Sprint Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One (M7) Will Receive Lollipop Update Tomorrow

It appears that carriers in the United States are getting their Android update testing done in a timely manner for once. Yesterday we reported on the Android Lollipop update that was released for the Galaxy S5 on Verizon, a carrier that is normally notoriously slow to get Android updates out due to their testing and network certification processes. Today it has been confirmed that two devices on Sprint will be receiving their updates to Lollipop. 

The first of these two devices is the Galaxy S5. As Samsung’s flagship smartphone, it was expected that the Galaxy S5 would receive an update to Lollipop. The surprise is that two US carriers have pushed the update to devices in a relatively reasonable period of time. The update for the Sprint Galaxy S5 will be very similar to the Verizon carrier variant, and so users who are interested in taking a look at what specific changes Lollipop will bring to the S5 can take a look at the story from yesterday.

The second device being updated to Lollipop is the HTC One (M7). HTC had just recently put out a statement saying that they would miss their planned 90 day update deadline for the One (M7) and One (M8) due to issues with the source code provided by Google. It looks like those issues have been resolved for the most part, and one can hope that the Lollipop update will be available soon for the unlocked HTC One (M7) and other carrier editions.

Source: Mohammed Versi of HTC and Samsung

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Verizon Galaxy S5 Receiving Lollipop Update

After arriving in certain European countries not long ago, the Android 5.0 Lollipop update for the Galaxy S5 has finally made its way to the United States. Oddly enough, it’s the Verizon variant of the Galaxy S5 that is receiving the update before any of the other carriers. The changes listed on Verizon’s page for the update are below, and they include both changes made in Lollipop and Samsung specific changes that relate to Touchwiz.

• Material Design
  • Android Lollipop brings the all-new material design offering fluid animations, vivid colored themes, and 3-D views for a more pleasurable experience
• Basic Interaction
  • Bolder color and more fluid animations
  • The on/off toggle button style updated based on material design 
• Lock Screen
  • The shortcuts for both Phone and Camera are provided for convenience
  • Material design-inspired notifications
  • Ability to set priority and privacy for notifications on lock screen
  • Provide music control as a card to utilize the real estate of the lock screen UI 
• Touchwiz
  •  Brighter look and feel, bold colors, fluid animation inspired by material design.  
• Floating Action Button
  • Floating action buttons provide easy access to the app’s most important features, such as adding a new contact or favorite, or composing a text message.
• Interruptions
  • Interruptions give you more advanced options to control your sound settings
  • Priority notifications such as events and reminders, phone calls, and messages can be set up to sound or vibrate while all other notifications are muted.
  • Set downtime for specific days and times to control notification sounds automatically
• Recents
  •  Easy access to your Chrome tabs right from the Recent apps page • Multi-window icons for ease-of-use during multi-tasking

The Verizon document also has pictures that accompany the changelog so users can see what visual changes are heading their way, and any interested users can view that PDF in the source below. The rollout is staged, and users shouldn’t be concerned if their device currently doesn’t show any updates available.

It’s good to see more devices receiving the update to Lollipop. Enough devices have been updated for it to show up on Google’s platform version dashboard. In January less than 0.1% of Android devices were running Lollipop which meant that it was not displayed in the chart or on the graph. Still, at 1.6% of all Android devices, one can only hope that the adoption rate increases so more users can experience the latest version of Google’s operating system.

Source: Verizon via Android Central