Current Nexus smartphones cannot install updates in the background

Current Nexus devices will not have the feature to install updates in the background. Google added that feature to the third preview of Android N, but it would require an update via a PC for it to work on current devices.

Installing updates while the device is on requires a duplicate system partition and the phone would need to be repartitioned. That is only possible via an update on PC, Google tells Android Police.

That would also cause too much hassle, so Google has chosen to have the updates installed in the current way. The phone must be turned off for this. On Chrome OS, it has been common for years to duplicate the system partition and install updates in the background that way.

The background update function while the Android device is on is in the third preview of Android N, which Google put online on Wednesday. That duplicate partition also makes updating more secure. If the update fails, the user can fall back on the still functioning other partition to boot the device. That has not been the case in Android so far, although in many cases a previous firmware can be restored to a phone in other ways.

Because earlier in Android N Google already gave the compiler an update, so that from now on apps no longer have to be compiled at startup and update, something that resulted in the ‘Optimising apps’ message that is displayed for minutes with updates. Instead of an ‘ahead of time’ compiler, Google now uses a combination of ‘ahead of time’ and ‘just in time’. That also makes the installation of apps faster.