Our mobiles receive constant updates during their useful life, being under a warranty period and sometimes much longer. We usually remember the importance of having an updated mobile phone, something fundamental if we want our mobile phone to work like silk. The types of updates that a manufacturer can launch for our mobile can be varied, as we will see below.
There can be dozens of updates that a single mobile model receives during the time you have it with you. Software engineers manage to constantly improve the device, and that requires rolling out an update. They can also fix known bugs or even fix critical bugs , requiring new patches. We are going to see the difference between the different updates that you can receive on your mobile.
“Upgrade”, the biggest of all
The manufacturers refer to the concept “Upgrade” of software as a set of software that makes important changes in the GUI (ie graphical user interface), that is, adds new functions and options that are not present in the current version. A software upgrade changes the major version of a software and it can take a long time to install due to its large and complex data. It is the one that occurs when there are updates in the versions of the manufacturers’ layers, or when we update the full version of Android.
“Standard” update
A software update involves making minor changes to an Android application or operating system. These updates include bug fixes , security patches, adding new support for new hardware, and other small improvements. Updates only change the minor version number. This type of software update installation generally takes a few minutes and does not affect the overall structure of the system.
Patch or Security Update
These types of updates are called patches because they generally correct minor errors while maintaining software compatibility. The increase in the number of patches occurs when you make bug fixes backward compatible.
Critical patches
They are the least frequent, but they are carried out when a serious failure is detected that can negatively affect the operation of the mobile or its safety. We have seen this on many occasions, when a previous update has failed and caused malfunctions or when cyber-criminals manage to violate security through some “exploit” or security hole.
