If you own a phone that is directly manufactured by Google – such as a Pixel or a Nexus phone, you will receive regular updates straight from the source. Unfortunately, your options here are not that great. How do I Get Around the Fragmentation Issue? Using these devices is not a great decision when it comes to information security. A plurality of users is still using even older versions of the operating system, and some of these aren’t being supported at all. This isn’t necessarily bad news, as Oreo is still being supported by regular updates and patches. Many Android users are still running the previous version of the operating system – Android Oreo. As of September 2018, less than a tenth of a percent of Android devices were running the new operating system. As an example of how bad the fragmentation is, Google released an entirely new version of the Android operating system in the summer of 2018. The cumulative effect of this fragmentation means that security patches for the Android operating system will arrive very slowly – if they arrive at all. Additionally, carriers such as Verizon can specify their own customizations to the patch as well. This goes for all other manufacturers, including HTC, Sony, OnePlus, and so on. Samsung’s version of the Android operating system is so heavily customized that when Google releases a patch for Android, Samsung needs to customize the patch in turn. For example, if you have a Samsung phone, your version of Android is heavily customized to include things like Bixby, the proprietary Samsung digital assistant. That’s because Android is a licensed operating system that’s often customized by third parties. In these cases, Google will dutifully create and release a patch – but what if your phone doesn’t get it?Īndroid Still Has a Fragmentation Problemĭue to a process called fragmentation, Android phones often don’t receive updates and patches in a timely manner. What they are not, however, is more secure.Įvery so often, security researchers find fundamental weaknesses in the Android operating system, such as this bug that lets attackers hack your phone with a malicious. Android phones may be lower-cost, more diverse in terms of features, and (in my opinion) more interestingly-designed than their iOS competitors.
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