably wouldn’t be a bad thing, either. The thing we all want from mobile devices is better battery life. However, the thing we all need is simple and timely updates.