One of the biggest problems of the Android operating system is its fragmentation , that is to say, a multitude of versions coexist throughout the planet, since the updates depend fundamentally on the manufacturer. Google wants to take action on the matter and to solve it is developing Android Extensions and in this article we will explain what it is and how it will affect us.
As we already know, almost all manufacturers, once they launch a device, no longer update their operating system. This motivates buyers to acquire new devices that include new technologies. This is the main cause of Android fragmentation, something that is already taking its toll.
What is Android Extensions and how it will affect us.
First of all, we must give a few brushstrokes about what the APIs are, in order to understand everything correctly. The APIs are the libraries that developers use to create applications. These APIs are updated as a new version of Android is released. To understand it better, in Android there is an API that allows us to control the camera of our device and thus create applications that make use of it.
These APIs are what force our phone or tablet to have a specific version of Android for an application to work. In other words, the APIs are responsible for an application that is compatible or not with our mobile or tablet .
In an attempt to solve this, Google has included in the latest version of Android Nougat a new feature called Android Extensions . There are not many details about it, but all the media suggest that it is about giving a modular structure to the APIs , so that regardless of the Android version, a device can have updated APIs .
This would solve a part of the problem, since it would only imply an improvement in the compatibility of applications . We can not forget the security patches, which have nothing to do with compatibility and continue to coexist different versions of Android, the oldest no longer receive security patches, with the risks that this entails .
In short, Android Extensions is a good start to end the fragmentation.
