Google aims for more mobile devices to offer up to seven years of support for the operating system Androidso it is working on a new program that will allow manufacturers to reuse chip vendors’ software during that time.
The Google Pixel 8 and Samsung Galaxy S24 series smartphones have support for updating to new versions of Android for seven years, a capability that not all manufacturers offer and that Google intends to extend to more devices.
To this end, the Mountain View firm has launched, together with chip vendors, such as Qualcomm and MediaTek, the ‘Longevity Google Requirements Freeze, (Longevity GRF)’ program, an expansion of the GRF program launched in 2020.
GRF allows chip vendors to temporarily freeze software requirements so that for three years after launch they do not have to update it. This sought to resolve the greater complexity that Project Treble introduced for chip suppliers, despite facilitating the arrival of updates to devices that work with Android.
Thus, with this program, mobile manufacturers may have to send the operating system update with the original ‘software’ for the chip that integrates these devices, instead of a new update with each software update from the suppliers corresponding to the version. of Android that they would like to implement.
However, since GRF only supports this stoppage for three years, Google has updated the program with one that lasts longer so that chip manufacturers can extend the ‘software’ up to seven years, which is known as ‘Longevity’. GRF’, as reported in Android Authority.
This means that, under this program, if a chip was created for Android 15 (2024), the mobile manufacturer will be able to reuse this provider’s software with versions Android 16 to Android 22. Precisely what will favor Snadragon 8 Elite, the first processor that is launched on the market under the ‘Longevity GRF’ program.
In exchange, and as explained by the aforementioned media, mobile manufacturers must update the Linux kernel – an essential part of the operating system – after three years. Added to this is that Google will not allow mobile phones to be launched on the market with more advanced versions of Android than the version supported by the chip, to prevent them from arriving with two or three years of additional support, instead of the seven they actually have.