Dynamic System Updates will bring temporary bootable images to Android

This process will no doubt sound familiar to those of you who have used Linux. Most Linux distributions offer bootable images that can be flashed to a USB drive or burned to a CD/DVD. When the computer boots from the Linux drive, a complete desktop environment is present, allowing the user to easily test applications and perform other tasks. Nothing is installed to the computer’s internal drive, and all data is deleted when Linux shuts down.

Android Q will include similar functionality, which is currently being called ‘Dynamic System Updates’ (though ‘Live Images’ and ‘Dynamic Android’ were also being used to refer to it). A temporary system partition is created, and an alternative Generic System Image (GSI) can be installed to it. A notification appears when the process is done, and tapping it reboots the phone into the GSI. When you’re done, simply reboot the phone, and you’re returned to your phone’s regular build of Android.

This will be a very welcome feature not just for developers, but also for people like me who would love to test public beta releases before committing.

4 Comments

  1. 2019-05-10 9:44 am
  2. 2019-05-10 7:08 pm
    • 2019-05-11 2:07 pm
      • 2019-05-13 3:04 pm