Back in May, Google announced ‘Project Treble’, a feature with a modular base resulting in faster updates for Android devices running Oreo 8.0. Under Project Treble, Android got a "Vendor Interface" (VI) which separated the "Vendor Implementation" (the device-specific, lower-level software written in large part by phone makers), from the Android OS framework.
Project Treble implementation was made mandatory for devices launching with Android 8.0 out of the box, while the phones launching with previous Android versions such as Nougat 7.0 required some extra work done on part of the manufacturer to make them compatible with the feature.
However, some manufacturers like OnePlus and HMD Global (Nokia) are passing up on this feature for all their current devices. OnePlus confirmed the news on an AMA session, while HMD Global ‘s Juho Sarvikas tweeted in a response to a specific query raised by a user on twitter. “Note that there is no end-user impact. Just means that we do a bit more heavy lifting on engineering to keep you Pure, Secure and Up-to-Date”.
Juho’s response was in reference to a moderator post on HMD forums which read — “Nokia 8 was launched with Android 7.0 Nougat, however, we recently upgraded this device to Android 8.0 Oreo. Unfortunately, Google only supports Project Treble on phones launching on Android 8.0 Oreo, not phones upgrading to their software.
HMD is fully committed to implementing Project Treble on all new Android Oreo products in the near future and we apologise for any disappointment this may cause”.
We’d like to point out that the statement mentioning Google not supporting project treble on older devices is a lie, In fact, There are several devices such as Google’s own original Pixel, Essential Phone, Honor 9 and 8 Pro, which got Project Treble as part of their respective Oreo update.
In simple words, none of the OnePlus and Nokia phones including the flagships OnePlus 5T and Nokia 8 (which launched with Android 7.x Nougat) will get Project Treble. Although it doesn’t mean that they won’t get Android updates in future, it does mean that benefit of faster updates will elude these phones.
