This week’s release of Android 15 was strange, but it also raised a question – are Android updates about to get pretty chaotic?
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For the past few years, Google’s Android release strategy has been to release a stable version in the fall and build on that with further improvements in “quarterly platform releases.” These are delivered to Pixel devices as quarterly feature drops (currently called “Pixel Drops”) and will also be rolled out to other Android devices over time without much fanfare.
These updates are usually quite small, but sometimes they can provide very important features to users.
However, Google’s current strategy has its pros and cons.
The Pros column shows that these updates have many benefits for developers and apps. QPR releases come with no API bumps, which means much less work is required. When “.1” releases happen four times a year, the work can easily become overwhelming.
There is also no obvious fragmentation. QPR releases are not numbered and can only be attached to monthly security updates, so they all just contain Android 15, not “15.1”, “15.2”, etc. This is also very easy for OEMs.
These are the obvious and big reasons why Google hasn’t released a .1 update in years, which has led to Android releases actually being far less fragmented.
But lately, I’ve been feeling more and more confused by the lack of clear distinction between these quarterly releases. It’s not very easy to figure out which features are available where unless you’re paying close attention (or seeing a detailed breakdown).
For Pixel, a quick and easy solution would probably be to add a marker somewhere in the system for each QPR update. A dedicated software updates page will either display a simple mark to indicate which update you’re running, or a separate section next to the monthly security patch version. Currently, the current system is confusing even to the people whose job it is to track this information. Since the Android 15 and Android 15 QPR1 betas were happening at the same time, many thought that some features from QPR1 would be included in this week’s Android 15 release. Clear specification in the settings menu, somewherewhich can go a long way in making it clearer which features are associated with a particular update.
It would be nice to have a simple “Android 15.1” environment running like iOS, but the chances of that happening are very low. It will be easier to understand system features and when and where they are available. Most of the time the technical reasons here outweigh the user’s interests, but I hope that someday a better solution will be found.
What do you think?
This week’s top stories
Android 15 is here
It’s been a strange year for Android’s annual releases, but Google has finally launched Android 15 following the launch of Pixel 9 in August. This update brings a number of new features to Pixel devices. We have explained this in detail. week.
We also have tutorials on some of the most important features of Android 15.
Additionally, Android 15 has been released in beta on some devices and is expected to be released on more devices in the near future as some brands are also showing off their own take on this update.
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