The US-based search giant Google is making it compulsory for smartphone manufacturer to ship devices with Android 10 after 31 January, 2020.
After the above mentioned date, Google will only approve new devices running the latest Android version, Android 10 and the company will stop approving new devices running Android 9 Pie.
The information regarding company's move was spotted in the latest version of Google Mobile Services or GMS requirements. GMS includes a suite of Google apps and services licensed by its OEM (original equipment manufacturer) partners, XDA Developers reported this week.
GMS suite contains apps like the Google Play Store and Google Play Services and lack of GMS means devices won't come pre-installed with Google services.
The approval process includes meeting the requirements in the Compatibility Definition Document (CDD) and the GMS Requirements document, passing automated test suites like the Compatibility Test Suite (CTS), Vendor Test Suite (VTS), and Google Test Suite (GTS).
As per report, in order to be approved to pre-load GMS, OEMs must submit the software builds for each device they make to Google for approval. By making it compulsory to run Android 10 by default from February 2020 onwards, Google is trying to rectify the issue with Android fragmentation in the market.
The search engine giant has rolled out the Android One program in multiple avatar, the latest one offering faster security updates to brands like Nokia and OnePlus among others.
But compared to Apple’s control on the iOS ecosystem, Google’s struggle with updating Android for all phone users has been fairly evident.
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