Google May Let You Try OTA Updates Before Installing

Android 10 came with a whole lot of features and improvements, one of them being Dynamic System Updates(DSU). It appears like Google has realized the actual potential of the feature and might let you apply OTA updates from OEMs without affecting the existing installation.

In case you’re not aware, DSU lets users boot into Android builds by creating temporary system partitions. This way, developers can easily boot GSI’s as a guest OS without interfering with the primary OS of the phone.

XDA Developers spotted an AOSP commit titled “Mount multiple DSU partitions when present.” confirming the existence of the feature. The commit comes with changes that allow DSU partitions including product and vendor to be mounted while the device boots.

With this new expansion of DSUs, whole new possibilities could open up for developers and end-users. We all have been there complaining about a buggy software update and waited for weeks to get it fixed, right? If this DSU expansion goes mainstream, you can simply boot the new update to make sure there are no major bugs and decide whether to install it or not.

The report also states that Google could make use of “virtual A/B” to make this possible. I hope many of you would be familiar with A/B partitions since a lot of newer smartphones have adopted the implementation. In case you’re not aware, A/B partitions are responsible for those seamless updates you get in modern smartphones that will let you use your phone while a software update is being installed on the inactive partition.

However, the adaptation of this new DSU implementation by OEMs would not be as quick as we would expect. Nevertheless, I’m excited to see this feature in action if it ever gets to the spotlight. What about you? Let us know in the comments.