Reddit is a gem of the Internet where people share experiences, jokes and lots of knowledge about a lot of things on the site’s comment-driven section. This time round, Android developers, tinkerers, low-level enthusiasts as well as normal users will have a chance to be part of an AMA staged by Android O’s engineering team on the /r/androiddev subreddit.
The session will take place from 10 PM tomorrow (GMT +3) and will last for an hour and 30 minutes. At the moment, users have started asking questions and the subreddit has gathered 203 comments already. Of course, that is a long thread and there is a chance your question has been posted, which is why people need to get creative.
We have gone through the questions and one of them is based on Project Treble. Ideally, Project Treble is in existence because Android’s update track record is terrible at best, unless you have a Pixel. People are interested in Treble’s potential in getting rid of the fragmentation menace. There is a lot jargon therein, which developers thrive in, as if people are asking them to state their names.
According to a blog post published by Google in May (just before Google I/O), Project Treble will see that Android updates suck less. In essence, the OS framework will be modularized and separated from code written by vendors. Simply put, it will allow flashing of Android OS without liaising with chip makers such as Qualcomm and Samsung, among other silicon manufacturers. This has been the biggest challenge for ‘low-level architecture of Android to date.’
However, Project Treble fails to address other issues, such as the time taken by OEMs to add bloat the OS (which is what every other OEM that is not Google does, save for Motorola and OnePlus that take a lighter approach). In addition, some carriers in other parts of the world control updates, which is a stumbling block that OEMs face – assuming they have churned out those updates a timely manner.
There is a good chance that Project Treble will be part of Android O, and phones such as Pixels were updated to include the feature. It is also highly probable that popular devices such as the Galaxy S8 will be updated with Treble.
Until it happens, we’ll hold out breath and loathe about the update disarray in silence.
