Samsung is believed to have started work on the Android 8.0 Oreo software update for the early 2017 flagship Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones.
The South Korean company is not known for its speedy software updates, or for supporting its many mid and low-end devices beyond the initial first months, but it does usually eventually bring later versions of Android to the flagship Galaxy S and Galaxy Note devices.
At this juncture, we do not know the timescale of the planned software update. When Google announced Android Oreo the company explained that it was working with a number of manufacturers to release Android 8.0 Oreo before 2018, and also to work with manufacturers in order to bring support for Project Treble to smartphones. Project Treble is the name for the internal Google project designed to greatly simplify the process of updating device software as it separates the device drivers from the operating system, meaning a manufacturer does not need to reinvent that particular wheel when it’s time to update the software.
Samsung’s plans for Android Oreo may include the introduction of a beta testing scheme, similar to the process it followed with the Samsung Galaxy S7 family. Here, a number of customers from around the world were able to install and use a test version of the new software on their devices, prior to a wider release of the software. Samsung is believed to have introduced multi-CSC firmware for the Galaxy S8 family, that meaning, multiple consumer software customization variants of the same software. This could simplify the process of rolling out updates to devices across the world, although it remains to be seen just how quickly individual carriers will be able to test software builds.
With each evolution of Android, Google is forcing manufacturers to include more and more features into the operating system, where in the past Samsung has traditionally removed some features, or duplicated them with its own apps and services. Android Oreo introduces a number of new features such as application auto-fill, picture-in-picture mode, notification dots, and limited background activities. Android Oreo also halves the boot time of the original Google Pixel, so we could see similar performance benefits here.
Follow our Droid Updates Weekly Series to find out when your Android device gets a software update.
SOURCE [SamMobile]
