Latest Android security updates, and Google to fix patch delays for Pixel
Google released its May security update for Android this week but how many Android users will be lucky enough to get it this week, or even this month?
If you own one of Google’s Pixel devices, the answer is immediately. If you’re among the bulk of Android users who own smartphones made by other vendors, that security update could be anytime between this month and several months hence.
It’s a confusing and unsatisfactory situation Google’s been trying to solve for several years, and this week it detailed how it plans to improve things in the next version of Android, currently known as ‘Android Q’.
Currently, Google’s security updates arrive via phone makers as updates that incorporate elements proprietary to each model and vendor. Inevitably, this takes time.
According to details released at the Google I/O 2019 developer conference and in an interview with The Verge, the company’s ‘Project Mainline’ for Q will adopt a radically different approach, updating a list of 14 OS modules over-the-air straight from the Play Store.
Reportedly, those modules are:
- ANGLE
- APK
- Captive portal login
- Conscrypt
- DNS resolver
- Documents UI
- ExtServices
- Media codecs
- Media framework components
- Network permission configuration
- Networking components
- Permission controller
- Time zone data
- Module metadata
In other words, updating these elements will be done at Google’s direction, getting rid of the middleman.
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