Android 5.1 coming to more devices in March?

Earlier this month we learned that Android 5.1 was coming. This news didn’t come directly from Google, instead we learned of 5.1 after it showed up on the latest crop of Android One devices. Since then, some of these devices have even started making their way into the hands of consumers. Google has still yet to highlight what is new in 5.1, or even acknowledge it, though reports from new users suggest it is a mostly a bug fix with just a few small extras thrown in. So when might the world see Android 5.1 outside of Android One? A new Tweet from Mo Versi hints that it could be coming in March.

In response to a Twitter user asking for an “ETA on the update that fixes the cap. buttons lights for the M7 GPE”, Versi responded stating that “It’ll be tied to Google’s next MR, which is in March.” While Versi doesn’t specifically mention Android 5.1 Lollipop, if the update were an existing 5.0.x release (the M7 GPE never got 5.0.2), you’d think that he would have called it that instead of MR (Maintenance Release). Of course, it could just be that Google is prepping another 5.0.x release, but with 5.1 already in the wild — we find it likely that it will arrive to GPe and Nexus devices sooner, rather than later.

It’s pretty clear that while Lollipop brings plenty of exciting changes, there’s also some early stability issues with 5.0. While it would have been nice if Google had everything right from day one, at least it is good to see that Mountain View is being very aggressive about rolling out bug fixes and performance updates to ensure that Android users get the best Lollipop experience possible.