Google really wants you to install that pending Android update

Software updates are an important part of the smartphone experience, bringing new features, fixes, and other improvements to devices. Android phones often display a changelog for an update before you install it, but it looks like Google will show you more info before you bite the bullet.

Google is working on a so-called Android Upgrade Invite feature, as spotted by journalist Mishaal Rahman on Twitter. This is effectively a series of screens showcasing a pending update’s features, complete with a prompt to perform the update. You can get a better idea of the feature via the sample image below.

“Once a device has an OS upgrade pending user approval, users receive a push notification displaying the new features and inviting them to perform the upgrade,” reads an excerpt of the explanation on the Android website.

This feature will be available to Android OEMs and requires support for Google Mobile Services. Nevertheless, this could give users a better idea of what to expect from a pending update than simply using a changelog.

In saying so, this functionality is ostensibly limited to “major” Android OS versions. This suggests that OEMs can’t use this option if they’re adding new features to their software skin without upgrading the underlying Android version. We hope this isn’t the case and that OEMs will be able to use this functionality to highlight features in their own pending updates.