What you need to know about Project Mainline in Android 14 and beyond

hydroGEN@lemdro.id to Android@lemdro.id – 119 points –
androidpolice.com

Project Mainline delivers key OS updates through Google Play — here's how it's changing

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I'll never understand why typical android updates are tied to your carrier and reliant on them for distribution.

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But where's the money in that? How does AT&T holding back a major update for months at a time help them make money? It makes me never want to buy a phone from them again more than anything.

I think the point they're making is that updates don't help sell more phones, and selling new phones with contracts is how they make money

Carriers likely pay google under the table to implement it that way so they can hold out updates on people and make them buy new phones. They also likely want to make sure all their crap spyware they force on your phone is working the best it can on the latest version so they can get as much of your data as well. Sometimes that might mean holding off a security patch until they themselves have wormed their way around it.

Yes this is all hypothetical, but the money there is real.

That and also pay the manufacturers under the table to not support bootloader unlocking, ensuring that the phone is ewaste after you're done with it And forcing you to get a new one

It's a combination of historical, technical and liability reasons. Even though wireless is built on standards (GSM, etc) implementations by vendors don't always conform, have defects, or need additional configuration to make it work well on a particular network comprised from particular base equipment. Does Qualcomm test every one of their their modems with every firmware version on every base station from every vendor? Does MediaTek? They don't and so many issues only show up once you encounter those combinations at the carrier end. When a carrier sells a phone with service on their network, they want to be damn sure it works or they'll be getting a volume of angry calls or worse (think implications of failed 911 calls). In order to ensure that doesn't happen, carriers test every device and every firmware version for it on their network. A lot of vendor hardware/software defects are found precisely during this stage. That's because these days the software/firmware is just as important for the proper functioning of the device-network combination. Therefore carriers want to keep tight control over device/software/firmware combos and only sell what they've tested and certified as working correctly. Ultimately carriers hold the keys to their network and they can block any device/group of devices that might cause problems for the network, others subscribers or expose them to liability. This is why updates that can affect any of the above are gated by carriers. This used to be extraordinarily strict prior to 2010. We made specific device software versions for Verizon, AT&T, etc. Remember when every phone had a carrier logo on it? That's when that was. After 2010, manufacturers and software vendors gradually began decoupling the carrier-related pieces like modem firmware and services, telephony, emergency, etc from the higher level software like calculator apps and through.. arduous lobbying and discussions with carriers vendors proved to carriers that they don't need to vet every little thing that changes in a phone from one version to the next. And so gradually we had more and more things not having to pass carrier testing. That said, OS updates which change the aforementioned critical components are still gated by carrier testing and Google can't do shit to get past them. They have no leverage as they wouldn't be liable if something goes horribly wrong.

When I say carriers, think large North American carriers and large European ones. Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, etc. Small carriers that don't have much resources don't do as much testing and rely more on the diligence of the vendors on the phone and base station ends to have things work well. They also benefit from fixes of defects found during carrier testing conducted by the big ones.

Source: Am a software guy that used to work at BlackBerry during the BBOS, BB10 and Android days.

I'm afraid this will end up the same way as Treble, and other similar efforts. On paper, this is a fantastic idea. In practice, most vendors will probably block these, or change the core distribution to the point where these are irrelevant, like Samsung or any Chinese market phones do. Not to mention that modifying anything on your device is becoming exceedingly difficult, depending on which vendor it's from

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Treble is pretty good IMO, I'm using a device with LineageOS GSI, and it works pretty much perfectly. I do wish it was officially supported by LineageOS, as updating requires a PC right now, but it is pretty usable and a better alternative than using the Stock ROM.

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Last I checked, TWRP couldn't flash logical partitions that make up where the GSI is patched, but it was requested, maybe something changed? Idk, the guy who created the guide on how to flash GSI on my device's XDA forum mentioned this issue a while ago and recommended flashing through ADB.

Actually, I think the issue is that when I flashed my device, TWRP couldn't unencrypt or something, it's been a while and I know I should start the process from scratch

Since they are adding it as a part of Google Play Services and Google certifies Google Play compatible devices, hopefully this will be a requirement if they want to include Google's playstore.

A lot of it is actually already required. I can't find any comprehensive list, but each new release since Android 10 (when modular components / Mainline became a thing) adds new components and makes some older ones mandatory for Google Play devices.

Whaddya mean the same way as Treble? Treble works and is used on Samsung or any other Google Play enabled device. If a phone shipped with Google Play, you're getting app updates via Google Play, then you're also getting Treble system updates.