Current Nexus devices won’t be taking advantage of Android N’s seamless updates
One of the bigger Android N surprises to come out of Google I/O was its new seamless update feature. Similar to Chrome OS, Google promised system updates that took place in the background, not requiring any input from the user what-so-ever. However, in order for this feature to work, Android will need a separate partition on the device in order to do all the updating — something not available on any current Nexus device.
While a dual-system partition could be created on current Nexus models, it would require special software and users to physically plug their device into a computer to get it working and, at least according to Google, isn’t something the average user will want to do. Even if a tool was made available, Google probably doesn’t want to be held liable for anyone damaging their phones during a delicate process like this (or any loss of data). Because of that, don’t expect this feature to arrive until Google’s 2016 Nexus lineup debuts later this year.
It was a handy feature but let’s be honest, downloading and applying updates manually — however frequent — is something most Android users have grown accustomed to by now. Our thumbs will just have to manage.