Have you ever wondered how Google rolls out its updates to its Nexus devices? Well for those unfamiliar, updates are typically rolled out in phases, but thanks to a thread on Reddit that has been answered by Google engineer, Dan Morrill, he has shed some light on how the rollout process works, which hopefully will let you have a better understanding of updates done OTA and why sometimes you have to be patient and just wait it out, instead of mashing the “Check for updates” button, which he claims will do absolutely nothing in terms of bringing you the update faster.
According to Morrill, the first 24-48 hours of a rollout are typically reserved for 1% of devices and Google will wait to see if there are any reports, which if there are, the update will presumably be halted temporarily until Google fixes it. However assuming nothing goes wrong, what happens next is that the update will then be pushed to 25% of devices, 50%, and finally 100% over the course of one or two weeks. This is a surprisingly long process but like we said, now that you know, don’t worry if your friends got the update ahead of you because it will arrive for your device eventually.
Interestingly enough according to Morrill, it seems that this is done on random, and that when your device “checks in”, there is a chance of it being offered the update, but assuming it doesn’t get the offer, you will then have to wait for the next batch. For example if you missed out on being in the 25% batch, you’d have to wait for the 50% batch, and etc. Pretty interesting stuff, isn’t it?
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