A major upgrade for Ubuntu Touch is being prepared

Nov 22, 2015 13:41 GMT  ·  By

The Ubuntu Touch OS has finally upgraded to a much newer version of the BlueZ 5.x stack, bringing improved support for Bluetooth connectivity.

Bluetooth has become a lot more important in the past few years, despite being a rather slow protocol. It's now integrated into almost everything that has the word "smart," and it's easy to see why developers would want to have the latest BlueZ stack in their operating system.

Implementing BlueZ 5.x in Ubuntu Touch was not an easy task, and even if the developers finally managed to do it, there are still some issues. Some problems have to be fixed, but it's already in the RC proposed for the upcoming OTA-9 update that should arrive early next year.

Improved Bluetooth support for Ubuntu Touch is essential since the developers are going to have a single operating system soon for both the mobile and desktop users. Right now, there are different BlueZ stacks for Ubuntu Touch and Ubuntu Desktop, but not for long.

BlueZ is finally in Ubuntu Touch

The official announcement was made by Simon Fels on the mailing list, and this arrives just in time to be integrated into the next OTA update.

“Hey everyone, it finally happened: We are switching to BlueZ 5.x on our Touch images on all supported devices. To make this happen a huge amount of work through the last five months from different people was needed. Thank you all for the great work and support to make this happen!” Simon wrote.

The OTA-9 update for Ubuntu Touch is already gathering some pretty interesting changes and various new features. It will be a while until we see a new update and the latest date announced for it is January 20, but that’s so far ahead that it’s difficult to say for sure whether it’s going to be respected.