The HTC One M9 is reportedly currently being updated to Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, and other devices by the company are expected to follow it shortly after. The M8 in particular is still awaiting its upgrade to the new version of the operating system, and Samsung have recently released the update for their Galaxy S5, Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note Edge devices. On the other hand, the Galaxy Note 4 is yet to receive the new OS version.
For the time being, only a few US carriers have been granted the Android 5.1.1 Lollipop for the HTC One M9, including Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T. It’s expected that customers outside of these carriers are going to get access to the new update shortly afterwards as well, but we don’t know the exact details about the current release plans.
We also don’t know what kids of changes the new version includes specifically, as a full changelog hasn’t been released yet. On the other hand, the HTC One M8 is going to have to wait a little longer, as the update isn’t quite ready for that device yet. The last update that we saw for it was in April, when it was brought up to Android 5.0.2 Lollipop.
HTC have revealed certain plans to release Android 5.1 Lollipop for the One M8 at least in the UK, but they didn’t say if the update will be available to users in other parts of the world. Meanwhile, the One M8 is still running older versions of the Android Lollipop firmware.
What’s the state of Android updates across other manufacturers? More specifically, how have Samsung been handling the situation? The Galaxy S6 is already eligible for the Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, and users with T-Mobile, Sprint and US Cellular service plans have already gotten the new updates. In the meantime, AT&T and Verizon users are still waiting to get the update on their own Galaxy S6 devices.
The Galaxy S5 was similarly updated to Android 5.1.1, but only T-Mobile have released the new firmware as of yet. It’s worth noting that no official plans for the release of Android 5.1.1 on the Galaxy S5 have been announced yet by any other carriers, but it’s probably reasonable to expect that users are going to get the update eventually.
HTC have been rolling back some of their decisions regarding the functionality of Android, as for example they’ve returned the Zoe camera mode to the One M8 and Butterfly 2, after removing it from a previous iteration. It’s not clear if they are now going to keep it active permanently, but hopefully they are, as the feature does have lots of fans.
However, Zoe has been going through lots of changes recently, after it started to stray away from its original iteration and idea to some extent. We don’t know what the company’s future plans for it are, but it might see even tighter integration with social media platforms, which certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing.
It’s also curious to note that the One M9 actually doesn’t have this feature even with its latest update, and we don’t know if HTC are planning to reintroduce it to all of their devices at some point in the future. It would certainly not be a bad move if they decided to make it available to more users though, as it’s a feature with a lot of untapped potential, at least according to some critics and experts.