Google will introduce Android O this May during its Google I/O 2017 event, and that would signal Android 7.0 Nougat’s road to becoming passé. Before the Nougat software update becomes relatively outdated however, Google is doing its best to widen Nougat’s reach among Android devices. This Friday, many consumers will finally get the chance to upgrade the OS of their devices because the Mountain View giant is rolling out Android N to a range of gadgets.
First on the list is Nvidia’s Shield tablet. The 2-year-old device is getting the Android 7.0 Nougat treatment via the Shield Experience 5.0 update. According to Android Police, the software update brings Android 7.0 features to the tablet. These features include multi-window or split-screen support, bundled notifications, the quick reply-to-message option, Unicode 9 emojis, Doze on the Go, Quick Settings customizations and many other improvements.
In addition, Shield Experience 5.0 comes with the Android Security Patch Level that’s dated Dec. 1, 2016. The new JIT compiler is also present to improve the speed of App & System updates. There is also the new data saver implementation that basically limits access to Cellular data for background apps. Another important upgrade for the tablet is the support for the new SHIELD Controller that ships with the 2017 Shield TV boxes.
Android Nougat is rolling out to the Honor 8 smartphone as well. As per GSM Arena, Honor 8 owners are scheduled to start receiving OTA notifications this Friday until the end of February. For the Chinese smartphone, the Nougat update comes with EMUI 5.0, which is the latest version of Huawei’s Skin for Android. The features that are part of this software update include multi-window, “eye comfort” mode, customization options for notifications and status bar as well as the return of the app drawer to the home screen.
Many Sony Xperia fans can also rejoice this Friday because Android 7.0 is coming to their gadgets. The Verge has learned that Sony is rolling out the Nougat update to its Xperia Z3+ and Xperia Z5 series smartphones and even to its Xperia Z4 tablet. As stated on the Xperia blog, the new firmware will not only bring Nougat features, but also some fixes for bugs found in the previous release.