14 DAY TRIAL // Rumors on the upcoming version of Android emerged late last month when a screenshot, along with part of the changelog, leaked online. Dubbed Android 4.4.3 KitKat, the next “major” update for the Google’s mobile platform will be all about bug fixing.
Some of you might still remember that the changelog of the alleged Android 4.3.3 KitKat update only contained bug-related changes, so we did not have high hopes regarding the addition of new features in this version of the mobile platform.
Today, AndroidPolice’s Artem Russakovskii reports that Google has already started the push of the previously leaked Android 4.4.3 KitKat update to its employees.
He also confirms that this is not a major update, but it contains important fixes for lots of security and stability issues reported by users and/or discovered by Google’s engineers.
For the time being, only 1% of Google’s employees not included in the Android core team will be getting the Android 4.4.3 update in the coming days, as this is just the first phase of the testing process.
The fact that the Android core team has already finished working on the next update for the platform can only mean that we’re only a few months away from public release.
According to AndroidPolice, Android 4.4.3 is internally known as KitKat MR2, just like Android 4.4.1 and 4.4.2 have been tagged with the KitKat MR1 codename.
The rollout of the Android 4.4.3 to 1% of Google employees, other than those working on Android is called dogfooding and for the time being, it is aimed at those people who carry certain devices.
Nexus owners will be pleased to know that Google is now testing the Android 4.4.3 KitKat on the following devices: Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7 2012, Nexus 7 2013, and Nexus 10.
However, these are not the only devices that will be getting the Android 4.4.3 KitKat for testing. It appears that Google plans to deploy the update to some Google Play Edition smartphones as well, such as Motorola Moto X.
Keep in mind that according to various sources close to the matter, this is just the first phase of the testing, so we shouldn’t expect Android 4.4.3 KitKat to arrive for a least several weeks.
If everything works smoothly and no major issues are found during testing, we should hear about Android 4.4.3 KitKat public release “in the coming weeks.”
For those unaware of the improvements that Android 4.4.3 KitKat might bring, here is some of the changelog leaked last month, courtesy of AndroidPolice:
- frequent data connection dropout fix; - mm-qcamera-daemon crash and optimization fixes; - camera focus in regular and HDR modes fixes; - Power Manager display wakelock fix; - multiple Bluetooth fixes; - fix for a random reboot; - app shortcuts sometimes got removed from launcher after update; - USB debugging security fix; - app shortcuts security fix; - Wi-Fi auto-connect fix; - other camera fixes; - MMS, Email/Exchange, Calendar, People/Dialer/Contacts, DSP, IPv6, VPN fixes stuck in activation screen fix; - missed call LED fix; - subtitle fixes; - data usage graph fix; - Internet telephony fix; - FCC compliance fix; - miscellaneous fixes.