- New efficiency upgrades are coming to Android
- Google promises faster speeds and longer battery life
- Updates are being tested for Android 15, 16 and 17
Good news if you own an Android phone: Google is pushing a major optimization update that should make your device run faster and last longer between battery charges, without you having to do anything.
According to the Android Developer Blog (via Android Authority), the update provides “impressive improvements to key Android metrics” based on Google’s testing of Pixel phones in its labs.
What Google is doing here is rather complex and technical, but luckily for the non-engineers among us, end users don’t need to know too much about the details. Simply put, an essential part of Android software will now work based on your specific device and how you use it.
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Google says it saw a 2.1% increase in startup times and a 4.3% increase in app launch times in its tests, for example. The new optimizations are currently being tested for Android 15, Android 16, and Android 17 and are expected to roll out soon.
Meet AutoFDO
At the center of this upgrade is AutoFDO, which is short for Automatic Feedback-Directed Optimization. It runs in a part of Android called the kernel, which acts as a headquarters for the software: About 40 percent of the processing done by a chipset on an Android phone involves the kernel, according to Google.
Every time code is executed on a phone, thousands of small operations are involved, and previously Android used a general rulebook to determine how to execute them. With the AutoFDO update, the rulebook is customized based on real-world models, so the code is processed more efficiently.
The most frequently used code can, for example, be identified and prioritized. This should mean “a snappier interface, faster app switching, longer battery life, and an overall more responsive device for the end user,” according to Google.
It certainly looks promising, although we’ll have to wait and see how it works on actual devices. We may learn more about this feature, as well as many new features for the upcoming Android 17, at the Google I/O event in May.
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