News on Mobile OS Releases, September 2021

Apple iOS 

iOS 15: new features

iSharePlay enhances FaceTime calls by allowing you to share music, video and more with your friends, complete with Spatial Audio support. iOS 15 will also allow Android and Windows users to join FaceTime calls with up to 6 people participating. Another coming feature is adding AirPods to Apple’s Find My network, which helps track down lost devices. This extends the old Find My AirPods feature so that other people’s phones can detect the TWS headset and inform you of their approximate location.

Full content and details (external sources): GSMArena, 9to5Mac, AppQuality

Apple now seeding iOS 15.1 beta to developers

The update will include more of the features that Apple promised for iOS 15, but hasn't delivered with the recent update.

Full content and details (external sources): GSMArena, 9to5Mac

Android 12 

Android 12 appears to be set for October 4 launch

A document from Google reveals the dates when versions of Android will be added to AOSP (Android Open Source Project) and subsequently become the required version of Android for new devices. 

Full content and details (external sources): 9to5Google

Google bringing Android 11-12’s ability to revoke ‘unused app’ permissions to billions of older phones

Android 11 (and newer) can automatically remove permissions from “unused apps” to limit access to sensitive personal data, including location, camera, contacts, files, microphone, and phone. This does not get in the way of day-to-day usage as you have to go at least three months without using an application before Android automatically removes permissions. Google is now bringing permission auto-reset to “billions more devices” running Android 6.0 Marshmallow to Android 10. This is made possible with Google Play services.

Full content and details (external sources): 9to5Google

Android 12.1 is all about improving foldable phone experience

The upcoming incremental update to Android 12 will bring features aimed towards improving the foldable phone experience. It's also possible that this is a move to prepare for the foldable Pixel phone release.

Full content and details (external sources): GSMArena, 9to5Google

Android 12 "monet" color theming may be adopted by other OEMs

Android 12's new changes include a dynamic UI whose color scheme can adapt depending on the colors in the user's wallpaper. This theme engine was codenamed "monet", and there's evidence that suggests that the color-scheming-theming engine may be gaining an API for Android 12.1. This means that other Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) will be able to use the theme engine once they’ve updated their firmware for Android 12.1.

Full content and details (external sources):  GSMArena

Oppo

Oppo announces all the new features of ColorOS 12, posts timeline for updating existing phones

Oppo unveiled the full details of ColorOS 12, its latest platform based on Android 12. The company also published a roadmap for updating existing devices in China to version 12, the first batch is coming in early October. Oppo chose not to follow Google with the Material You redesign, instead opting for acrylic icons and more natural shapes. It’s not just the static look, the new Quantum Animation Engine 3.0 is used to give objects a feeling of inertia for physically-accurate animations.

Full content and details (external sources): GSMArena

HarmonyOS 2.0 

Huawei will focus on building HarmonyOS and Euler operating systems

Huawei’s Rotating Chairman – Eric Xu announced that the company will focus on building two of its operating systems HarmonyOS and EulerOS.
The two OS will be open source. While HarmonyOS is used for smart devices, IoT and industrial use cases, Euler is designed for servers, edge computing, cloud, and more.

Full content and details (external sources): HuaweiCentral

120 Million Upgrades: Fast HarmonyOS smartphones expansion continues

As of September 23, HarmonyOS has completed 120 million upgrades on smart devices. The news is not surprising because HarmonyOS is deploying rapidly on eligible devices inside the Chinese market. Most importantly, the Chinese tech maker is making sure that it reaches the farthest end along with the oldest possible model.

Full content and details (external sources): HuaweiCentral

More on HarmonyOS 2.0 

Celia Search app testing, comes with HarmonyOS services support

Huawei has started testing a new mobile application – Celia Search. Currently, the Celia Search app remains under beta testing and may soon be released for consumers. However, the description of the app is currently missing and we may have to wait for more information.

Full content and details (external sources): HuaweiCentral

EMUI

EMUI 12 Features: New UI design, Motion effect, Control Panel, Device Plus and more

Huawei has released the EMUI 12 operating system, which comes with a suite of new features, user interface (UI) design, animation effects, seamless device controller, and other important enhancements over EMUI 11. However, Huawei has remained silent on the based software of EMUI 12.

Full content and details (external sources): HuaweiCentral

Huawei EMUI September 2021 Updates List

Currently, the rollout of June and July updates are on the move. With Huawei EMUI September 2021 Updates list, we will keep full track of all the security and feature-packed updates rolling out for Huawei devices in September 2021 and brief you about them.

Full content and details (external sources): HuaweiCentral