Android Nougat Update Rollout FAQs Busted

Here are some clarifications on the Android One devices (codenamed Sprout) do not have the Android 7.0 Nougat update yet.

In 2015, the Android One program began in the Philippines. The Cherry Mobile One (8GB) along with the MyPhone Uno (4GB) were released with Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box. The reason for that was that the 5.0 & 5.0.2 releases of Lollipop were full of bugs and 5.1 was considered as the stable release. That can also be the reason why the Lollipop update was released late for sprout users in India. They waited about 3 months while they were still using Android 4.4.4 Kitkat. Sprout users were also shocked to learn that Sprout devices were eligible to receive Android 6.0 Marshmallow with the update to 6.0.1 as well. The updates to Marshmallow were promised by Cherry Mobile last year.

Now, Sprout users are probably gonna have to wait a bit longer as they could release Nougat for Sprout, but already in version 7.1. Now you may ask, why? Because 7.0 is considered as similar to 5.0.2 in a sense that it had a few bugs in it as well while 7.1 is considered as a maintenance release (much more stable with additional features). Also, the factory images for most Nexus devices are not released as well (which should have been released by now if they have a stable build of Nougat on hand). That's why the HTC's 2016 Nexus devices (codenamed Marlin and Sailfish) are gonna be released with 7.1 along with the new Nexus Launcher that was leaked and quite possibly along with the release of Google's Allo messaging app. The LG V20 however has been said to be released with 7.0 instead.

2nd generation users of Android One (codenamed Seed) such as the General Mobile 4G, Cherry Mobile One G1 among others have also been receiving the 7.0 update through OTA as well as the Android Beta program. These users will be happy to know that they'll be receiving updates until next year. 

Now the question is, how long should Sprout users wait? This is only pure speculation, but it could take a few days to a couple of weeks. Google will probably be releasing the OTA (either to 7.0 or to 7.1, that really depends on them). All we know is that Cherry Mobile confirmed that Android One's Cherry Mobile One (Sprout) as well as the One G1 (Seed) should also receive updates to Nougat.  For now, all Sprout users can do is wait for the OTAs to be released and captured or wait for the Sprout developers in XDA to build a working AOSP/CM14 from the source code released by Google.

Kailash Sadhikar

An engineering undergrad student who loves all things tech. He has a soft spot for Android.