Whereas iOS and iPhones are tied at the hip, the Android mobile operating system powers a wide variety of products from a wide variety of manufacturers. In many ways, this is a strength. It’s why Android can have such an overwhelming presence in the market even in the face of a competitor as strong as Apple. But to accomplish this Google gives up more control to outsiders which creates more opportunities for risk.
Now, Google is calling out one of Android’s biggest champions by asking Samsung to not make so many changes to the OS.
Apple’s grip on both hardware and software means that the majority of users upgrade to the next version of iOS every year and developers can plan around that. Android however has been plagued by the issue of fragmentation forever, with devices not getting the latest enhancements from KitKat or Oreo or Q or whatever until who knows when.
This is because manufacturers like to make their own little tweaks to OS. You only really get stock Android on only moderately popular phones directly from Google itself. We’re not saying all these extra features are bad, but it’s that bloat that delays access to major updates.
But even worse, these changes can also lead to security vulnerabilities. On Google’s Project Zero security blog Jann Horn and the team say that outside attempts to make Android more secure, mostly by messing around with its Linux kernel, ironically opens phones up more to threats Google already built in safeguards for. They use the Samsung Galaxy A50 as an example seeing as its custom drivers created memory corruption bug that required a later patch. Another ironic example is Samsung needing to waste resources on a defense against kernel hackers since the changes are the only thing that might give hackers access to the kernel in the first place.
More people access Android on Samsung phones than anything else. So of course Google has a vested interest in making sure those devices are secure despite any manufacturer meddling. For more, here’s some news on Android phones Samsung just announced and here’s why you shouldn’t panic if you recently got an accidental lost phone notification through Samsung.
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