Google says that 10 percent of Android phones are running Nougat 7.0 and 7.1

If there’s any one criticism that’s been levied against Android since the operating system’s early days, it’s been the fact that it takes forever for manufacturers to roll out system updates.

Nexus — and now Pixel — devices are usually spared from Android fragmentation, because they’re under Google’s watchful eye.

But phones from Samsung, HTC, and Sony — not to mention countless other manufacturers — very rarely receive a steady stream of software updates.

There’s some good news though.

According to the monthly usage statistics published by Google, 9.5 percent of Android devices currently in use run some version of Android 7.0 Nougat.

That number’s up from 7.1 percent in May, and 4.9 percent in April.

The numbers are optimistic, and the statistics are no doubt a result of Google’s efforts to mitigate Android fragmentation.

Most recently, for example, the company announced Project Treble as a way for device manufacturers to speed up their internal update processes.

Smartphone OEMs, no doubt spurred on by users clamouring for the most up-to-date Android release, have also started making an active effort to release devices with the most current version of Android.

Some manufacturers have also claimed that they’re making an effort to update devices with the same monthly security releases that Nexus and Pixel phones receive.

OnePlus, for instance, said in November 2016 that the OnePlus 3 and 3T would receive updates at the same time.

According to Google’s report, 31.2 percent of Android devices are currently running some version of Android 6.0 Marshmallow, while 22.6 percent of devices currently run some version of Android 5.0 Lollipop.

Source: Google