Google might be looking for the way to solve the problem of the fragmentation of Android

As everyone knows, the main problem of Android is fragmentation, and that is the huge number of manufacturers makes use of this operating system, along with multiple customizations and modifications it makes to us to get an update and have to work for weeks or months on the version of Android that Google has provided them with.

This causes that while a few manufacturers are relatively quick, others are delayed for months or, directly, do not provide the update due to the overhead of models of smartphones that appear on the market every year. But Google, in its desire to solve the problem of fragmentation, there may be given with a key point.

“Android Extensions”, the great hope of Google

CDD) Compatibility Definition Document, is a document that describes all you need to do a manufacturer for one of their devices to be considered by Google compatible to their services. In the CDD corresponding to Android 7.0 Nougat has added a section on the software side, specifically the 3.1.1

3.1.1. Android Extensions

Android includes the support of extending the managed APIs while keeping the same API level version. Android device implementations MUST preload the AOSP implementation of both the shared library ExtShared and services ExtServices with versions higher than or equal to the minimum versions allowed per each API level. For example, Android 7.0 device implementations, running API level 24 MUST include at least version 1.

In the paragraph that you can read just above this line, Google seems to be talking about an extension of functionality using shared libraries, and that any manufacturer, you must include it on their devices with Android Nougat. This part is not included, if you have doubt, in the CDD for Android Marshmallow.

According to theorize in Ars Technica, and to sum up all of what you say there, these libraries would behave the same way it does today, the Services of Google Play, which is simply an apk that can be updated through the app store. Again, according to the article of this blog, the CDD mentions two apk files in particular.

Your name is “GoogleExtShared.apk” and “GoogleExtServices.apk” and found them both in the Google Pixel as in the LG V20 but those files were, as they say, almost empty. This could result in these files can be updated through Google Play, if this theory turns out to be true.

All of this is best taken with tongs, because, as we have already said, is a simple theory and, therefore, it is better not to get excited yet. However, if this is true, it would be a clear signal that Google wants to get rid of the fragmentation and thus to be able to distribute in a better way the operating system for the mobile latest and the not so much.

In Xataka Android | The solution to the fragmentation of Google’s Android is… more fragmentation

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The news Google might be looking for the way to solve the problem of the fragmentation of the Android was originally published in Xataka Android by Santiago Luque.

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