Earlier this week, the OnePlus 3/3T started receiving Android 8.0 Oreo update. OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 5T will get the Oreo update by late December or early 2018. However, none of these OnePlus phones will support one of Oreo’s main features, Project Treble. OnePlus had an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on its forum and OnePlus Co-founder Carl Pei and other members answered many questions regarding the latest OnePlus 5T. On being asked about Project Treble, a staff member replied, “No, we are not currently supporting treble and do not plan to for these devices.” To recall, Google has been working with some companies to implement its Project Treble with Android Oreo. Project Treble will make it easier for other company’s smartphones to receive Android updates quicker and for a longer duration. Android software updates have been a long process for smartphone makers other than Google. That is because other OEMs go through their own process of customising the new Android version and then slowly roll out their skinned version of Android to its users.
However, with Google’s Project Treble, Android gained a new Vendor Interface (VI). The VI is offered to separate the Vendor Implementation from the actual Android OS framework. Vendor Implementation includes the device-specific, lower-level software written by the smartphone manufacturers. The new VI is supposed to be framed between the Vendor Implementation and Android OS framework. Also, the VI will be validated by a Vendor Test Suite (VTS), which is similar to the Compatibility Test Suite (CTS) that Google uses for API testing of apps. The VTS makes sure the forward-compatibility of the new VI. So, basically, with Project, Treble OEMs won’t need to rework their implementation after every single Android OS framework update. Before this, the VI needed to be reworked after every single Android framework update. OnePlus’s decision to leave out Project Treble means their devices will not get faster Android updates. However, there is a good news that the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T along with the OnePlus 5 and 5T are slated to get Android 8.1 Oreo update.
