Consistent updates to the Android ecosystem have been a major setup for Google since a few years now and it looks like Google is making sure it solves the problem to a certain extent at least. The company’s Project Treble made sure that updates are easier and for the first time, the beta version of the next major OS update is made available outside of Pixel devices.
And now Google is setting up requirements to OEMs to roll out Android security patches regularly. At the Google I/O 2018 event, the company in the “What’s new in Android security” segment revealed some new changes coming to the Google’s security policy which effectively require OEMs to roll out security patches. While Google is rolling out security patches updates to Pixel devices, OEMs push out updates to some extent, but it always remained optional in long run.
It is unclear at this moment what Google specifically requires this change, as it just mentioned that the updates will need to be “regular.” It is also likely that Google might not be expecting these updates on a monthly basis. Hopefully, this change encourages OEMs to be more timely about the security patch updates once the changes are put in place. Like with OS upgrades, Project Treble will play a big role in this as Google says that OEMs who implement Treble will find it much easier to implement these security updates.