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Google will overclock older Android smartphones via Google Play

Android smartphones haven’t had performance problems for a long time. Today, even frankly inexpensive models with entry-level processors run absolutely smoothly and without lag. But performance isn’t just about the lack of hang-ups, it’s also about the actual processing power on which many tasks depend. The truth is that to make a smartphone more powerful, there is no need to change the processor in it. It is enough just to tighten its software a bit.

Google together with Qualcomm is planning to start distributing updates via Google Play that will boost the processing power of Android smartphones. This will be possible thanks to the neural networks that will form the basis of the upcoming updates. They will be able to take over some of the calculations that the processor has to perform under normal conditions, thereby reducing the load on it. This will free up some of the chip’s processing power to be used for other tasks.

How to overclock an Android phone

The task of neural networks is very simple. They will, in fact, automate those processes that the processor had to do step by step. As a result, the time to process those commands that used to take, roughly speaking, a minute, will now take 10 seconds. Of course, these are very tentative calculations and the reality may be different. However, what is important here is the fact that neural networks, thanks to machine learning technologies, will make calculations faster without overloading the processor.

Google has already experimented with software enhancements to smartphones, but only in certain tasks. For example, it is thanks to neural networks that Google Assistant has become able to answer queries almost instantaneously, as it now has an extensive range of answers to questions that users might ask. As a result, it simply pulls them up from a cache of sorts and gives them to us, without wasting time searching the Internet for answers as it used to.

Why smartphones need neural networks

Today’s Android smartphones already have the necessary foundation for neural network upgrades. They have long supported the Neural Network API, an upgrade of which will essentially overclock their hardware. There’s a catch, though. Because Google has agreed with Qualcomm to improve the performance of Android smartphones, the upgrade is worth waiting only for devices based on Snapdragon processors, and all the rest it does not shine. Well, isn’t that a monopoly?

However, it is assumed that the majority of smartphones on the market will still receive this upgrade. You don’t even have to have the latest version of Android to get it. On purpose not to put users in an uncomfortable position, Google has decided to distribute the relevant updates via Google Play. This way it won’t be dependent not only on the OS version but also on manufacturers’ willingness to adapt security updates, which many, oddly enough, still neglect.

It’s hard to say how significant this upgrade will be. But Google appears to have high hopes for its initiative. The company expects that the neural network updates will allow Android smartphones to start running much faster, and will give them additional benefits that are specific to more powerful devices. For example, they will be able to run games at higher settings, because not only the CPU but also the graphics accelerator will be upgraded.

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