By using a dedicated virtual partition and starting the update process in the background, Pixel wastes less time applying system updates. The question is whether these new mechanics will also be used by other manufacturers in the Android galaxy.
If you have a Google Pixel smartphone, you probably know the bad side of over the air (OTA) updates: a terminal blocked for 20 minutes. A rather annoying idle time that Google engineers are trying to reduce thanks to a series of system patches that an analyst just discovered.
Also read: Android 13: Google rolls out the update to compatible smartphones (August 2022)
Specifically, when a pixel installs its updates, it often takes multiple reboots to apply them correctly. Google worked on this back and forth of data by using a secondary virtual partition system called “A/B” instead. And by starting the work in the background, Google can almost halve the update time.
In addition to the conversion to this virtual partition system, several mechanisms are at work. In particular, the ability to parallelize copy/write operations, or the ability to use multiple cores to speed up data compression/decompression operations. Add to this the fact that some of the tasks are performed in the background while the device is in the user’s hands, which in turn reduces the number of operations to be performed a bit when the device is immobilized.
Ten minutes less
According to the tests carried out with these preview versions of the software, the application of a full update of 2.3 GB downloaded directly from the terminal (OTA) thus takes from 23 minutes to 13 minutes. With incremental updates, the impact is less: 376MB updates take from 22 minutes to 16 minutes to apply. We see here that the amount of data to be decompressed/deleted/written is less important than the back and forth between the partitions.
However, when the virtual partition system is new, these techniques are based on a mechanism known and developed by Google since Android 7.0 Nougat: Seamless Update. This system forms the basis for the automatic download and the various “passive” preparation processes before the update is applied and pushed to the virtual partition.
Also read: Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro: Timid update for photo champions (October 2022)
The problem for Google is that the seamless update mechanism is not mandatory for the time being and manufacturers have not rushed to integrate it. With good reason: between the upstream download, the update save, and the virtual partition, all of these building blocks have to allocate and block a lot of space. What no one has accepted yet – who wants to be willing to give precious gigas of ROM for a feature we don’t see?
However, this could change: several persistent rumors indicate that Google could make the integration of these update mechanisms mandatory in the future. Which would not pose such a big problem if manufacturers managed to surpass 128/256 GB to resume an increase in storage space that seemed blocked 4-5 years ago!
Source: Android Police